My typical MTT statistics on near the bubble... need advice

Hello all,

I play these pretty standard in position your going to try to build your stack by taking down some blinds and opening up your game a little bit more. There are allot of people in lower stakes who play the bubbles wrong and tight. My strategy is to try to win atleast one round of blinds per BB that comes to me. I use this strategy so that I am not losing chips due to the blinds increasing late in a tourney. I played the $27.50 on pokerstars and came in 5th from being 60/60. I opened up my game and the bigstack who was clearly bullying the table jams a raise and it was the two biggest stacks at the table. I had the mindset of calling with my K 9 suited if the other player folded to his shove. I did and he had QJ and I held to double up. I continued to steal blinds and entered the FT 8/9 and held just from stealing to finish in 5th place. I have reviewed HH with some of the top pros and had seen them use this strategy late. You do have to play controlling still you can't just shove you have to have the patience still to raise fold ( stacks pending) just my advice on how I play.

Interesting. I always tighten my play around the bubble, yet you loosen up. Is there a transition at microstakes? With so many preflop shoves, I am very hesitant to call even with A Q offsuit. The thought of busting out makes me vomit, and yet finishing 9th when only 12 places are paid also brings nausea.

If you play a lot of tourneys, what would you rather have? Finish a couple of times just passed the bubble or finish 1st once? It's a much better situation to win it once than to tighten up around the bubble too much so you won't have a lot of chips when it bursts. Around the bubble blinds and antes can be quite high and most people, like you, loosen up. If it's from a not too big stack I would call with AQ in almost all of the times, and become more aggresive around the bubble, picking up blinds because a lot of people play like you do now, they are afraid to go out before the bubble and will tighten up, that way it will become a very profitable move to steal those blinds!

Ok, here I am in another typical tournament situation.

Stack: largest 26960, smallest 3970, average 10000
Your current position is 5 out of 18

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 113 hands and saw flop:
- 9 out of 15 times while in big blind (60%)
- 8 out of 15 times while in small blind (53%)
- 22 out of 83 times in other positions (26%)
- a total of 39 out of 113 (34%)
Pots won at showdown - 4 of 10 (40%)
Pots won without showdown - 24

I am going to try loosening up slightly at the bubble and look forward to posting what happens.

I am pleased to report that the loosening up worked very well. I played pocket fives for 3x BB and hit my set, causing me to double up. I doubled up again with QJ suited v K9.

I am currently in 2nd place out of 5.