Low Limit Bubble Pushing "How-To"

[kevkev60614]

Holy balls I wish someone would write this.

I was rereading an old curtains post where Gigabet wrote something that struck a chord with me:

"Players that call too much rarely make it to this level of blinds. They have either already busted out, or already won all of the chips. If you happen to be at this stage with a calling station, then you cannot push with any two....just wait until you have something good to push with, you only have to bust him one time."

This post was made in reference to a bubble decision at the $215 level, where I'm sure this statement makes sense. At the $11s, though, I feel the number of "players who call too much" probably outnumber those who don't and my inaction sometimes means getting blinded to death.

Which leads me to my point. A lot has been written about when you should call a push on the bubble. When I'm in a short-stack on the bubble, however, I'm often wondering what I should be pushing with.

So here's a couple of scenarios. Against typical $11 players, with what hands would you push? Which, if any, would you raise and fold to a big stack push? What do you do with big pairs?

BB - t5500
SB (Hero) - t1500
Button - t1500
UTG - t5000

BB - t5500
SB - t1500
Button (Hero) - t1500
UTG - t5000

Thanks in advance.

[Nicholasp27]

most of the stuff written is about when to push, not when to call pushes

as for your examples, you left out blind sizes

[kevkev60614]

[ QUOTE ]
most of the stuff written is about when to push, not when to call pushes

as for your examples, you left out blind sizes

[/ QUOTE ]

100/200. And I swear I'm not retarded.

Nicholas, you don't happen to have any good threads about when to push in situations like these, do you? I was really only able to find good threads on when to call pushes. Thanks again.

[GtrHtr]

[ QUOTE ]
Which leads me to my point. A lot has been written about when you should call a push on the bubble. When I'm in a short-stack on the bubble, however, I'm often wondering what I should be pushing with.



[/ QUOTE ]

Is this a misclick? Do you mean it the other way around?

[wildzer0]

Strange, I've seen way more threads about when to push as opposed to when to call. Anyway, situations vary vastly and you have to factor calling ranges for your opponents in regards to pushing. Do a search for ICM - there's a lot of really educational threads on it that will help you to start thinking about pushing/calling ranges correctly.

[Ixnert]

[ QUOTE ]

100/200. And I swear I'm not retarded.


[/ QUOTE ]

Pushing is a fairly well-understood concept; it's one of the few parts of poker that is virtually 100% math.

Against "typical" 10+1 players, with 7.5 BBs, I want a pretty good hand to push because the calling range of a typical 10+1er is retardedly large and because even at this late stage of the game, I expect that my skill advantage means that I don't need to take really close gambles just yet.

But more to the point, by the time it gets to the bubble, even when it happens as early as 100/200, you should have a rough idea what the guy to your left is calling with. Given that, it's a math problem. If you're finding you have trouble with this sort of situation, I strongly suggest you look into buying Eastbay's SNG Analyzer, which automates just this sort of analysis.

And then play around with it, a lot. Plug in hand ranges, vary stack sizes, see how it affects what is the mathematically correct play. You may find you're not pushing enough (as I did); you may find that, given a good read on hand ranges, you're pushing too much.

But it really comes down to, first, putting your opponent on a calling range, and second, running the math.