Tightening Up

You’ll often see the middle stacks and short stacks tighten up as you near the bubble. They figure that if they fold the majority of their hands, they’ll be able to sneak into the money and get paid. However, this is often counter-intuitive, because by playing so timid you’ll often times get blinded out before the bubble, and even when you do make it to the money, you’ll almost always go out right away and not get paid very much.

Clearly this isn’t the correct strategy, especially if you care more about final tabling the tournament than simply making the money. The only time I’d advocate tightening up is if you’re playing way above your means and really need to make the money. But then again, you shouldn’t put yourself in that situation in the first place.

Staying Aggressive

I advocate playing aggressive near the bubble, if not becoming even more aggressive. The reason for this is because since most players are tightening up, by becoming more aggressive you’re likely to steal even more blinds, and win even more pots.

When you’re targeting the blinds, make sure to focus on the small stacks and the middle-sized stacks. The reason for this is because those players are the ones who are most likely to try to fold into the money. You probably want to avoid tangling with big stacks, because bigger stacks will be more apt to gamble with you, even if you’re on the bubble.

Stealing Blinds

The best way to safely pad your stack is to steal blinds at least once per round. Like I mentioned before, make sure to target the small and medium sized stacks for the best chance of a successful steal. Also, keep your position in mind, as you want to be in late position when you make a steal. And of course, if you’re trying to steal the blinds, don’t enter a pot that someone has already entered.

Forcing All Ins

Another great way to win some chips on the bubble is by restealing. To do this, you have to wait for a medium sized stack to make a steal attempt on the blinds. Then, make sure to re-raise him/her 3-4x the initial raise. As long as it was a steal attempt, the other player will fold, and you’ll win a very nice pot. This is a great way to add a lot of chips to your stack, without having to steal the blinds.

Mike Wittmeyer owns PokerSite.org, which is an online poker site that reviews 3D poker sites as well as USA friendly poker sites.