Bubble management

[fjuanl]

I just played a $20 2-table SnG that was on the bubble for a good 45 minutes, and I got to thinking how important the strategy in playing bubbles is. This was from a $20 2-table SnG, where 4 players paid. It got to the final table very quickly, so there was a lot of play to be done during this bubble. I feel like there could be a lot of good dicussion on this

How are you going to go about playing this bubble, based on this table setup?



Hero - I played this tournament with a 20 vpip and a 15 prf. The only hands I've shown down are winners [AA]

P1 =
Voluntary put into pot [VPIP] - 24
6 Pre-flop raise[PFR]
1.67 aggression factor [AF]

Player 1 was the definition of weak tight. I had seen him play multiple hands where he was timid and afraid of holding the worst hand. He was playing a lot more hands at the lower blind levels, but the more they have risen, the less he's played. Its clear this person wants to make it in the money and will not have a showdown without the near nuts and is not adjusting his hand values in shorthanded play.

P2 =
VPIP - 13
PRF - 9
AF - 1

Player 2 is a solid, tight player. He may expect me to steal the blinds, but he wont fight back without a hand first. P2 also wants to get ITM and has rarely made any open pushes.

P3 =
VPIP - 36
PRF - 13
AF - 6.7

The main thing that stands out for P3 is the aggression. I had seen this player bet bottom/middle pair in multiway pots and make continuation bets regardless of how many players were in the hand. P3 has my respect and hasnt been using his big-stack much during the bubble.

P4 =
VPIP - 25
PRF - 17
AF - 2.57

P4 has been playing pretty tight during the bubble and folds his SB to me about 70% and completes it 30% One read I picked up on P4 had to do with his betting. He made large, near-pot sized bets when he had a made hand, regardless of how scary the turn or river may have looked to his opponent. For the most part, P4 is waiting for the bubble to be over with.

[taipan168]

A couple of clarifying questions:

- How have P3 and P4 played when you are on the button? Are they limping in or are they folding?
- How do opps respond to your blind steals? Do they just flat call or do they push over?
- How good are opps at post-flop play? Are they tricky/trappy or relatively straightforwad?

[fjuanl]

1. its generally been raise/fold from out of the blinds. i get the button folded to me most of the time.

2. every time i had stolen from the button, the only thing that happend were folds. it could have been a dry run of cards or just tight play. i know for a fact it was tight play by Player 1. a large percentage of the time i raised when player 3 was on the big blind, he folded.

3. their postflop play is bad. i can pretty much push player 1 off any hand. i didnt pick up much on player 2 because he was folding pretty much every hand. player 3 is just aggressive as i said before, and a fairly loose caller. player 4 was very easy to read because of how straightforward he played


a hint on where i was thinking this would be headed...how can i exploit player 1 in gaining more chips from everyone?

[taipan168]

1. its generally been raise/fold from out of the blinds. i get the button folded to me most of the time.

2. every time i had stolen from the button, the only thing that happend were folds. it could have been a dry run of cards or just tight play. i know for a fact it was tight play by Player 1. a large percentage of the time i raised when player 3 was on the big blind, he folded.

3. their postflop play is bad. i can pretty much push player 1 off any hand. i didnt pick up much on player 2 because he was folding pretty much every hand. player 3 is just aggressive as i said before, and a fairly loose caller. player 4 was very easy to read because of how straightforward he played

In this case, wouldn't ABC bubble play would be to go berserko every time you are folded to on the button and SB, raising like 60%+ of hands, tightening your raising range from the CO when the big stack is in the BB and maybe even raising P4 from the BB if he just completes?

a hint on where i was thinking this would be headed...how can i exploit player 1 in gaining more chips from everyone?

Are you talking about folding your SB to P1 to keep the bubble alive so you can pound on the other players if they're living in fear of the bubble?

[fjuanl]

Are you talking about folding your SB to P1 to keep the bubble alive so you can pound on the other players if they're living in fear of the bubble?

yeah...is this a good spot to do it? so if im on the sb I fold to player 1 and raise pretty much any hand on the button when player 2 is BB? i was the table captain in this sng, no one really wanted to play against me. both of the bigstacks were kinda waiting for the bubble to burst so their blinds should be easily stolen...but if not, i know how they play postflop.

at what point do you tighten your raising range? if the blinds are 200/400 and player 1 and 2 are in the 2-3k range, are you still going to raise every hand on the button, knowing if they push you have to call?

for me, this was one of those dream situations where you can open raise from any position and take down the blinds every time