[nxtyear]

ok situation is like this, it's actually going on right now
5 dollar rebuy tourney, 680 people entered, rebuy period ended and it's 50 mins through the freezeout process

my chpstack is 27k. which is like 10th oveall, avg chipstack 10000, 250 players left.

anyways on my table i'm the chip leader.
but there are others who are close to me.
2 seats after me has 19k, 4 seats after me has 24k, 3 seats before me, has 19k (or 7 after me).

i know chip leaders are supposed to be aggresive, but with two guys very close to me having position on me, would you still be able to play as aggressively?

ie, would u raise with A8 in early/mid position?
or even KJ?
which aren't really raisable hands when ur chipstack is average but when u are chipleading, but not dominantly i'm not sure what my strategy should be.
especially with similar competing stacks acting after me

[Slayre]

what is your chipstack in relation to the blinds.

how small are the small stacks

they don't have position every hand

i would raise with A8s if they allowed me to.. for sure

KJ also.. more so with A8s tho...

those big chip stacks are thinking pretty much exactly what your thinking...

take advantage of that...

[Texas72]

If I have a chiplead, I want to keep it. This means I don't put myself into marginal situations. LP, sure, I'd push with smaller aces or one-gappers. But early position there are too many people left to act who can either afford to call me with a possibly stronger hand (or a weaker one that gets better with a flop) or small stacks looking to make an all-in move. Depending upon the size of their stack, do you really want to put yourself in a position where you are essentially pot-committed for what is likely to be a coin-flip, at best?

[AGreen]

So how'd you do in the tourny nxt?

[nxtyear]

came 25th and got some money for it, forgot how much

i've been playing alot of tourneys lately, ranging at around 10~20 dollar buy ins
failed miserably in many, coming just off the money

there waas a 10 dollar buy in 133 people which i came 10th, final table but seeing as it's 10th place it's a pretty bad payout.

i did make money in another one which i bought in for 15 dollar, only got 50 dollars back from it though

but while i'm doing so crap, my friend, who i am doing a syndicate
(we splitting all our winnings)
won a tournament 20 dollar buy in with 600 runners!
he got 3750. of which i got 1500 dollars (the player gets a premium depending on how well he did)

the next day he came 7th in another tourney, and got 250 dollars!
so i'm getting shares of that

[blitzfyr]

I also have this problem. last night for instance i was chip leading (just) a tournament on bodog, which after the first hour the blinds go up really fast so i knew i had to keep being aggressive. However, with no cards whatsoever for about an hour i found myself averagely chip stacked on 10k when the blinds where up to 300/600 +antes.

I did try to push on with my chip stack but found most of the time my aggression was unsuccessful and id have been better off playing tighter.

Ended up coming 27th for a measily 45$ when i lost my one and only race of the day.

Would appreciate people's advice on how to handle a big stack mid-way through a tourney. It is usually between the time where there is 150 ppl down to the bubble area where things start to go wrong for me even if i have a big stack. Maybe i should just tighten up but i am trying to take advantage of people who are already tightening up.

[ElGod]

I find this situation very frustrating when i'm in it. Last night for instance i was about 10th in chips with about 20k blinds 500/1000, 80 of around 600 runners left, top 60 get paid (although weighting very much favoured to the top places). My table consisted of about 4 players with very similar stack sizes to my own ranging from 15k-30k biggest, and the other 5 stacks ranging from around 4k-10k.

Every hand followed the same pattern, one of the small stacks went all in and with little joy at picking up anything reasonable i could not call. It seems that no one has any guts, someone must have picked up at least a reasonable hand as clearly the small stacks were pushing with any kind of mediocre hand and hoping their aggression got rewarded.

Tournament then followed its usual pattern, i was playing for the win because of the prize structure, a small stack went in, i called half my stack with Aq and was then raised by the big stack (great!) he turns over ak and spiked a king (small stack had a4!!!). came in 57th and got paid the mighty sum of $31 for my $15 buy in after about 3.5 hours play.

After playing these tournaments constantly for the last 2 years my advice would be to limp in at every oppotunity early on when the blinds are small with creative little pairs or connectors and just try build a monster stack so calling peoples all ins just becomes a joy as they cannot damage your monster stack. every tournament seems to be hugely weighted money wise to the top end so coming in 5th 5 times is no where near as good as 1 victory so take the risk and take it down!!!

Aggression in the middle of the tourney is definitely essential, especially against other big stacks as they know you can damage them and normally will fold unless they have already committed a large propotion of their stack!

[1rainbow]

i think being chip leader & being a bully are two different things, i commend anyone who has high stacks & keeps them w/o trying to dominate a table with bulliness, maybe that's just my female nature

[beriac]

If I am a dominant chipleader and there are not too many players left, that's when I usually start to bully. I make big, calculated bets that might be 50/50 coin flips but with much higher risk to the other players than myself. Yet if they don't call, they lose more blinds.

If I am a non-dominant chipleader or there are many players left, I tend to continue playing tight(ish)... I definitely wouldn't just let people steal my blinds, but I've seen the chipleader become the short stack too many times to just throw my chips to the center every other hand.

That's me, at least...