Last night I was playing in a $30 buy in NL Holdem tourney on UB with 200 entrants. You receive 1500 chips to start. Doing the math I figure the average chip stack at final table will be around 30K. Approaching the second break I am the chip leader by a lot, I hit over 70K in chips. Now every book I've read says play to win, however, I realistically could sit out and coast to final table and probably still be chip leader in tourney once there. As it turned out several people at final table had less then 20K. After blinds and antes I easily would have had 60K in chips going to final table had I just sat out, what do you do..Keep playing the way you have and assume your hands will continue to hold and expose yourself to races..such as QQ vs AK with you having QQ, and try to get 1/3 of all chips in play before reaching final table or sit out and go back to work at final table, being at least in the top four in chips??

I ended up fifth in tourney which was an okay payday of 417 and thankfully got all my chips in when the other guy had a four outer to win and a two outer to chop and hit his four outer to send me on my way but had I sat out I would have made final table with 2X as many chips, and more control/flexibility.

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"The only thing you regret in life, is the risk you didn't take"

Come on boys/girls anyone?? I know someone has had a 3X chip lead in 200 man or so tourney; sit on it till final table lose at most 10K in blinds/antes or keep your foot on the gas??

You have over 70K in chips 2nd is 30K 3rd 20 something...average stack is below 10K about 100 people left.....

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"The only thing you regret in life, is the risk you didn't take"

I don't think I would do either - sit out or keep the foot on the gas! By keep your foot on the gas, I assume that's how you got your large chip lead so I'm further assuming that is a loose-aggressive play style. My style is SLA in the early going and gets tighter as the blinds go up but with a large chip stack advantage I will loosen up to play more pots but with a small-ball strategy. So to answer your question, I keep playing but most of my loose play will be small pot and steals and only getting heavily envolved with primium hands. I try to keep the pressure on with first-in raises hoping to steal more than get into a hand but only play hands that have a chance even if only marginal - i.e 5-6s or J-To and better. Any serious playback I fold before I get into big trouble unless I have a very good hand. I'm still trying to build my stack but avoid large pots/loses with marginal hands if possible.
I don't play sherriff although I know its almost expected of the large stack but will occationally if the odds are good enough - i.e 1.8-1 or better and I have a hand that has at least a moderate chance of winning.
I do bully small stacks with better than moderate hands and small-mid pocket pairs but trap with my prima hands AA, KK, QQ and AK. By trap I mean I still raise if first in but will only call if it was raised ahead of me hoping to get a big payday. In other words I'm picking my spots for big-ball aggression while keeping the pressure on with small-ball tactics in general. I have no problem folding garbage hands as I don't want to be taken for goose-loose (and ther-by more likely to get called when on a steal) but rather for exactly what I'm doing - whelding a big stack!

I try to get to the final table with the chip lead and the healthier it is - the better!

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:ah :as :ad :8c :8d

Actually I wasn't playing too loose agressive actually pretty tight aggressive. The hand that got me there was KK I re raised MP raise and BB called who had me covered and MP called.. Flop was J44 they both had AJ and all three of us all in off flop King hit on turn sealing there fate and boosting me to over 70K.

I got caught up three times callling around 8K (blinds only at 250 -500)with AK and lost all three... Calling their all in PF..MISTAKE I think, pissed away 24K......should I be folding to any PF all in....calling only if
I have QQ, KK, or AA or any PP??
Perhaps only enter the pots that I am raising? Am I insane for thinking I should muck AK in that scenerio.

I thought I was picking good holes with the big stack but I fear calling the all in s with AK may have been a mistake as I was a caller and not raiser. Would you agree? Or it was the right play just unlucky outcomes..

I do agree with your suggestion though and I think I may have been a little too tight PF not playing cheap drawing hands and looking for steal spots with min bets.....I do that in the small SNG's and not sure why I didn't here... maybe that big of a chip lead force a stupid pill down my throat.
And maybe over valued the hands I did play... The one that hurt the most was a KQ suited I called a 4X pre flop raise (5K) had postion, spike a King off flop he moved all in (10K)...I called he had AQ and runners came Jack ten. I said &%$# thats what you get for calling that raise. So four hands =38K donation thats almost more than anyone had once we made final table.......

I don't know, where those the right calls and just a case of bad luck?
Or was I letting my chip stack go to my head....

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"The only thing you regret in life, is the risk you didn't take"

I play loose and aggressive early to try and build the stacks then tighten up around the bubble. I've been fortunate to have the chip lead with about 20-30 left in those 180-man SNGs on Stars. I play uber-tight until the final table then go from there.

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BOSS

I think I will be doing this moving forward. Well that's if I have 15% or more of the total chips in play...As it was last night I had over 25% of the total chips in play with 80 some people still left....Avoid big pots and limp with good drawing hands.....min bet to steal.....and back down to big raises...
I am assuming the uber tight would mean folding those AK's to the all in's...
Why risk 8K a pop on a coin flip......

Back to the six man SNG's now though, no time for big tourneys on week nights.
6 for 7 right now in my journey to 20 total tourneys $30 dollar buy in.
3 1st's and 3 2nd's.....117 and 63 a pop....total investment will be 600 and
I have already cashed out 540. Hopefully, by 10th one all winnings
will be in the green....

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"The only thing you regret in life, is the risk you didn't take"

I don't think I'd fold the AKs. I mean simply not doing coinflops with KJo and hands you'd normally play a lot because of having a lot of chips.

The way I see it, I did all the hard work at the beginning to build my chipstack, so I'm going to live it up while everyone else does it late

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BOSS

Gotta play those chips, if anything play the hands you would any other time, play the table and feel them out to see who and where you can push and where you need to fold the better cards and let them go cut throat on each other.
Coasting didn't hurt you, didnt help you though. Playing those hands could have got you anouther 10k or so which might have been feel out chips at the final table, the only way playing would have hurt you is if you were overly aggresive in those plays and went on tilt, you had plenty of chips to be secure at the final table, play your hands as you would play them any other time at that stance (IMO)