The existence of a dead head presents a real opportunity for a big stack at the table as the bubble nears. Twice in the last two days, I have been in situations in SNGs where one player disappeared. Both times, I was the CL with a significant lead over the remaining live players. This gave me a complete license to take every pot until the dead hand disappeared.

I raised every pot substantially, and the other players just caved. They did not want to go out before the dead hand. Last night, when we got to four players, the guy on the bubble actually showed me that he was folding AQ. I guess the players were making rational decisions, but the ones who made the money left themselves crippled. They both went out in third place.

One kind of funny postscript: the situation was so profitable to me, that I actually tried to keep the dead hand alive for a while. He was seated to my immediate left, and so a few times, after everyone folded to me, I folded to the dead hand from the SB to beef up his stack. The other players really hated this, so one of them finally raised from the button, but his timing was awful. I had pocket Aces on the hand, and I easily knocked him out against his Q7s.