How to Approach the Bubble of a Sit and Go

The bubble of a sit and go (or any tournament, for that matter) is one of the most difficult situations to be in. One wrong move and you go to the rail with nothing, but one right move can give you enough chips to take a top spot.

The key to consistently winning at sit and go tournaments is to build a stack. You need to build a stack so that you can outlast the bubble, if necessary, and preferably so that you can abuse the bubble.

More importantly, however, you need a stack so that once you do make the money you’re not so short that you min-cash. You want a big enough stack that you can play for a top payout spot.

With that in mind, lets look at some strategies for building a stack before and while we’re on the bubble.

Get Aggressive

As you approach the bubble you need to become increasingly aggressive. There are a couple of benefits to this.

For one thing, fish don’t want to bubble tournaments. You can use this to your advantage. Start raising, and the tightest fish will fold their way to the rail. Even if a looser fish calls, usually a c-bet will take down the pot on the flop.

Another thing — as you become more aggressive, you’ll open more hands to steal. By this time there are antes, so each pot you pick up with add a significant amount to your stack. It won’t take but a couple of pots to have the largest stack at your table, if not the entire sit and go.

Be Aware of Table Dynamics

As you approach the bubble you’ll want to be aware of the table dynamics. The following dynamics will affect your strategy:

• Stack sizes and where they are in relation to you. In other words, if all you have are deep stacks to your left, you can play more hands, steal more often, continuation bet, etc. You won’t have to worry about players re-shoving over you. Of course, if you have shorter stacks to your left you’ll have a harder time opening since when you do, it will have to be for value.
• Regulars. Regular players know how to play the bubble, so they’ll know how you are going to play. That means they will call your shoves a little lighter and shove into you more often. Where they’re sitting in relation to you can affect how often you’re able to open, shove, steal, etc.
• Opponent images / playing tendencies. How tight/loose/aggressive/passive a player is will play a big role too.

You’ll want to keep these dynamics in mind because they will ultimately impact how aggressive you can be, when you can (or should) raise, who you can exploit and who might try to exploit you.

Abuse the Bubble

The closer you get to the bubble, the more you should exploit the other players. Assuming you have the stack size to that, at least.

When you abuse the bubble you exploit the fact that the other players know they can’t call your shoves light. You also exploit their desire to cash at all costs. So whenever they open, you raise -or- shove. You should raise or shove into the bigger stacks when the smallest stacks are not in the hand. Just raise hand after hand. It doesn’t matter what your cards are. You’ll have (or should have) a lot of fold equity.

That said, you’ll want to be aware of the players that don’t care about the bubble or will call you with a hand like AK when ICM says they shouldn’t. It’s important to know who these players are so that you can adjust what hands you raise or shove with (and ultimately don’t get surprised when they call).

Short Stacked? Shove, Shove, Shove

A mistake that players make is that when they get short and are near or are on the bubble, they tighten up. I think their idea is that they can fold their way into the bubble and at the least take a min-cash.

However, that’s a risk. You’re not guaranteed a min-cash, but you still spend the time playing to try to cash when you could either a) shove, bust and sign-up for a new sit and go, or b) double up once or twice and now be in the running for a top finish.

I highly recommend being just as aggressive, if not more so, when you’re short and at risk of bubbling the tournament. To increase your chances of success I would shove into the shortest of stacks (that still have something to lose) since you’ll have the most fold equity.

Know the Winning SNG Players

The first thing you should do whenever a sit and go loads is Shark Scope all the players. You want to figure out what players are good or are regulars, and which players suck. This will give you insight into hand ranges, what bets and patterns mean and how they will approach and react to the bubble. This will give you an idea of how to approach the bubble from the very beginning, when many players aren’t thinking that far ahead.