Adjusting for the Looser games

As a beginner, I mostly play $5+.50 SNG tourneys. My VP$IP is usually in the range of 15-23, and most of the players I face at this level are usually around 30-50, and they usually have bigger stacks well into the game. My pre-flop and post-flop aggression are high. More often than not, I usually find myself shortstacked around the bubble, and have to rely on getting lucky with a push to finish ITM.

My question is then, should I loosen up my starting hand requirements (going from TAG to LAG) like the people who are winning these tourneys? If not, how do I adjust my play as to not find myself in "all-in" mode close to the bubble?

[AKQJ10]

How big is your sample size? I'm only trying to learn S&Gs too, but my understanding is that what you're doing is correct and should suffice to beat the kind of tournaments you describe in the long run.

However, I'm kind of fuzzy on this point. I think the idea is, if you sit on really good hands (say 99, AK, AQs or better) in the early rounds where everyone else is playing many of their hands, sometimes it will be as you describe and you won't get a playable hand until you're forced to push and pray. However, in a significant plurality of the cases you will double up and be in good position on the bubble.

I'd appreciate confirmation that this works in practice as well as in theory, though.

[SheridanCat]

I don't claim to be an expert on SNGs. I do have about a 45% in-the-money finish though over about the last 6 months. Before that I only dabbled in SNGs. I have about 100 SNGs logged, a small sample size to be sure.

While Ms are large, for the first two rounds of blinds or so, I tend toward loose and passive. I want to see flops with small starting pots. The intention is to flop hidden monsters and trap overly aggressive players.

When the Ms start to get small, I start playing my good hands more aggressively. I usually want to try to take pots down without a flop or on the flop. The reason is that by this time the big stacks are starting to tighten up as the bubble approaches. The small stacks are often going to be playing too tight because they don't realize their in trouble M-wise. If there are aggressive short stacks in, I'll try to pick them off I my stack is large. If my stack is small, M-wise, I'll usually be one of those aggressive short stacks looking to get it in against the tight playing big stacks.

Anyway, that's the way I play them. It may be wrong even, but it seems to be working for me.

Regards,

T

Edit: I forgot to mention, these are $10, $20 & $30 SNGs.