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This is not how you should be thinking. First, apply your SnG skills here. Haven't you ever played an SnG where one guy has t4000, you have t1200, but the blinds are only at 20/40? Same idea...

Second, were you one of those kids that constantly got bullied on the playground growing up? Stand up to a bully. Not all the time of course, but if you show that you are shrewed, skilled and tougher to beat, you will not at all be the target.

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Firstly. It is similar to an STT where one player has taken a large lead and we have all been the short stack and gone on to win. I'm not saying it's impossible but I am saying that it's a good place to be either.Also remember that in an MTT there will be more than one person who's stack is way in excess of yours by that point in time.

Secondly, playground comaprisons are not a good example but as you started it. If I think I can take the bully there and then (ie I have a good holding) I'll come out punching and see what happens (all-in). I'f I'm totally out gunned and I'll find out who he is and and introduce the back of his head to a lump of 2x4 when he least expects it. (that option has no poker equivalent).

I've obviouslsy not expressed myself properly in the initial posts. That happens when I'm typing from work. I agree with all the previous posters who have said that you can only play your holding and the people at your table. Do we agree for example that there is a point in an STT where you have to start opening up your game to gather chips so as to be in contention at the end? Always coming third in an STT might sound good but if you always get there with 1BB left then you are almost never going to win. I beleive this to be true and I was trying to understand if there is a similar point in an MTT. I'm almost certain that there is but I can't, as yet, understand where and when that might be. It seemed logical that as there are players on other tables I would need to factor in my position and chip count in relation to those other tables in order to find that point. I may well be my tables chip leader but if my stack is only ten percent of the average stack size I do not think I'm in good shape to win the whole thing. I was playing a 400 person $25 buy-in MTT last night and, in general, the people who got off to a good start and built stacks early were the same people who were in contention as the money places started to get within reach.