Playing the big stack... somewhat lengthy

[unfrgvn]

I was fortunate enough to knock two people out after 5 hands in a 10+1 PP SNG, so I have a big chip lead. I played pretty tight aggressive but feel that maybe I didn't put as much pressure on the small stacks as other big stacks have put on me in the past. I going to post some chip counts and hands I folded and see if you guys think I should have been more aggressive:
Hand 13:
Total number of players : 8
Seat 1: PIDIUSMC (610)
Seat 2: unfrgvn (2410)
Seat 3: statcoder (610)
Seat 4: fatchick (1205)
Seat 5: SEEINGIDOG (795)
Seat 7: dj1222 (895)
Seat 8: karina97 (690)
Seat 10: zakszaks (785)
zakszaks posts small blind (15)
PIDIUSMC posts big blind (30)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to unfrgvn [ Ad, 7h ]
unfrgvn folds.

Hand 24:
Total number of players : 8
Seat 1: PIDIUSMC (755)
Seat 2: unfrgvn (2460)
Seat 3: statcoder (535)
Seat 4: fatchick (1215)
Seat 5: SEEINGIDOG (795)
Seat 7: dj1222 (845)
Seat 8: karina97 (465)
Seat 10: zakszaks (930)
fatchick posts small blind (25)
SEEINGIDOG posts big blind (50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to unfrgvn [ Ad, 3c ]
dj1222 calls (50)
karina97 folds.
zakszaks folds.
PIDIUSMC folds.
unfrgvn folds.

hand 33:
100/200 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 4127953) - Thu Jun 10 13:31:04 EDT 2004
Table Table 11475 (Real Money) -- Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 2: unfrgvn (2535)
Seat 3: statcoder (385)
Seat 4: fatchick (970)
Seat 5: SEEINGIDOG (620)
Seat 8: karina97 (930)
Seat 10: zakszaks (2560)
SEEINGIDOG posts small blind (50)
karina97 posts big blind (100)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to unfrgvn [ 6c, 2c ]
zakszaks folds.
unfrgvn folds.
statcoder folds.

Now I wouldn't want to try to make a living open raising this, but they folded when I open raised AQs, might as well try it with rags?

Last one, limped instead of raised.
200/400 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 4127953) - Thu Jun 10 13:37:56 EDT 2004
Table Table 11475 (Real Money) -- Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 2: unfrgvn (2785)
Seat 4: fatchick (1255)
Seat 5: SEEINGIDOG (1240)
Seat 8: karina97 (610)
Seat 10: zakszaks (2110)
fatchick posts small blind (100)
SEEINGIDOG posts big blind (200)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to unfrgvn [ Ks, Jh ]
karina97 folds.
zakszaks folds.
unfrgvn calls (200)
fatchick folds.
SEEINGIDOG checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 9s, As, 9h ]
SEEINGIDOG bets (200)
unfrgvn folds.

I had a good result but this thing went to 500/1000 blinds heads up, 400/800 with 4, and became a real crap shoot. I'm just wondering if I was too passive and could have perhaps forced the issue faster. OTH, I have seen a lot of people get a big chip lead like that and go out 6th by doubling everybody up.

Random comments:
Once it's down to 3 or 4 I think I pretty much know which hands to open raise with, my main question is with 8-5 players. Here's some hands I did open raise and win blinds:

AQs, open to 150 w/blinds 15/30. All fold. Too big?
9 10s, open to 150 w/ 25/50. All fold. I was in MP.

Wow,I guess that's it in the middle part of the tourny. I thought there were a few more. They all folded to me in the BB 2 or 3 times. Later of course I was open raising a lot more.

Hope this is not too long, any thoughts appreciated.

[slogger]

Hand 13: [A7o, UTG] Fold is probably correct. If you felt that the remaining players were relatively tight, you could make it 90-110 to go and fold to a reraise, but at these blind levels, I'd prefer to wait for better position (stealing the blinds doesn't do much for ya here.

Hand 24: any read on UTG. I know many like the limp reraise UTG, but unless you this guy has a reason to think that you are trying to bully the table, I'd make it about 225 to go here, and play it cautiously from there if he calls (assume he's got a small/med. pair or suited connectors). As the blinds move up, you will benefit greatly if your opponents are afraid of limping into pots.

Hand 33: "Now I wouldn't want to try to make a living open raising this, but they folded when I open raised AQs, might as well try it with rags?" Aggressiveness when wielding a big stack stack is one thing. Spewing chips with absolute trash is another. One of the beauties of steal raising is that you sometimes flop well when called (very unlikely here). Good fold.

Last hand: Make it 600 to go. KJ is no monster, but you considered stealing with 62s before. No big stacks in the blinds, so these guys are going to need a hand to call you, and you'll be in position when they do.

Your results justofy your conservative approach to some extent, but I think you might have played a tad to passively. I think you could have taken down a few more blinds without much risk to your stack.

[jaybee_70]

I noticed that your stack was still growing despite you not being "bully", "table sheriff" or whatever. The only adjustment might be to open raise of fold. Limping is a mistake, because to be a bully you need to bet pretty much whatever flops, and your flop bet just is not as scary if you limped in. Staying tight is rarely wrong until late stages, on the other hand use the big stack to practice being a bully because it adds another dimension to your game. Rambling now. . .

Good Luck,
Joe

[unfrgvn]

Thanks for the responses. I knew I screwed the pooch on the KJ hand when I saw the flop. I had no way to put him on a hand and rather than try to out bluff him I let it go. In retrospect I didn't raise because I figured at that point his only move would be all in or fold and I didn't want to play KJ for T1240(BB) at this point. I think that's what prompted this post, I shouldn't be afraid of playing for all his chips(within reason), he should be afraid of playing me for all his.

I did keep my stack growing by catching some medium pockets and getting blinds that way, bet some flops that looked like they missed my opponets. I made one bad call that brought me under 1800 for a while but held on for the win.