How to play

[McSock]

I am still new to online poker. I have been playing for about 5months now. I play mostly S&G on Party and Pacific. After reading a lot of the posts in the forums, it looks like I am one of the few that post here that is not making a ton of money doing this.
I seem to hold my own then, I get stupid and start playing weaker hands and get burnt over and over, with time I will learn, I hope.
That is not my question for the poker experts here, but a problem I am running into in the games I play. I do ok in about 75% of the games up to the bubble. I seem to finish 4th way too often. The games just come to a stop. No one bets on much of anything if they are not holding nuts. Everytime I try and get aggressive with less than a top hand somoeone else at the table has a good hand.
I just finished a game that once we were down to 4, 1 out of 5 hands was check/check/check...who ever had the best cards on deal takes the pot. I am either getting blinded out at this point or someone has better cards than I do if I push all in. I know the problem has to do with my playing style, but just not sure what.
Thanks

[rjb03]

What you are describing is a common occurrence at sng's - survival mode on the bubble. If they are playing unreasonably tight, then you need to adapt and steal blinds more often and not check down the cards you were dealt to see if you are good.

[hurlyburly]

If you haven't, read Sklansky's "Texas Holdem for Advanced Players" section on shorthanded play. It will take a few months (or a few thousand hands) for it to sink in, but once you get it, it will fix your short game. There are a few key concepts that make a huge difference (treating second pair as top pair, value of big cards, adjusting the gap, playing position).

If you are having trouble getting from 4th to first but can get to 4th easily, that section alone is worth the price of the book.