How aggro do you steal on the bubble?

[DesertCat]

We were down to four, and I had been very aggressive in blind stealing already to try to catch up to the leaders. I'm struggling with controlling my inner aggro, how hard should I push a medium stack on the bubble? Is K8s too weak? Any advice for reasonable hands?

***** Hand History for Game 2496018300 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $20 Buy-in + $2 Entry Fee Trny:14638323 Level:7 Blinds(150/300) - Sunday, August 07, 20:55:20 EDT 2005
Table Table 13767 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 2: lcksmith ( $935 )
Seat 5: WEBuffett ( $2000 )
Seat 7: cpratt4881 ( $2805 )
Seat 10: krister342 ( $2260 )
Trny:14638323 Level:7
Blinds(150/300)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to WEBuffett [ Kh 8h ]
lcksmith folds.
WEBuffett is all-In.

[Nottom]

If the table is playing reasonably tight, I'd usually fire away here as well.

The fact that UTG only has 3BBs and both blinds have you covered could make this a fold if one of them is even just a little too loose.

Even against blinds that will call with 66+, A8+ this is a fold.

[psyduck]

This is a fold because of the shortie sitting at UTG unless you have notes that the big stacks are playing to survive the bubble and are tight.

Personally, I find that contrary thinking is often profitable. In this case, everyone is tightening up to get in the money so tilting at a lot of pots and then letting go when pushed back has been very profitable for me. I also tend to push the flop as well so I get a free pass on the turn. Then, if I haven't hit, I chalk the whole thing up to experience and look like a guy making an intelligent lay down. This strategy has had a significant +EV. But that is only because of the predictability of other people's tightness once there's only 5 people left.

I revise my advice to say that I wouldn't go all-in. I agree that it's just not necessary to risk all until the short stack has come back into things somewhat or I've been sucked down. But I would definitely have "raise to $600" as one of the ways I would play this (maybe a third of the time?)

[Nottom]

[ QUOTE ]
I revise my advice to say that I wouldn't go all-in. I agree that it's just not necessary to risk all until the short stack has come back into things somewhat or I've been sucked down. But I would definitely have "raise to $600" as one of the ways I would play this (maybe a third of the time?)

[/ QUOTE ]

If either of the blinds is decent, thats a terrible option.

Why is that? I'm a +EV player but far from a pro. I tend to play $30 + $3 tables online and find that if I get to the last 6, I'm rarely out of the money. I attributed a large part of that to my willingness to risk when the herd instinct had moved too many people toward too much conservatism. But it could be the lack of quality I'm playing against. How can I assess that?

[lastchance]

Because it means people stop and go you, and you're giving them odds to resteal as well. Generally, you want people to fold. They fold more to your all-in then a minbet.

Can you really fold here getting 2:1 on a reshove?

[DesertCat]

[ QUOTE ]
Why is that? I'm a +EV player but far from a pro. I tend to play $30 + $3 tables online and find that if I get to the last 6, I'm rarely out of the money. I attributed a large part of that to my willingness to risk when the herd instinct had moved too many people toward too much conservatism. But it could be the lack of quality I'm playing against. How can I assess that?

[/ QUOTE ]

If I raise to 600, I tempt the blinds into raising me all-in. And I'll be forced to call (getting 2-1 on my money) even though I know I'll be a big underdog. This is either all-in or fold.

[ QUOTE ]
... and I had been very aggressive in blind stealing already....

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess it comes down to how likely you think you will be called. You will be behind ~ 1.6:1 on average?