One of the most stressful times in a poker sit and go is when they're four players remaining, and only three get paid. You've come this far, and it is nerve-wracking to think that you could get knocked out of the tournament at this point and receive nothing. As a result of this, most players tighten up to try and squeeze their way into the money, but that has the reverse effect. We'll tell you the best way to break the bubble and make the money, and also how to set yourself up for not just a cash, but a win.

Why Passive Doesn't Work

Like I just mentioned, if you have a medium sized or small sized stack on the bubble you may try to tighten up to make it into the money, and then gamble then to recuperate your stack. I'll show you why this is completely wrong and has the opposite effect. First of all, by tightening up you're giving away part of your stack every hand. Since antes and blinds are so high, if you're folding all but the best hands you're giving away a big percentage of your stack every round.

In a normal situation on the bubble, an average stack will have about 10 big blinds. So, if you decide to fold until you reach the money, you'll only last 6.66 rounds, and that isn't even factoring in antes. Once you take antes into consideration, you're looking at roughly 5 rounds, which is only 20 hands when there's 4 players remaining. That clearly isn't going to work, because if the other players are playing normally they'll last way longer than 20 hands.

Also, say that once in a while your folding strategy works. Now you're going to be assured a third place finish, because you've folded most of your stack away. Third place is hardly worth your time.

Why Aggression Works

The reasons you should be aggressive are twofold: first of all you're more likely to make the money, and second of all you're more likely to win the tournament. When you're on the bubble, your main plays are going to be the steal and the re-steal.

Stealing is when you're on the button or near it and the hand folds to you so you make a raise to steal the blinds. To do this, you should make a raise that is just bigger than a min-raise, and hope the other players fold. Also, never attempt this when someone has entered the pot before you.

Since this is a play you're going to use often, you can expect players to re-steal against you once in a while. When that happens, just fold the hand and let them have the pot, unless you have a good hand, and in that case you should go all in.

Also keep in mind that other players will be stealing your blinds. If someone is constantly attacking your big or small blind when it folds to them, make sure to re-steal occasionally to defend your blinds. To do this, just make a re-raise that is roughly three times what their raise was.