Hi, First post here at your great forum

I wish to start by saying sorry if there is a similar topic, i tried finding my answer through the search engine but couldnt really find it.

Also, I wish to apologise if this is in the wrong part of the forum, wasn't sure were this belonged but I assumed here.

Well, anyways.
I play 3+.40 dollar 9 handed SnGs at Pokerstars. I believe my game is quite alright for being a beginner (began with internet poker for roughly a month ago, and before that i had only played some poker with friends live. Im up from 50 dollars to nearly 170, dont know if thats good but that has nothing to the with the question so im not going to ramble on).

Well my question is how should I play when we are 4-5 people left in a sng when the top 3 get the money? The blinds tend to get high and it feels like my play is quite wrong at some moments. I usually push with strong hands, and since im not the most aggresive player out there I make moves with medium hands such as 76s etc just to steal the blinds.
Should one tighten up or get more aggresive? I usually play as I said above just because I feel that there are many at those levels who don't really care about the money and im trying to build my bankroll so I don't like taking to many risks.

Any tips whatsoever you can give me about the bubble would mean tons to me.

Usually when I get eliminated its usually when im in the bubble, so if I could up my game here I believe it would make a big diffrence.

Thanks in advance for all advice and tips you can give me.


P.S: I read alot in the forum and im wondering if there is somewhere one can learn all the terms you use. In some situations I understand the lingo but sometimes I sit at my computer like a question mark trying to figure out what they mean. ROI,LAG,ITM etc.. some of these I know but there are plenty I dont know.

It come down to observing your opponents and how they are playing. Is there a short stack hanging on for a payout? Steal from him. Is there an aggro who is always raising in position? Limp/reraise etc. A broad generalization of standard play near the bubble is loose opens but a wide gap, which is somewhat counterintuitive (you would think if someone opens loosely you should be calling loosely...ie a narrow gap, but because of ICM (google it) it doesnt work that way.)

Practice putting your opponents on ranges of hands. Once you are fairly accurate download SitnGo power tools and play around with how different ranges affect your strategy.

How to play the bubble is the million dollar question. It's by far the hardest and most complex part of a sng to play. What you have at play here are the following:

1. Hanging on for a cash (bad in mtts, imperative in sngs)
2. High blinds squeezing you dry

If you don't play that many tables I agree with the previous replier that observe who you can steal from and who you cant... if you're playing like 16-20 tables that is harder.

In general, you want to do you absolute best to hang on for the cash, and NOT get blinded out. Like, if you are short stack with 1250 utg with 4 left and you have Q3 at 2-400 blinds. you're pushing.

If you're massive big stack just knock the hell out of everyone every hand.


SNG powertools is amazing for getting your push ranges down.


So, in short, it's a very complex question you ask, but I hope this helps.

Okay, thanks alot for the tips

I think heads up play is more important than bubble play. So many people play the bubble correctly but when it gets heads up there just happy to have a top 2 spot and are looking to gamble.

I have noticed that many people gamble heads up, Usually when I'm heads up I usually take home the win actually. I Either come first or third usually. (probably because I play to win).

It amazes me even 30bb deep they will call off with ace rag alot of the time.

QFT


Sheets did an EXCELLENT lecture on this on PXF.
One (of the many) important thing that was demonstrated to me was that you can push so much easier than you call. One example was, it was mathematically correct to fold 99 in the BB when the BBs pushing range was ATC!
I haven't watched it in a while (haven't played many STTs this year), but the main thing I took from it was $EV is not equal to cEV at this stage, and you have to play accordingly.

You want to be aggressive so that you won't be blinded off. The short stacks are trying to hang on, but they can & will move in with almost anything. I like to target the medium stacks here. They are trying to wait out the small stacks & are less likely to get confrontational. I also play a little weaker with stronger hands at this point to induce a smaller stack to move in.
Hope I could help. Good luck!

to add something, it isn't correct to fold it against any SB. The case he probably showed was that where the 2 other players at the bubble were relatively shortstacked and you were 2nd with a lot of chips too and the SB being a close chipleader, or something like that. in that case it's correct to fold, but against a shortie it's still a snapcall.

When are you ever 30BB deep HU in a sng? Granted I play turbos and that happens .1% of the time, but IIRC that happens extremely rarely even in the regs.

I think I get the general gist of what you are saying, but this doesn't seem to be the optimal example.

I dont think very many play the bubble correctly and HU there are limited options because the stack/blind ratio has become so small. They are both worth an additional 20% of the prize pool, but I think theres much more room to exploit bad players on the bubble than HU.