Bubble Play

I played in the 3 table NL Holdem tournament last night. I made it to 6 handed and 5 make money. The problem was everyone had pretty equal stacks around 5000 and the blinds were 300-600. Not a lot of room to maneuver. I made a horrible play and busted out.

I was dealt QQ on the big blind. A stack slightly larger than mine opens the pot with a raise of doulbe the blind. Everyone folds to me. I decide to call because I want to win more money than just his 1200. The flop comes out all undercards. Carrying it further, I check planning to raise. It backfires as he checks it through. Turn is a King. Now I decide to push in and he calls with his King-10.

First mistake. I need to just move all in preflop. First he probably folds. This also sends the message to not fuck with my blinds or I'll go all in. Second if he calls and I win, I get a big stack and get to show everyone a solid hand.

Second, I should have bet the flop. Seriously, how much more money am I really going to make here. Plus it would have prevented me from having to make that bad decision when an Ace or a King hits on the turn or river.

The other issue is how aggressive to play on the bubble if everyone's chips are basically equal and the they only have 7-11 times the blind left. I basically felt like I was going to need some good cards to win this event because any hand I played, I need to be prepared to go all in. In fact it seemed like it should have been, the first player in the pot goes all in. Everyone folds. Or someone wakes up with AK or a pocket pair and calls.

You basically have two rounds to fold before you're blinded down to the point that someone will call you with a marginal hand. If you only raise 2x the blind, someone will eventually play with you.

Another strategy may be to limp and hope the flop hits you. Since a raise is pretty much all in, this would allow you to get away from the hand if someone else raises or the flop misses you.