You may or may not have heard of the bubble. What is the bubble?

The bubble is your position in a tournament if you are knocked out just before the paying places. For example if the paying places are 1st to 50th and you were knocked out in 51st or around that area, you went out on the bubble.

You now know what the bubble is but how do you play to stay in at this vital stage of the game. It's a good question but your play may vary depending on a certain few factors. You need to take into account the number of chips you have, the number of chips your opponents have at your table, how many big blinds you have and your position in the tournament. It's a case of bully or be bullied.

If you are in a large tournament and there are about 20 places before the paid places, you will need to consider your stack size and your tactics to ensure you make it to the paying places. Are you in the top 25 percent in the tournament in the remaining places? If you are, then you probably have sufficient chips to bully the limpers and slow players who are just trying to make it to the paying places. You will certainly be able to steal their blinds but watch out for bigger chip stacks at your table as they may be wanting to bully you and steal your blinds. Aggressive play at this stage of a game can net you some serious chips to take you into the top 10 percent of players.

Alternatively, you can just play the premium hands and post and fold until the paying places. Some players fold everything until the paying places, scared of bad beats or not hitting the flop after a large raise with say AK.

Whichever you choose, always consider how many blinds you have left and look at the low stacks and consider how many blinds they have left. Reaching the paying places could be easier than you think when you've taken everything into consideration.

I hope this has given you a small insight to the bubble and are able to adjust your play to suit your stack size.
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