I have a big problem playing 4 handed...please help

[ojsdaman]

I play 10-30 sng's on party..all limit..i finish in the money 50 % of the time which is excellent and i make a good amount of money daily playing them.. But i have a problem..when it gets down to 4-5 players i am usually sitting 1st or 2nd...but i always end up 3rd or 4th...i rarely get 2nd and almost never win the tourneys. I play pretty tight at 18 % early on and loosen up the appropriate amount later on. What is wrong with the way i play. The only thing i can think of is that i rarely raise post flop until the turn or the river...should i be raising more just after the flop

[bigredlemon]

whats your bubble play like? If you're the big stack, you can push around the small stacks to even further your lead, but you don't want to be blindly aggressive and double someone up.

[Sidekick]

From the amount of information given, there is really no way to accurately say what is causing this problem for you.

I will hazard a guess that your problem is aggression once it gets down to 4 or less.

I see this problem fairly often myself. I see a tight player that is doing well until it gets down to 5 or fewer players. The player becomes slightly looser, but their aggression remains the same or even drops in some cases. As a general rule, you have to loosen up a bit AND get more aggressive at the same time. Especially if you are the big stack. Most of the other players don't like going up against the big stack when it is down to 4.

This is just very general and may not pertain to you, but I have seen this tendency in some players. I generally love to see this type of player, because I know I can take their chips in most cases through sheer aggression.

To get more detailed and accurate responses you need to provide more detailed information and post hands that have given you trouble. Posting hands has helped my game tremendously.

Hope this is of some use to you.

[Big Limpin']

Yeah, probably just try to become more of a bully.

Perhaps try getting what you feel to be OVERLY loose/agressive on the bubble for your next ten or fifteen tournaments. You may notice that situations keep coming up, where people with certain stack levels rarely call steals, or contest the pot when you "automatically" bet most flops.

Fire more 2nd barrels on the turn, in a limit tourney this is often where you can bet out a draw b/c bets double.

You want the other 3 players to each be concerened about what YOU will do next, not each other. Own your table.

Good Luck!