The bubble: aggressive or conservative?

[Morgan420]

The bubble always drives me crazy. It's that time when you're one or two removals away from entering prizes and everyone gets nervous. Some people throw themselves away with AA (ok, I'm exaggerating a bit), and others take the opportunity to steal blinds as if they were Robin Hood.

I have been on both sides. Sometimes I have stayed too quiet for fear of running out of chips, and I ended up entering ITM with 5bb and with no real chance of doing anything. Other times I was aggressive and they peeled me right before getting paid... and that hurts.

What's been working for me lately is seeing my battery relative to the average and blindly. If I'm good at chips, I put pressure, especially on the average stacks (those are the ones most afraid of being left out). If I'm short, I do play tighter, but I'm looking for spots to bend, not just to “survive”.

Golden tip: You'll avoid fighting with the other big stacks, unless you have a solid hand. Between sharks, you don't want to wage war in the bubble. Better to go for the nervous fish.

How do you play the bubble? Are they going for the min-cash or the tournament?

Morgan420, surviving fold after fold... until the spot comes

 

[ramdon p358]

It depends on the number of chips you have and the number of other players, if your stack is the largest you should play aggressively but if it is not the ideal is to be conservative

 

[dompoker]

I think that we have to play aggressively, and thus accumulate more chips, and not just think about the itm.

 

[louuu19]

Late position allows for more aggression, while early position often requires caution

 

[fundiver199]

For obvious reasons bubble strategy depends on, if you are a big, medium or small stack.

 

[amonlima]

Your chips and those of your opponents will determine how you can play the bubble. If you have more chips than your opponent, you will be able to exploit him a lot, and if you have fewer chips, you will play much tighter, having to fold many hands that you normally wouldn't fold in mid-tournament situations.

 

[RALF_AK]

...I always say that the best strategy, with some reservations, is to attack the intermediate and low stacks... when attacking the big stacks, don't commit so many chips that it will harm your movement throughout the tournament...

 

[userX]

For me, the most important factor is how my opponents play, and depending on this, I form my tactics. Of course, you have to take into account other things like stack size and position.

 

[ironduke11]

poker works best when you apply the pressure, but have some different gears...