Part: Part Ten - Adjusting to Different Stacks

The short stack ignores the bubble

Pre-flop
Blinds 400 / 800 (100 ante)Pot 2,100 (2.6 BB)Your M = 2 • Red zoneHJA♦8♦● 4,200 (5.2 BB)YOUfirst to actSB● 18,000 (22.5 BB)posts 400 (0.5 BB)BB● 18,000 (22.5 BB)posts 800 (1 BB)D

You're a short stack (M ~2) on the money bubble. It folds to you in the hijack with A♦8♦.

Short stack (M ~2) on the bubble, folded to you with A♦8♦. Best?

WhyAt M around 2 you have maybe a round left before you're blinded out, so 'waiting for a better spot' just means shoving a worse hand later with fewer chips behind it. A-8 suited from the hijack beats the random holdings the blinds wake up with, and the dead money plus fold equity make jamming the accumulation play. Laddering one pay spot is worthless if you're going to bust three hands from now regardless.
What happensYou jam, the big blind snaps with A-J, and you don't improve - out on the bubble. It stings, but nursing that stack was a slower death; get the chips in while your jam still has fold equity and trust the math over this one result.
Too short to fold your way anywhere, you took the shove your stack demanded - and even though it lost this time, sitting and folding would only have handed the blinds your tournament a few hands later.

When you're truly short, the bubble's fold pressure isn't yours to wield - it's wielded against you. You can't ladder from an M of 2; you have to find chips before the blinds eat you.