Late play as the chip leader

[tvdad]

I've got a rather nasty hole in my game that I'd like to work on. It's the specific situation where we're down to the final four in a single table tournament that pays top three and I'm the chip leader. It's my blind play that suffers.

At this stage of the game, the tables are turned and the small stacks basically become the bullies. If they get any sort of playable hand, they will push all-in on my blinds and force me into a decision. It's especially tough in the BB. When the blinds are T500/1000 and a small stack pushes in for around T1600, how good a hand must I have to call that extra T600? I don't want to be pushed around by a small stack, but I can't exactly put in another T600 when I've got crap like 83 or 72, can I? But I can't wait all day for big cards either.

I actually play better when I'm one of the small stacks in this situation because I know the BB chip leader will be more apt to fold when I push all-in. But there has to be a way to combat this when I'm in that spot. Far too often I find myself playing too cautiously and my stack dwindles. More often than I'd like, I end up finishing fourth. This needs to stop.

T