Fossilman: Stealing on the bubble

[benfranklin]

ESPN2 showed the WSOP 2004 final table last night, with commentary by Greg Raymer. I found his comments on getting to the final table very interesting, and dead on regarding SnG bubble play.

The field was down to 10 players (all at one table), and they would play that night until one more was eliminated, reaching the "real" final table of nine. This was "THE" bubble of the WSOP.

Raymer started the table of 10 with about 5 million chips, and finished it with 8 million when they got down to the final 9. In his commentary, he said that when they got down to 10, he knew that he had a huge edge for stealing here, and that he intended to do just that. So he just sat there and consciously stole 3 million chips. He knew that virtually everyone else had only one thing on their minds: survival.

The principle is simple; the magnitude of stealing 3 million is breath-taking.