On the bubble with a calling station to my left

[DrewOnTilt]

Just finished an SNG where the bubble action saw me in 1st place with a slight lead over a calling station seated to my immediate left (the calling station also had a sizeable stack).

Given the discussion that has gone on here over the past few days about using the bubble to my advantage, I felt the urge to raise with decent-or-better hands to steal the blinds. But this guy would call just about any raise. He rarely raised himself, even from the small blind with a chance to knock out the shortstack. He just called and called and called. I felt literally powerless and passive as I watched him call anything less than an all-in.

He got lucky and busted one of the shortstacks with a junk hand, putting him ahead of me in stack size. When I finally got him heads up, he cracked me with pocket jacks. Argh [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

What can I do when this happens again? Should I start to push all-in in order to steal the blinds?

[Jason Strasser]

Calling stations are your friend. Just dont bully them around PF with junk. Unless there is a rare case where you have one person about to burst, right on the bubble, just make standard plays with them. If you find the perfect spot, (see my recent post with 83o) then you can make a play, but wait till its perfect.

The best way to play with a calling station is to wait.

GL