Confessions of a mediocre tournament player

[MikeSmith]

I have gone through this exact same mentality for years in the tournaments. After the first break of a tourney when im 5x the average stack and after the third break everyone caught up. Now i feel the need i have to go outside of my usual game and make stupid moves with marginal hands just so i can have that "above average feeling".

First off, i now ignore how everyone else in chips is doing(i ll pay attention to their stacks at the FT but thats it), i cant control their stacks, i can only control my own and i will not change my game just because they doubled up to close to my stack. I mainly look at how my stack is relative to the blinds and i will change my game when i feel that the blinds are requiring me to do so. I have put myself in the same marginal situation that you have described time and again. We make plays that are outside of our abilities or are simply unnecessary or just dumb plays.

In the situation you were in i would have folded and say to myself "I ll pick a better spot". As in a situation where i start out as the aggressor and/or have a premium hand or good draw.