I'm still developing my bubble play and I am nowhere near an expert at NLH, but I will tell you my usual play...

I think it depends somewhat on what is important to you : Winning first place or, as in my case, being happy to be in the money.

I tend to tighten up at the bubble if I have a bigger chip stack because my first goal is to get into the money...once through the bubble I will gamble to win. On the other hand, with a shorter chip stack, I will tend to widen my betting range of hands and narrow my calling range looking to survive long enough to get through the bubble.

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ertrauma


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As my father always said, "Son, choose your sword wisely; Some day you may have to fall on it".

Being a sub for PXF I use the strategy from sheets and bax etc.

It can get quite confusing with ICM , etc. Basically its going to depend on the your chip stack, the chip stack of ur opponents and your position compared to the chip leader(if you arent it), blind size, and how many BBs you have compared to the blinds.

lets say you are down to 4 in a regular 9/10 person sng, which would be the bubble.

by this time you should know who the stations are, whos playing tight and all that jazz. lets say youre on the bubble and the 2 blinds have 10 BBs or less. You have them covered, and its folded to you...reguardless of your hand....you push all in. This puts the pressure on them and statiscally speaking the cards dont matter here. This is the same play you would make if you are in the SB and the BB has less than 10bb.

thats the basic jist of how to play the big stack, you put the pressure on the small stacks and make them make the mistake of calling with something crappy.

Now if you dont have that kind of stack, and you have short/mid stack you are tighten up and you want to be the pusher, you can still utlize the play above if your are in a blind vs blind situation, but just beware because the shorties are most likely to call you more often.

with that being said, what do you call with? i still am confused with what sheets is teaching, ICM calculations and equity and this and this etc etc, its tough.......in some of the videos its mathamatically correct to fold say, QQ/JJ etc etc when a big stack pushes into you and has you covered. Its all about making $$$. but like i said this depends on the chip stack and the calculations, which i have still yet to figure out. I prob. still call with such hands.


this might be confusing because im writing it at work and its been in different segments....but this kind of the basic bubble strat. that PXF pros and subs use....of course you critque to your own.

ive improved a tremendous amount using this strat. and also being a sub. to PXF. I encourage anyone to join this site and watch the videos. The activation price is a bit hefty, and its $25/month after that, but it you watch these vids, the info you get will help you become success and it'll pay for itself each month. Sheets is by far the most advanced sng player you will ever meet and to have him explain in detail EVERYTHING he knows, is just amazing and worth it.,

Hey Luke,

Thanks for that informative post - I am also a PxF sub (though my SNG grinding days actually came from strategy from another forum (which we shall not name here!!)) long before that!

Also recommend PxF, very reasonable price for the quality of tuition available.

Cheers, Mark

no problem, it can be a deep subject to get into if i left anything out feel free to add....

you use same kind of strat then that you did now? or are you adapting to the new kind of play out there.

if so what are the new things you are using and that have worked with SNGs.

Odd question for both of you. With the amount of information out there, a lot of players are reading the same information. Do you ever get a feel at a table that you need to do the unconventional playing style to do well?

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Kickboyswoop

for me....not really.....for MTTs of course!!!


the thing with SNGs is its more of an art/science rather than poker. surely if you have an experienced player(s) or players you play with all the time that know you sng "style" then yea you do need to switch it up a bit......i dont play much high high high limits though so i dont run into it much. if you use sound sng strat., even though it is redundant , you will profit from it.

the sng field has gotten a little bit tougher lately, but you will ALWAYS ALWAYS have the fish, keep to the strategy and tweak when neccessary......you have a good foundation and just have to keep adding little piece here and there.

i dont care how many sng's i get first in, its the bottom line that counts.....$/hr slash ROI

Agree with kickboy . The name you are looking for are spite call and metagame .