I was just playing in the $10 tourney on Absolute and I ended up finishing 20th.

I was between chip leader and 4th place for the second hour of the turney. I lost my concentration after the second break. I went to the bathroom, got a drink and came back to look down at KTo in the bb. At this point I had 22k in chips and sitting pretty in 4th place. I ended up going down to ~15000 on this hand due to a stupid play by me and then it all went down hill from there. I ended up busting out 99 vs JJ 2 off the bubble.

I was pretty pissed off at my very, very poor play but I guess it's a good lesson for later in my poker life.

How does everyone here play the bubble in this position? I am assuming the right answer here is just play your game and position as once the bubble hits everyone just drops off in a few minutes, getting you to the final table in 10 minutes. That tourney just hit the final table about 15 minutes after I busted out.

Check/fold...use it. It's close to the bubble and you're 4th in chips no need to get tangled into any big hands here barring any monsters. You're stack size is enough that when the bubble hits you will still have enough to play your game.

make a few steals here and there, like maybe 1-2 times every 10 hands.
but if ur called, then slow down on the flop if u dont hit it hard. the worst thing u can do at this point is to try to steal the blinds, then continue to bluff at the pot when u get called preflop.

I encountered a similar situation once in an MTT. I was 2nd in chips behind the CL who was at my table and it was about 10 places to the bubble with 30 or so people left.

I picked up JJ and pushed on a flop of J89, he flipped up 10 Q and my hand didnt improve. Although as long as you learn from things like this it helps.

I learnt two things - Pushing on a flop like that is risky.

Pushing against the only person that can bust you is even more risky.