Hello TPE,

Some questions came up for me during a small 5$ turbo rebuy/addon on Merge a few days ago (2000 chip buy ins 5$ for one hour and then a 5000 chip add on for 5$ when late reg closes). In this tourney there were only about 100-120 entrants, and 11 were paid. $360 was on top, $32 was mincash. 9th through 11th were similar and then the cash sped up.

Being turbo, stacks are shorter and I know we all know that. However in this tourney, the players that made it to the bubble phase seemed to be a severe mix of tough players and mincash enthusiasts.

When 18 players remained, several players were folding down to 2bb and lower. When 12 remained, here were the approximate stacks, which I wrote down as the break hit.
Blinds are 4000/8000/400
1st) 159k
2nd) 139k
3rd) 89k
4th) 89k
5th) 71k
6th) 45k
7th) 29k (This is me, our humble hero)
8th) 18k
9th) 8507
10th) 6502
11th) 880
12th) 406

I feel a few questions can be asked about this already. First, am I correct in saying that this is a Superbubble? It seems to me that there are usually the two standard bubbles, but that if the pay bubble is exactly on the FT bubble, the dynamics of both produce an additive effect. In this tourney, even though it pays to 11, there are still three or four players left who have been playing super duper tight to mincash. My place is 7th, which pays $62. I seem to be the smallest stack that still has reasonable open/shove fold equity. I realize that actual bubble factor is highest when both players have big stacks. But when you have a bigger stack and more maneuverability, it’s easier to exploit other players on the bubble, isn’t it? When you have under 10bb and yet you are in FT position, it is more of a dilemma as to whether to open isn’t it?

Another question: should I play super tight for a few hands? I am UTG+1, and 12th place is all in just because of the antes. I am familiar with the player who was in 6th place at this point, and he plays well, perhaps like a TPE member. As it went, the next hand he played A9 from mid position, ran into one of the big stack’s AQ and lost, while the all in short stack hit a flush. 6th place became the bubble. I’m sure this has happened to all of us, but it’s a pretty sick bubble, right? So, while I am currently defaulting to shoving A9 here myself with “just 5.5BB” in his spot, I must ask the question, is the Superbubble a reason to actually succumb, and play tight?

I don’t even think the blinds hit me before it went to the final table, but I was placed directly in the blinds, holding KQo. A big stack sat in steal position and open shoved on me. I called my 20k, and faded against his King rag. This was an easy call .. but I couldn’t help but notice that it would not have been an easy call just three hands ago if, say those short stacks kept hitting flushes with 1bb. So I ask the question .. given the above stack sizes, on this Superbubble, if I was in the BB with only 20k back and got shoved on .. would it be a good fold? Since I wasn’t on the bubble when I had to make that decision, I can’t tell how I would have felt.

DannyN said in his Turbo series, when discussing short stacks, that he recommends we try to stay above 8BB. And of course this makes sense. But as I think DannyN also said in maybe a podcast, “It’s not like I wasn’t going for it here!” Do turbo final table situations sometimes warrant super shallow stack play? I’m picturing play where you still open shove a wide range, but you also don’t have to open everything and probably still fold a lot of hands when someone else opens first.

Any comments are most appreciated. Grind goodly.