Aisthesis, your argument that you have 0% chance of winning first if you get knocked out, could be used to justify playing tight passive the entire tournament, the only difference if you are on the bubble is that you are risking a likely chance to get your buy in back. I have seen Amir Vahedi as saying thay "to live, you must be willing to die" and I really like that. I usually change my play in relation to how my table is playing on the bubble, but pretty much ignore the chance to get my buy in back. Of course if I am so short that there is almost no chance of me getting deep into the money, I will shut down and try to squeek in, $30 bucks is $30 bucks after all.

Generally though, if my table tightens up alot at the bubble, I start stealing alot. If the table is really tight, I will steal with min raises, although I realize many tourney players strongly disagree with this. I am sometimes able to steal enough pots to make a BIG difference in my chipcount, with little risk, if I get played back at, I can throw the junk in my hand away with minimal loss. The initial pot is big enough at this point, that you don't have to win that many to really improve your position. The other nice thing about this is that if you do catch a really big hand, right when someone at the table decides to punish you since you look like an incorrigable thief, your min raise can quickly turn into a big pot, and you are really in business.

Obviously I am more likely to bust out or get crippled on the bubble this way, but I believe my chances of gathering a huge stack and cruising deep into the money are greatly increased. When the blinds get high, and antes kick in, it is prime time to make a lot of money from the tighties hanging on to squeak into the $.

Also keep in mind that depending on the tourney, and the table you are at, there is not always a time that everyone gets supertight on the initial bubble, and it is much more dangerous to steal. In MTTs your strategy must always be adjusted to the people you are playing with at the moment, not just the stage the tourney is in.