Bubble play in STT's

gosplan

Hey all, new poster(well new name anyway )

I'm not a pro or anything, just play for fun and there's been something annoying me that I've been eager to get a second(and hopefully 3rd, 4th and 5th) opinion on.

Bubble play in STT's. It's a contradiction for me because bubble play implies tight cautious play but bubbles in STT's involve 4 players at the most so obviously your playing requirments come down a lot. Also the size of blinds compared to your stack, e.g. pokerroom means average of just under 4K per player with blinds of 400-800 which means that you can't sit and wait that much.

Basically I do ok in STT's but would do rather well if I could sort this problem out as I seem to get more bubbles then 1st's, 2nd's or 3rd's. I won't give the exact figures but I'd like to sort it out....quickly.

One commonly given piece of advice is to raise with any ace or better. However I feel that a lot of people will reraise all in with any ace here which means being dominated half the time.(STT's seem to attract very agressive play)

I think the average hand in poker is Q9, a lot of the time I've raised with hands better then that but people tend to push a lot on me. Hard to call if you're holding QJ or K 10 and then suddenly you're down to one blind.

Any advice would be much appriciated, especially if anyone has an idea on whats a good starting hand with 4 players(stats very welcome). Or does anyone have a good strategy for this situation.

Thanks in advance

Gosplan

Lafortezza

I'm sure others will be able to give better replies than me but when it's 4 handed you should have an idea of who is playing what style. You should be able to recognise the guy who is playing too tight and hasn't changed his hand selection since the STT began. You want to steal that guy's blinds. If you are a big stack you should be trying to raise with any hand better than average.

You should especially be trying to bully the 1 or 2 small stacks. They will be trying to hang on for dear life so raising their BB with 79s may make them fold QT or whatever, you just need to keep the pressure up.

Slowplaying big hand hoping the small stacks will hit something and push also works, i.e. flat calling QQ on the button, SB folds, BB checks and then pushes with top pair on a low board.
If you're in the BB with something like 78s (and you're a big stack) and the button (small stack) pushes sometimes it's worth a call especially if the SB flat calls, since the two of you combined can knock him out.

Lafortezza

gosplan wrote:

Hey all, new poster(well new name anyway )

Interesting.

gosplan

"You should be able to recognise the guy who is playing too tight and hasn't changed his hand selection since the STT began"

I think part of the problem is that I'm that guy

Bozzer

Disclaimer: I’ve only got experience playing the Party SnG’s where the stack size:blind ratio is generally smaller than other sites(I think). This can sometimes mean that you are in push/fold mode by the time the bubble rolls around.

The payout structure for these SnG’S is.5/.3/.2 for 1st/2nd/3rd


These are my general thoughts on playing the bubble…

Stealing the blinds is a big part of bubble play as your opponents will usually tighten their calling requirements considerably. If you have roughly 8bb or less on the button then it’s best to open push if you have decided to raise.
You can do this profitably with a wide range of hands if the blinds are tight enough. Ideally you want to push into stacks of a similar size as a big stack might decide to gamble with his ‘extra’ chips, or a short stack may feel he is pot committed.

In this situation you can steal with any pair, any A, any 2 cards T or higher, and sc’s.It can sometimes be correct to push with trash, say when you are in Sb and BB is v.tight.

It’s important not to overdo this or your opponents calling standards will drop too much! Also if an extremely short stack is UTG then you should only raise with premium cards as he will be in the BB next hand and forced to go all-in (fairly obvious).

The reason this strategy is so successful is because if your opponent wants to call your push,especially if you have him covered then he needs a larger pot equity edge than the pot odds being offered as 4th gets $0 and 3rd gets $0.2x where x=prize pool.

If you have at least 12bb’s or more and your opponents are in a similar chip position then you should try to steal as cheaply as possible. When it gets 4-5 handed and you are on button or SB then you should start raising to about 3xbb ASAP to find out how easily ppl will give up their blinds. If they keep folding then you might even drop the raise amount to steal as cheaply as poss’.

If ppl keep coming over the top of your raises then maybe you are raising too frequently or your opp’s are just v.aggro. In any case if someone does re-raise you all-in, you are going to usually need a large pp or maybe AK to call in this spot - obviously depends on exact stack sizes.
If called you can bet the flop no more than ½ pot if it hits you at all or if it comes with an Ace.

As far as defending your blinds is concerned you shouldn’t allow people to min-raise your blinds too often. You should usually re-raise(not call) with any A,K,decent Q,JT,pair or s.c.
There are adjustments to be made if you are a short stack along with one or two other short stacks. Then it is best to try and outlast the other shorties.

Having a large stack on the bubble is v.profitable. You should try to build a monster stack for when your in the money which will give you a great shot at 1st, which pays out at ½ of the prize pool. You do this by bullying the short(and medium) stacks. The following hand will give you an idea of the advantages of having a big stack.
This hand is an example of a resteal:

Imagine a Party SnG with stacks of 4000/1500/2000/500 BB (you)/SB/Button/CO. Button has been open-raising a lot when it was more handed and the blinds are 100/200. If you want to make it even a more clear push assume the blinds are going to go up next hand. CO folds and button raises to 500. I will probably push in with anything remotely decent here, because the Button almost certainly doesn't want to bust before the CO blinds off.

So to summarise you want to play the bubble v. aggressively and try able to adjust to your opponents tendencies(which you’ve hopefully observed by now) and also adjust to the image your opp’s may have of you.

This general strategy will(hopefully) give you a finish distribution with a lot of 4th’s and 1st’s and less 2nd’s and 3rd’s.
Bubble play and heads-up play are the most important parts of SnG play because of the jump in prize money so work on these areas.

I haven’t played too many SnG’s and not for a good while so some of this advice may be a bit off.

Enough ramblings. I’ve gotta go!!

gosplan

Thanks guys, two very helpful replies.