Playing the bubble in a single table tournament or SNG is when there are four players remaining with only three players cashing out a prize. Because SNG play is quite tight you will usually have blinds that are high relative to your stack size. Some players wrongly assume there is no skill involved at this point but this is totally incorrect. Knowing which hands to push and which hands to fold as you hold on to make the money is vitally important for good SNG play. If you like to grind the single table tournaments you may know this already, but there are many things to consider on the bubble in a SNG. If you are a fan of this internet poker game then improving your play on the bubble will really help you start to grind out some decent profits.

You will note that most hands in a SNG bubble situation is raise all-in and then fold. If you are faced with a raise you should be careful in calling off with weaker hands because you lose all of the tournament equity you hold if you are busted. Obviously folding to a raise means that when you hold a good starting hand you must jam the pot and go all-in yourself. As the blinds are high you must do this to ensure you are not blinded out with other players acting aggressively and forcing you to fold. Much of SNG play is surviving and picking up chips where you can.

If you are the chipleader you must push all-in with good hands against opponents who understand ICM. If your opponents have been folding to all-in shoves and they have shown they are capable of regularly folding you can assume that they are aware of SNG strategy and that some of those hands they have folded may have tempted lesser players. This allows you to attack their blinds. As they have demonstrated their range is quite tight they are perfect players to target for stealing. If you get called, well that’s poker! Sometimes your opponents will have a good hand and that is just part of the game.

The only hands you should be calling off with are QQ, KK, and AA and if you believe the player is loose enough to shove with any two or a range of gapped hands, AK. JJ and 10-10 are not necessarily automatic calls. If a short stack is about to bust next hand and the chip leader shoves into you; this may be a situation where you should fold. If you call you are gambling and potentially handing a money spot to a player where if you wait one more hand they would bust out of the SNG. You can continue to be the aggressor and shove into the third or fourth placed players to steal in later hands. It is tough to fold JJ and 10-10 in this spot, but think of the longer term and the fold becomes easier.

SNG Bubble play is about survival. You need to finish in third place to earn money or you may as well have busted first in the tournament and saved your time. Your ability to survive bubble play is where your skill is tested in a sit and go poker tournament. Cashing in third place doubles your buy-in (less the rake) so it is very worthwhile to record a string of third place finishes. Obviously you should try as best you can to put yourself in a position to win, but remember there is only a 30% difference in cashing first to third place, therefore cashing is your number one priority.

Use the various Internet resources and websites dedicated to SNG play to research ICM, push-fold ranges and discussions on calling with hands like Jacks or tens. This will prepare you to play well during bubble situations and record a healthy amount of cashes from them.

By Malcolm Clarke

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