play aggresive or wait for ten more to out to be in the money?

[ddwarbuck]

i recently found myself in a situation that i might have thought about to much and got myself in trouble. i was in a multi-table tournament, 100 dollar entry with about 500 players. i had 20% more than the average player. 13 more players neeeded to be eliminated before i would be in the money. i played one strong hand and lost, leaving myself about 5% over the average. at that point i made a decision to just sit and wait till i was in the money before i took any more chances. in fact, i walked away and told my wife to call me only if i got a pair of aces. i indeed made it into the money, but it took four rounds of eating my blinds to do it. i was left with being about 40% below the average by the time enough had folded. i made a few bucks in this tourney but never close to the final table. what should my thought process be in this situation? be happy just to make it into the money then become more aggressive? be aggresive all the way thru even if it means getting so close but no cigar after hours and hours of playing?

[SossMan]

It depends....

Is making the money your goal?

or

Is making the most money your goal?

If it's the latter, then you did a terrible job of accomplishing your goal.
In fact, you should be doing the opposite. You should be taking advantage of players like you who are afraid of busting on the bubble and stealing pots left and right. This works especially good if you have had a tight image so far in the tourney.
Warning!!
This does mean that you will bust out on the bubble more than average. But you will also be left in better position for the "real" prize money when you do well.

In short....stop being such a puss. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Tosh]

"Sometimes in order to live, you have to be willing to die."

I love that quote and thats basically how I try to play in these situations. If it means I bubble the odd time fine, but playing to win, as opposed not to lose, is how you should play to get the best long term results.