Let’s start things off with a quick definition of “the bubble”. The bubble is the last unpaid position in a tournament, and in my opinion, the absolute worst position to lose. Playing the bubble with a big stack, playing the bubble with a medium stack, and playing the bubble with a short stack required different strategies.

Playing short stacked is by far the toughest (and most common) situation most poker players are faced with near the bubble. In fact, I believe that making it “in the money” (ITM) while short stacked is what separates tournament players that continues to grow their bankrolls and from those players that runs out of their bankrolls and have to re-deposit or freeroll a new bankroll.

To survive the bubble short stacked, there is a couple to techniques that you must execute. The first and most important is the “stall technique”. Each site gives a set amount of time to make a decision when it is your turn to make a play. You have to use every second of the given time before making a play. A good time to start this technique is when there are about 20 players before ITM is reached.

If you open other tables in the same tournaments, you’ll see one of two things happening. You’ll either see other players near the bubble using the same strategy, or you’ll see tables playing normally. Using this technique has two advantages. One, stalling will slow down the pace of the game and fewer hands will be played. At this stage in the game, the blinds will be high and antes will be in play. When you’re short stacked, you want two avoid both as much and as long as possible. The second advantage you’ll notice is that tables that continue to play at a normal speed are losing players and that the blinds and antes are hurting the short stacks at those tables.

Using the stall technique alone will get you ITM most of the time, but there are changes in your style of play as well. You should be folding just about every hand you are dealt if your chips don’t have folding power. Folding power is when you bet enough chips to make opponents fold their marginal, or weak hands. Folding power is also based on the chip size of the opponent. The Big stack at the table is likely to call with any two cards, so you will want to avoid them completely if possible.

Your target when you do have a hand worth playing (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, AQ) is other opponent also trying to survive the bubble because they will most likely also only play those premium hands and will fold to you. I wouldn’t even recommend play AK or AQ against a big stack because of the risk of being sucked out by a weaker hand and losing the tournament. Just sit back and let the big stacks do their job, which is KO'ing other opponents.

I’m confident using this method of play will not only decrease your bubble percentage, but also increase your ITM percentage and your bankroll!