Bubble strategy question

[Easy E]

If you are a big stack and a very small stack is the only one in the pot, should you fold every hand in an effort NOT to knock them out, when the bubble is close?

Does it matter whether you're a big stack just for your table, or if your stack is big for all of the remaining players?

[DougBrennan]

I would say this is true only if you are making more money from steals than you are losing by not calling the short stack in a +EV situation for you.

And you can certainly shove your weight around as the big stack at your table, regardless of stack sizes at other tables. But be carefull not to bleed your stack off with loose calls, just because you can "afford to." Lose a couple of hands you ahouldn't have been in, and all of a sudden you will be worrying about some other big stack.

[Slacker13]

If I am on the bubble I am very cautious but I do not throw away good cards either, I still feel you should attack the small stacks and try and take them out. You just do not want to double them up by playing mediocre cards.
If your goal is to just place in the money then be more cautious, if your playing solely for first then be more aggressive.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

I have been in spots where I've been stealing 2-3 times per orbit, and I know that I'm going to continue to get away with it until and unless I run into somebody with a really big hand, or until we lose a player and all get into the money. In these spots, I have sometimes had my big blind raised by a short stack going all-in. If I consider what range of hands they are likely to hold, and consider my two cards, and do the math, I would fold unless there is a LOT of +EV to playing the hand. If my edge is small, I will fold, let them live, and expect to more than make up that EV by the next steal or two.

Once I even folded QQ getting 3:1 on the call against a guy who was probably pretty desperate, and might not have even had an overcard to my pair. But, it was clear that everybody else was going to fold pretty much everything but AA and KK until we got into the money. So, I continued to steal the blinds for another 5 or 6 orbits before somebody else knocked out a different player who had gotten short-stacked. I gave up about 4 big bets worth of chips by making that fold. I stole at least 40 big bets worth of chips before we lost that player. After we lost that player, and got into the money (3 or 4 tables, I think), something like 5 guys went all-in the next hand. No more stealing, because the Sheriff(s) was back in town.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)