Poker gems, #436

Matthew Hilger, in Card Player magazine column, September 7, 2011 (vol. 24, #18), page 30.

Mathematically, there is no difference between the bubble of a [$10 single-table] tournament which pays two places 75-25, and after the bubble bursts in a 50-30-20 structure. Once it's three-handed, each player will win a minimum of $20, so it's as if that $20 has already been put in everyone's account, and it's the bubble of a tournament with three players left, with the top two paid $30 and $10. Every time you are one elimination away from a pay increase, there is effectively a new bubble....

However, for many players the psychology causes them to behave differently.... [T]hey simply play tighter before the actual money bubble, and looser once they're in the money. The flawed reasoning is that once you're "in the money," you're freerolling in a sense.