What strategy do you guys use when you habve a big stack late in a tournament?
I wa splaying an 11+rebuys and w/ 40 people left i was in second chip position.
Then i started to try and bully people around, lost some chips, and ended up busting in 13th...dammit
do you just play tight with the chip lead or play very aggressively?
I am not good at playing a large stack so should i just play it tight?
Any advice would be appreciated because im kind of steaming after playing so long and not making the final table.
thx

Depends on a lot of factors...a lot on
1) The payout structure (mainly, how far away from the money you are),
2) How big your chip edge is,
3) What the big blinds are

At small stakes tourneys, one of the best times to bully is actually right before the money. Players are usually super tight, wanting to get into the money, wanting to pick up extra chips. But if you're not that far ahead, play tightly.

Play aggressively - you have a big edge in that when you get involved with a smaller stack, you can lose and continue on but they are out of the tournament if they lose.

Post-flop depending on the flop texture is where you have best chance to make a move. If the flop misses both of you and you are aggressive, it makes it very difficult for a shorter stack to fire back at you.

However, when players do play back against you, you need to respect their bets and fold if you don't really have that good of a hand. Why would they bluff their tournament life against the big stack? Most players won't.

Now playing aggressively doesn't mean you charge into pots with lousy starting hands - position counts alot too (MP thru SB are all candidates in my mind).