Beat the bubble playing the big stack

Larging it on the bubble

In a Sit & Go you can move all-in with a huge range of hands on the bubble, but cannot call with many hands. Because being knocked out is such a disaster, if you find yourself in the small blind after two folds you can move all-in with any two cards as the big blind will so rarely have a hand he can call with. The same is almost true if you are on the button in the next hand and there is a fold before you.

In a situation like this then, correct strategy is almost the exact opposite of what most beginning players assume – that you should play to survive. Here you should instead exploit the other players’ desire to survive and try to build a lead that can help you win the event. If you are successful in doing this then you will soon have created the holy grail of bubble play, which is a dominating stack that can attack the other player relentlessly without fear of elimination.

Big Stack Bully

For example, lets say you have a stack of 4,000 against three stacks of 2,000 and the blinds are still 150/300. Now even if you lose an all-in you will just be back in the pack, but every time you win the blinds your stack increases by 450. The best part is the other players will have even less incentive to call you than before as winning doesn’t end the bubble, it just reverses the stack sizes.

Now you can move in with most hands in most positions since the gains from winning the blinds will far outweigh the losses from being called and even when called your hands will still have some chance of winning. If you can manage to steal the blinds efficiently when you do get called you will be effectively freerolling anyway as you will be gambling with their chips.

This is obviously a great situation to be in, and if you get far enough in front you will be able to lose a hand and rebuild quickly from stealing subsequent blinds. The only way you are likely to be eliminated is by losing a sequence of all-ins, and if you find yourself back in the pack you can just revert to a more cautious strategy.

A word of caution

Bear in mind however that at some point players will start to become pot committed as their stacks decline and the blinds rise, and so you might eventually have to fold some very weak hands. Similarly, against players who don’t understand correct strategy or get frustrated (particularly those at lower stakes) you may need to exercise a little more caution. However for the most part, getting a big stack and playing this strategy will put you in an excellent position for the end game and a likely win.

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