busting out on the bubble

Busting out on the bubble I think has become an issue with me. In my last three tournaments I've busted out on the bubble.

On the last tournament the anties where at 200. In Mexican poker the big card is a force bring in. It was at 500 I Was short stacked with 2,000. We were hand to hand waiting for the bubble. With a decent opening hand I decided to raise it to 1,500 trying to steel the blinds 1,400 and 500 on the force bring in. When I failed to complete my ace high flush, I became the bubble boy.

My other one was a pineapple tournament, only top three places paid. At the start of the final table I was about 2 to 3 chip leader. When we were down to the last four I had about 30% to 40 % of the chips. I could have laid back and just paid my blinds and still ended up in 2nd or 3rd place. But I decided to play it up and busted out on the bubble.

My thought is why settle for 3rd place when I can try for first. Or why settle for just getting my buy-in when I can play it up and move up in pay.

Does any one have any thoughts on this topic???????

Ed_in_socal

[Greg (FossilMan)]

It happens to me a lot too (relatively speaking).

As long as you were putting your money in as a solid favorite, or at least you had good reason to believe you were making a good gamble, then there's nothing wrong with bubbling. Now, if you're a short-stack and make a desperation play with a weak or even marginal hand, then there's probably something wrong.

I wrote a post about a month ago where I went from chip leader to bubble boy. In two hands I put it all in with KK. The first time A9o caught the A, and the second time JJ caught a J.

Someone felt I had screwed up because I could've blinded my way to the money very easily (and still had a lot of chips). However, if you're not willing to put your chips in the middle when you're a 3:1 or 5:1 favorite, then you're playing to not lose, rather than to win. And people playing to not lose never win.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[whiskeytown]

I recall TJ Cloutier saying he didn't wanna tell people how many times he had busted out in the bubble just barely in the money. He's done it so often, but he does play to win.

if you want to win, you must play to win, and over time, one first place win makes up for 5-6 middle/end finishes..

if you were a favorite, you made the right call.

RB

[ohkanada]

I think it would be good to have you post a few more examples of decisions close to the bubble. Bubbling out is fine if you are making decent decisions to attempt to move into the top money positions.

Ken Poklitar (who knows what it is like to be the bubble boy)