folding solid hands when on the bubble?

[Lord Ben 0]

I'm not going to make another post about folding AA or anything like that, but what types of hands do you play on the bubble when forced all in by a previous player?I was in maybe 3rd chip position out of 7, 6 paid out. When people went all in against me I wasn't willing to coin flip and go out on the bubble. I folded AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, TT when another player bet first and put me all in. Assuming I didn't care about the money I'd have called with some of those hands all day long. However the $70 for 6th place looked pretty nice if I could just fold and let one of the short stacks take the hit for me so I chickened out and folded a LOT of blinds and a LOT of nice hands for about 40 minutes. Is that stupid? If I'd have played some of those and won I'd have almost certainly won 1st place baring something dumb. I'd have had over half the tourney chips with 6 players left if I won one. However if I lost I'd be out or have enough for a blind remaining and win no money at all.The player who was most aggressive when playing for the bubble and who risked the most ended up winning the full amount, but he could have just as easily lost it all. The one who folded even more hands than I did took 2nd too, so it goes both ways I guess..

[rexmundi 0]

i guess it depends on what your goal is.. if finishing in the money is what you want, then keep folding until the bubble bursts.. But if you want a shot at top 3 or the win, then playing aggressively near the bubble to steal blinds is the way to go.. For me, i bubbled the quarter million qualifier 2 days ago when my 10s lost to AK.. The next day.. 3 away from qualifying again, My KK got cracked by A8o and AJo knocking me out.. tough way to go, but i'd play those kings any day. I should have folded the 10s.. oh well.. gl

[justblaze 0]

i dont even look at the bubble when i play tournaments. I generally only play the big guarantees (and particularily ones with overlays) and always gun for top 5. the bubble is for suckers. On the bubble is when i get aggressive because players will lay down premium hands to try to get in the money. this is where a sharp player uses aggression to build up a stack.

[bdluss 0]

Well quite simply, the bubble is where good tournament players thrive. They thrive on players like you, unwilling to play for the hopes of just making the cash. The better players will contiually pound and pound and keep building a big stack that will allow them to win the tournament. When going into the tournament you need to evaluate your goals. If your goal is to simply make the $, then quite simply dont play tournaments. The real $ in tournaments are in the top 3 spots, so that is where you should strive to be. Honestly, I am just assumming here but I am guessing the buy in for that tourny was right around $40, given that 6th paid $70. I would guess first would probably be around $700 or so. Given that you should always be aggressive on the bubble and take advantage of weak players (like how you played) to move up the chip stakes. Look at it this way, for every time the good player gets caught and doesnt cash (lets assume the worse 2/3 of the time, which won't be the case but it will illustrate my point) the other 1/3 of the time he goes on and takes top 2. So he gave up $140 for the 2/3 of the time he lost, but made $600 for the 1/3 it worked out (assuming 2nd is like $500 figure he wins 1/2 the time when heads up). Obviously you can see from those numbers where you should be playing for.

[dna4ever 2]

i dont even look at the bubble when i play tournaments. I generally only play the big guarantees (and particularily ones with overlays) and always gun for top 5. the bubble is for suckers. On the bubble is when i get aggressive because players will lay down premium hands to try to get in the money. this is where a sharp player uses aggression to build up a stack.

agree 100% - Bubble is prime time to pick up chips and make a move for the big #1.

[HtotheNootch 0]

There is one thing though. The op was hesitant to call all in. That's quite a bit different from being the aggressor.

[Royal_Tour 0]

i dont even look at the bubble when i play tournaments. I generally only play the big guarantees (and particularily ones with overlays) and always gun for top 5. the bubble is for suckers. On the bubble is when i get aggressive because players will lay down premium hands to try to get in the money. this is where a sharp player uses aggression to build up a stack.

agree 100% - Bubble is prime time to pick up chips and make a move for the big #1.

Another agree.. Largest tourny i won was 40 players.. and when we got down to bubble time., i would make a stand every once in a while.. if i got that AK, or TT, and i'm in a good position, i'd push all in and make a blind steal myself. i assume blinds were at a level were folding , was starting to really hurt you

[justblaze 0]

There is one thing though.  The op was hesitant to call all in.  That's quite a bit different from being the aggressor.

if its the same guy putting him all in, he's got to pick a spot.

[Lord Ben 0]

$30 buy-in, Payouts ranged from $270 - $70 with 29 or 32 people, I forget. It was a homegame.I don't have a "bankroll" so when I play it comes out of my spending money. I can afford to lose for the fun of it, but $70 is nice to have. 3 of the people had less than 4k in chips so I was hesitant to go all-in with 30k against another person roughly the same # of chips as me. I figured waiting one more hand until people get blinded out and I have a pretty good chance of then being able to play fine and being one of the chip leaders going into the finals.It's not like I played NO hands, I started out on the final table with about 8k and had maybe 20k when it was down to the bubble. By the time we were in the money I had about 30-40k roughly. So I was still ahead money during that time period. I played the aggressor a few times with JJ, AQ, etc One time I bravely played AA even... I had no problems being the aggressor on the bubble, but I just didn't like calling other aggressors even if my hand was a slight favorite to what hand they might have.