How to Play the Money Bubble

by Smith Collins | Aug 7 2008

When you are playing in a poker tournament, there will come a time when the next person who gets knocked out will receive nothing and everyone else will "make the money." This is well-known by most poker players as the "bubble" and very few players know how to play through it correctly. Instead of being scared and backing down from marginal holdings so you can be guaranteed to make the money, the correct course of action to take is to pick your spots and be very aggressive against others who you think might be weak or scared of the bubble.

One reason why you should be aggressive like this is because making the money shouldn't matter to you. You are playing to get first place and first place only! The bubble should just be another stage in the tournament where making chips is easier than before, thanks to the fear instilled in most novice players who are either playing outside their bankroll or extremely scared of bubbling after hours of play. When you happen to make the money, you really only make your buy-in back, plus a little extra, so if that's all it takes to make you happy, then perhaps you should just stick to the single table Sit and Go tournaments where your risk/reward is better for the percentage of time you are cashing.

Another reason why you should play the bubble in a fierce manner is simply because you lose out on perfect opportunities to acquire chips while you are devoid of any strong hands. Due to the fact that strong hands are very rare in No Limit Holdem, you should pounce on any chance you get where you can build your stack without having strength. The bubble is obviously one of the best chances for this, and it definitely helps if you make sure you have a big stack by this point.

In conclusion, by making sure you remain aggressive and relatively large-stacked to most people at your table, the bubble will become your favorite part of the tournament to take advantage of scared opponents who just want to tell their friends they went out with the best hand in that tournament. Sometimes you may be the bubble boy by playing this strategy, but you just have to know you are playing correctly and that when you do make the money, you will not be short-stacked like all of the scared players who folded their way into the cash. Good luck and see you in the money!

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