Why is it that I constantly win or bust?

[adanthar]

Ever since I started playing NL SNG's, I've gotten really weird results. It seems that I play very well short handed and very badly 5-7 handed. Either I'm too tight at the wrong spots, steal against calling stations, or take too many coin flips...I'm not sure and I can't really figure it out.

Some general descriptions of the way I play: I'm extremely tight early on (basically not entering a pot until level 2 or 3 without a pair or AQ+, maybe the very rare L1 Axs), loosen up a little but still play only premium hands with 6-7 left, and start stealing with A high/K high and lower depending on the player with 5 left. I then pick and choose my aggression once I'm on the real bubble. This works great once I hit the money, but I'm very inconsistent before that.

As an example, over the last two days I've played 13 $30 tournaments. My results: 3 1sts and 10 out of the money. (I also played two 3 table SNG's; I won one and went out 11th on the other, getting lucky to make it that far.) As usual, one of the 1sts was a 'good beat' and 3-4 of the losses were bad beats, so they even out. The rest? No clue.

I still have a 20% ROI at the $30 level after 130 SNG's even with this type of play, so I'm not complaining all that much, but it's preventing me from moving up.

I'll be posting hands here more often, but I'd appreciate some more general advice in the meantime. Am I taking the 'double up or bust' approach to an extreme?