Bubble Rush tournaments are designed to reach the money quickly. Usually in the money in about an hour, Bubble Rush tournaments slow down to deep-stacked play when the prizes are biggest! Bubble Rush tournaments start off quickly. The blinds go up fast with the intention of getting you to the money after an hour of play. Then, we put the brakes on. No more hyper-turbo structure, the blinds ease back to those of a regular tournament. The Bubble Rush tournaments have already implemented into tournament schedule of PokerStars and now more than 20 'Bubbles' events running daily. Thus, if you are tired of spending loads of time and energy to make the way up to the final stage, the 'bubbles' are about to relieve you from this. Bubble Rush - are multi table tournaments on PokerStars that begin in a hyper-turbo format and slow down when the prize zone is reached. The players start the tournament with 10,000 stake and blinds levels increase every 3 minutes.
(This article is a follow up to 'Middle Stages Tournament Strategy')
To many tournament players, the bubble is a special time because it means all that hard work has almost paid off and it’s now time to get paid. After hours of grinding away and making difficult decisions, that initial investment is about to pay off. Great tournament players see the bubble a little differently. They simply see the bubble as one more opportunity on the way to taking first place and making the real money.
The “Increase Your Aggression” Strategy
90% of all tournament strategy on the internet tells you to amp up the aggression during the bubble in any MTT. The purpose is for you to increase your chip stack by stealing from all the players who have tightening up in the hopes of making it to the money-paying places.
The goal is to put yourself in a better position to win the tournament or at least make it to the final table. Barely making it through the bubble is not a winning strategy. For you to be a winning tournament player, you need to play for the win. The occasional big score is where all your tournament profits come from in the long run. The payouts are so skewed towards the final table that there’s really no point in playing to make it past the bubble.
By the time the bubble comes around, the blinds are so big that stealing them becomes the best way to build your chip stack. The blinds aren’t going to stop going up, either, so you need to use this opportunity to steal from all the players who have tightened up. That way, you’ll have a larger chip stack when the bubble breaks and have a better chance to place well in the tournament.
That’s All Correct, But…
Most tournament players are aware of the strategy we just discussed. You can safely bet that the majority of your opponents have typed in some form of the term “poker strategy” into Google at some point in the recent past. The strategy of stealing on the bubble isn’t exactly secret knowledge.
What Does This Mean For You?
It means that your opponents are aware of this strategy and are likely to adjust to it. Some of your more skilled opponents will know that when you come alive during the bubble, it’s because you have read the same strategy as they. Some of these opponents will then re-adjust their strategy to suit yours – namely they’ll attempt to steal your steals by putting in big re-raises.
The best way for you to continue to be productive during the bubble is to pay close attention to each of your opponents. You can tell which opponents know how to play the bubble and which ones don’t. You can then tailor your strategy to each specific opponent.
For example, you can tighten up against the aggressive players who try to steal your re-steals. That way you’ll have a nasty surprise for them the next time they try to steal one of your preflop raises. You can also watch how they react to re-steals. Some of these players will give up every time you 3-bet them before the flop.
4-Bet bluffing aggressive players is usually out of the question because the blinds are so large in comparison to the average stack size. Even a small 3-bet raise is usually enough to become pot-committed. In cash games, I would suggest the rare 4-bet bluff but in tournaments, it’s just not feasible.
Once you have the smart, aggressive players identified, you can then single out the weak, tight players. Against those players, you can use the same old strategy of stealing their blinds every chance you get.
Taken separately, these two approaches to dealing with different types of opponents are pretty simple. The difficulty is in using both approaches at the same table and not getting them all mixed up. Playing two different styles at the same table requires a great deal of effort and concentration. The good news is that if you’re willing to work hard, you will make a lot of money in MTTs.
Now that you know how to play the bubble, learn how to play the late stages.
More General Poker Tournament Strategy:
Today, the world's biggest online poker room PokerStars rolled out a new tournament aptly named Bubble Rush, where play starts off fast until players reach the money and slows down for the remainder of play.
The games which feature buy-ins from $0.55 to $33 during the week and up to $109 on the weekends are running around the clock with more than 20 events each day. Players can satellite in even cheaper with hyper-turbo satellite tournaments running before each event.
Players kick off tournaments with 10,000 chips and blinds increasing every three minutes in a hyper-turbo format. Once the tournament's bubble breaks with the remaining players cashing, blind levels increase to 'regular' times before increasing even further as the tournament becomes deeper.
Late registration lasts for 35 minutes with the time increase in blind levels after the bubble breaks and later on in the tournament varying for each event.
During the first Bubble Rush tournament, the $22 Bubble Rush, $10K Gtd, the time length for blind level increases grew from three to 12 minutes once the bubble broke a little more than an hour into the tournament. Most of the 71 remaining players out of the starting 480 player field that cashed for the minimum of $44.45 were initially left in push/fold mode with the average stack being 8.5 big blinds and the chip leader holding almost 27 big blinds when the bubble broke.
However, due to the increase in blind levels slowing down and more than half of the remaining field being eliminated shortly after the bubble broke, the average stack more than doubled more during the next blind level.
With 27 players remaining, blind levels increased to 15 minutes and increased once again to an even longer 20 minutes when the nine-player final table was reached a little more than 2.5 hours after play began with the average stack at around 27 big blinds and the chip leader boasting more than 50 big blinds.
Bubble Rush Poker Tournament Games
The first-ever Bubble Rush tournament lasted a total of 3.5 hours after Germany's 'Rastabombast' and Netherlands' 'Can'tCrushMe' agreed to a heads-up deal for $1,566 and $1,529 respectfully. Other Bubble Rush tournaments could finish faster or slower pace depending on a variety of variables, however, they should always be completed quicker than a regular tournament with a similar number of entrants.
Bubble Rush Challenges
To help promote the launch of Bubble Rush, from now until August 28, PokerStars introduced Bubble Rush Challenges. Players that opt into the challenge will receive a ticket to the $7,500 Re-Entry Bubble Rush Freeroll the following day at 14:05 ET if they cash in any Bubble Rush tournament.
Bubble Rush Poker Tournaments
The challenge allows players to be awarded up to five tickets for the following day's freeroll by cashing in multiple Bubble Rush tournaments. Satellite tournaments are excluded from qualifying towards this promotion.
Rush Poker Wiki
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