Updated on 07 Apr 26 by
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Tricky Spots (3)

by y0d4

In the following you will be presented ten hands from SnGs during the bubble stage or close to that.

The bubble is the core of each SnG since a big part of skilled players' profits result from that stage.

This is why you should also turn your attention to constantly improving your bubble play.

These hands, of which some were slightly modified, have been posted and discussed in the hand evaluation board, so the solution found there might differ from standard strategy.

We will only discuss situations marked with a "?", all other decisions
are not of interest. They were made by Hero and are not to be discussed
in this quiz.

Cheating (e.g. with SNG Wizard or another ICM calculator) will be
punished by several months of running under $EV and is therefore not
recommended.

For your personal post-analysis of these hands we strongly recommend using SNG Wizard and holdemresources.net.

Good luck!

For discussions and question, please refer to the forum: Discuss the quiz on the forum

Question 1:

Full Tilt $6+0.50 NL Hold'em (4 handed)

Blinds: 200/400

Stacks
CO (t3715)
Button (t5595)
Hero (t2130)
BB (t2060)

Preflop: Hero is SB with TsTh
CO raises to t3715(allin), 1 fold, Hero…?

You reached the bubble, a relatively competent player shoves his cutoff.

You estimate his range to be around 9% (66+, AT+), not much more, not much less.

What's your action?



Question 2:

FullTilt $6+0.5 NL Hold'em (4 handed)

Blinds: 60/120

Stacks
CO (t7135)
BU (t4055)
Hero (t1135)
BB (t1175)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 7h2d
2 folds, Hero…?

You are in an interesting bubble situation. The blinds are quite low and other than you there is one other shorty who has played relatively tight so far.

The two other opponents broke away in terms of chips and folded their hands already. Now in the small blind you have to make a decision about your play with the weakest starting hand in NL Holdem - what do you choose?



Question 3:

Party Poker $10+1 NL Hold'em (6 handed)

Blinds: 200/400

Stacks
UTG (t1520)
HI (t9100)
Hero (t3910)
BU (t2290)
SB (t2240)
BB (t940)

Preflop: Hero is CO with JsJd
1 fold, HI raises to t800, Hero…?

You sit in the cutoff with pocket jacks. A so far quite active players chooses to do his standard play, a minraise.

With these stack sizes we are not too far away from the bubble anymore, so this hand is somewhat bubble-like. How do you react?




Question 4:

Party Poker $10+1 NL Hold'em (4 handed)

Blinds: 400/800

Stacks
Hero (t7450)
BU (t2090)
SB (t3900)
BB (t6560)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 5d5s
Hero...?

You hold 55 in UTG on the bubble and your stack is slightly less than 10 BB. BU and SB are pretty short, you also just cover the BB. How do your play your pocket fives here?




Question 5:

FullTilt $6+0.5 NL Hold'em (4 handed)

Blinds: 100/200

Stacks
CO (t1840)
BU (t1190)
SB (t6590)
Hero (t3880)

Preflop: Hero is BB with ThAs
1 fold, BU raises to t1190, 1 fold, Hero... ?

You have AT in the big blind on the bubble. The shorty shoves his remaining 6 BB from the button. No special reads available.

What is your play?



Question 6:

FullTilt $6+0.5 NL Hold'em (4 handed)

Blinds: 250/500

Stacks
CO (t1550)
BU (t3470)
SB (t5690) (Regular)
Hero (t2790)

Preflop: Hero is BB with QsAd
2 folds, SB raises to t5690(allin), Hero... ?

Finally reaching the bubble the blinds have already increased to threatening dimensions. You have just over 5 BB left, there is an even shorter player in the cutoff with just over 3 BB.

Cutoff and button fold their hands, the small blind (you know he is a regular) tosses all his chips into the middle. You suppose he is likely to do that with every single hand.

Is AQ offsuited strong enough here? What's your action?



Question 7:

FullTilt $11+1 NL Hold'em (4 handed)

Blinds: 150/300

Stacks
CO (t1945) (Regular)
Hero (t1250)
SB (t4565)
BB (t5740)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with TsTd
CO raises to t1945(allin), Hero... ?

Another bubble hand, this time you hold TT with 4 BB left. You know that the player in the cutoff is a regular who has just tossed in his remaining 6.5 BB in first-in.

Since both blinds have played relatively tight so far, you might assume that CO will have a wide range here. After all he is also dropping to a stack size with less fold equity.

How do you play your pocket tens?



Question 8:

FullTilt $11+1 NL Hold'em (4 handed)

Blinds: 200/400

Stacks
CO (t870)
Hero (t3940)
SB (t2135)
BB (t6555) (Regular, has abused the bubble a lot so far)

Preflop: Hero is BU with AhQd
1 fold, Hero... ?

In this hand there is a supershorty with just over 2 BB who is about to enter the blinds but has folded this round already. You are second to act on the button and look at AQ offsuited.

Knowing that you could just fold here and wait for the shorty to blind out, you do what?



Question 9:

FullTilt $11+1 NL Hold'em (4 handed)

Blinds: 80/160

Stacks
CO (t2525)
Hero (t3100)
SB (t1485)
BB (t6390) (hyper-aggressive regular who will probably resteal very loose)

Preflop: Hero is BU with JcJs
1 fold, Hero raises to t389, 1 fold, BB raises to t6390(allin), Hero... ?

This time you reach the bubble pretty early in the game while an aggressive regular owns the biggest stack.

You raise your JJ from the button, SB folds, and BB puts all his chips into the middle. What is your reaction?



Question 10:

Full Tilt $6+0.50 NL Hold'em (4 handed)

Blinds: 80/160

Stacks
CO (t2960)
BU (t3000)

SB (t3240) (has played aggressively so far, but not overdone it – not a maniac)
Hero (t4300)

Preflop: Hero is BB with AcJd
2 folds, SB raises to t3240(allin), Hero... ?

A presumably aggressive but solid players shoves his small blind of over 20BB into you after everyone else has folded.

You are uncertain about his range. Do you tolerate that and fold? After all you hold AJ.