Bubble Aggression
Posted: 2007-10-30 09:37:37
There is no better time to put someone at a decision for their chips or tournament life than the bubble. Bubbles appear in many different situations also. Whether it's a bubble to make the money, or a bubble to make a final table, etc. you must adjust your play according to how many chips you have, compared to how many your opponents have. In poker we call this fold equity. Fold equity is having enough chips to reraise someone, where they are not committed to call. I prefer to accumulate chips by the time the bubble approaches it, so that I can play very aggressive at the shorter stacks. You can also bully the big stacks, if you have fold equity. There is no other time in the tournament where people will be more reluctant to fold than the bubble. This doesn't mean go all in every hand near the bubble, but it does mean you should already be aware of who is defending their Big Blind, who is open raising all the time, and who is not. When you compare stack sizes and use the information about your table correctly, it is very possible to double your stack without ever seeing a showdown.
Out of all the bubble scenarios I can think of, satellite bubbles have to be the most intriguing. Say you are playing a satellite where 1st-10th pay a WSOP package and you are in 2nd place with 11 left, and you are dealt AA. 1st place goes all in. This is an obvious fold, because you are not playing to win. A 2nd place stack could fold to 10th place which is going to play the same as 1st. That being said, if you are a 7th-8th place stack, the 1st-3rd place stacks are the best to steal from because they have the mentality that they can fold to a seat. Satellite bubble play is a whole new game of poker if you ask me. These are a few things to think about when playing a bubble, and although you can get much deeper about what to do in certain situations, I feel this should be a good start for beginning players.
