Tight-Agressive Player finishes on bubble

[HitmanHoldem]

I posted this on the low limit forum as well but it might be more suited to post here.

Where I live we usually get together a game or so a week of anyhwere from $25-$50 buy in, more towards the $25 side though. It's a low stake game, and we usually have about 8-10 people.

I'm pretty confident that of the people I am the best player there, but as I write this post I guess I have to question that because of what I am about to ask. I, unlike most people there, value my starting hands. I'm a tight, but agressive player. When I'm in the pot, the majority of the time I can just steal the blinds because of the respect the players give me.

The problem I find myself in everytime is I'll hover a little above my starting chip count, usually up 50% or so while everyone else is playing wrecklessyly and doubling each other up on garbage. So we'll be down to the final 4, top 3 pay out and I'll be the low stack of the 4 people there. I find myself in this situation far too often where people have nice chip leads over me and use them to bully me around.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do so I can possibly get the chip lead early with the way I play? It just seems that with the way I play, I dont' lose money, I just win small pots which do add up, but not enough to contend later on. Each tournament there are a differnet 3-4 people who get lucky and double and triple up quick and have dominating stacks which are hard to penetrate into, espicially when the blinds go up.

My fundamentals of poker are solid. I know when it is mathematically right to make a call and I can read bluffs and bets on draws fairly well. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what I can do to fix my game so I don't find myself in these precarious situations.