Where do we stand on min cashes?

[mikeymike]

Last night I had several min cashes locked up, we are about 30/40 players off the bubble in some cases less, I could have just turned off the laptop or walked away for 5 minutes and we would have min cashed without playing another hand.

Instead I decided as is normal to play the cards dealt to me on each occasion getting hammered by the large stack that was to my left. (Tennis Joke) 5 sets up on the flop and lost each one.

On all occasions I thought to myself before I played the hands, do I fold and make a guaranteed min cash or do I play. Obviously I played but is this the correct move.

[RED-DOG]

Yes.

Most people would pay min-cash money to take over your stack at that point.
 

[mikeymike]

Red - Dog - please elaborate

[mikeymike]

Forgot to mention I was first to act on all occasions.

[DropTheHammer]

It depends on how much a min cash means to you, and your bankroll really. Before the bubble is the time you want to be applying pressure to the other players who are keen to min cash. In any tourny that isn't a satellite, you really want to be playing for the top three spots as that is where the big money is. If you always play for a min cash this will really harm your profitability in the long run.

If you are taking a shot in a big buy-in tournament and near the money and want to lock up a cash, fair enough, but you should probably drop down in stakes rather than regularly worrying about not making a min cash.

[SuuPRlim]

Don't go folding sets because you're on the bubble! I think if you made mistakes in those sets hands it might have been preflop. Need to do risk vs reward analysis on any chips you put in the pot preflop. If you have a venerable stack you almost always gotta preserve. You're not folding to the money though, you're just playing a much tighter strategy because that's what the situation you're in demands.

One of the biggest pay jumps in a tournament is the one from 0 to 1.5 buyins  on the bubble.