Waiting for the Bubble

John Juanda poker professionalI’ve had tournaments in which I’ve gone from being the shortest stack at the table to the chip leader while waiting for the bubble to burst. Hand-for-hand play is a great time to build up chips, as long as you can handle the risk – in other words, be willing to go broke – to take advantage of the situation.

The key, regardless of whether you’re the big stack, a medium stack or the shortest stack at the table is to be the aggressor – the one doing the raising and re-raising, not the one calling other people’s raises (unless you have a big hand).

When the bubble is approaching, you have to remember that most players are going to get very tight. People might throw away a good hand, like a pair of jacks, or even a pair of queens or A-K.

They might think that they have the best hand, but they’re not sure, so they just throw it away because they want to make it into the money. They play very differently than they did the rest of the tournament. And because you know people are trying to play more conservatively you can play more aggressively against them.

SHORT STACK STRATEGY
When I have the short stack, I generally just try to find a hand that I like and go all in with it. But here’s the key point: I’ll be the one raising and re-raising all-in; I won’t be the one calling (unless I have a premium hand). If you think about it, the cost of calling is very high. Let’s say you’re short stacked, and someone makes a raise that would put you all-in. By calling, you have to beat this guy after all five cards to win the hand. But if you’re moving all-in first, a lot of the time you’re not going to get called, you still have a chance to win. So, by moving all-in, you have two chances to win: either nobody calls you or, if you’re called, you might win after five cards. When you call someone’s all-in raise, you have to have the best hand at the end; that’s the only way to win.

And remember, other people are thinking the same as you. They don’t want to be the caller, they want to be the raiser. So that makes it even more likely that people will fold when you go all-in. That’s the beauty of it. When the bubble is coming, it’s so much more likely for your all-in move to work.

BIG STACK STRATEGY
When you have the big stack, it’s just plain easy. If you’ve been playing at that table for a while, and you’ve been doing your homework and paying attention, then you know which players are playing tight, and you can steal from them. You’re the big stack, and they’re not going to mess with you.

But one of the mistakes that I see amateurs make when they have the big stack is to call all-in raises with weak hands. Let’s say the small stack, somebody that has been playing conservatively, moves all-in. Good players would never call that guy without a premium hand. You know he’s not going to be playing bad hands. He’s one spot out of the money, so he’s going to be playing very conservatively. But I’ve seen bad players with big stacks just call with hands such as A-7 offsuit or K-8 suited. Good players just will never do this. Why get involved in those hands? You’re in such a unique position where you can keep stealing. You don’t even need a hand. You can just wait until nobody raises, then you raise, you become the first one in, and a good percentage of the time, everybody’s just going to fold because they don’t want to mess with you.

When you’re the big stack, you need to play smart and just take advantage of the situation. You want to raise somebody that’s easy picking instead of just calling and calling. Remember people will fold most of the time. When you’re on the bubble, about nine out of ten times, there will be no flop. By raising and being the aggressor, most of the time you’re just going to win it right there.

We’ll continue John Juanda’s poker strategy coaching on bubble play “ Medium Stack Strategy” in the next blog posting… (this is just getting crazy long).

 

 

bet365_90x60UKHaving played at bet365 Poker for years we really enjoy and recommend them highly. bet365 is the lead member of the Playtech iPoker Network.

 

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