[Louie Landale]

Since the chips you can win are not worth as much as the chips you risk to win them, then you should theoretically play a lot more conservatively in a tournament, right from the start but especially near the end when your stack is in jeapardy. On the other hand, when the opponents are playing squeaky tight with short stacks, you are supposed to steal them blind. Thus, short stacks should play conservatively and big stacks should play aggressively, and overall that's good for the big stacks. Just don't play big pots against the other big stacks.

So I think you are correct.

Going out on a limb early yeilds two likely results: you get into the mid tourney with lots of chips and can attack the short stacks yaddy yaddy; or you get busted out and don't have to waste hours sitting in the tourney. Both of those are bigger EV than getting into the mid tourney with a short stack, since you could have invested that time in a the good side games.

- Louie