[MrMoo]

Good answer.

I have a slight disagreement though which may be entirely stylistic. Lately I've been playing much tighter during the earlier stages of the tournament. This is for several reasons. One, I usually don't have a strong read on my opponents yet. Two, any chips I gain now will mostly become meaningless later on in a tourney. Consequently by raising greater than 3x the BB I'm usually building a larger pot. At this stage in the tourney, losing half my stick hurts me comparatively more than increasing my stack by 50%. At least in my opinion.