[ QUOTE ]
Pergs, I'm sorry, but I think you have it backwards. There's a reason we wait until the bubble to start pushing like a maniac. Hint: should you be more liberal with your pushes and calls when it's 10 players rather than 4?
[/ QUOTE ]
Wrong.
I'm going to take you through an exercise. It's entirely optional, but you'd be wise to do it, because it will lead you to a key concept of SNG play.
Check out the
ICM calculator.
Enter 5 stacks of 2000 - everybody, amazingly, has equal stacks in this particular tourney. Each player's equity is 20%. That ought to make perfect sense. Now make one of the stacks 4000 and one of them 0 - you just doubled up. What is your equity now? What was the change in equity?
Now let's look at what happens when you make it to the bubble with equal stacks, so enter 2500 chips for four players. Equity is 25%. Now double yourself up and calculate the equity. What's your new equity, and what's the change?
The payout structure of a tournament makes the bubble a very peculiar beast. It's not enough to say "I must be tighter 10-handed than 5-handed, therefore I must be tighter 5-handed than 4-handed." It's our opponents limited (or even nonexistent) knowledge of bubble concepts that allows us to easily exploit their mistakes. Learn the nuances of bubble play and your ROI will improve immensely.