I've been playing a lot of 10 seat table tournements online, and done very well... but for some reason I dont seem to be doing all that well in big tournements... the problem is that I dont accumulate enough chips early.. how is the best way to do this?? should I push marginal hands? should I only play hands that are not premium from button or late possision?

PS: sorry for my poor grammer..

Its doubtful that you are doing anything seriously wrong if you are worried you are too tight early in the tournament. Early rounds of an MTT aren't much different than cash games...Tight Aggresive is the optimal mode of play.

In the later rounds looking for opporunities to steal blinds become much more critical unless you had great early results and were able to build a large stack. You can't be afraid to take risks that cost all your chips when you are short stacked (an M of 10 or less, if you dont know what M is then order Harrington Vol 2)...you are almost guaranteed to blind out waiting for a premium hand if you are afraid to mix it up.

Position is, of course, important, though it loses importance the shorter stacked you are.

In a one table tournament you are 10% to win without any clear skill edge over the other players. In an MTT of 100 players you are 1% to win...dont expect the same kind of success! Even though more spots pay off, there are still more situations to face that put your stack at risk before you get to the money. Be patient. If the tourneys you are in payoff 10-15% of the number of entrants, getting in the money 20-25% of the time is a very good result and a lot of out of the money finishes in a row isnt unusual, especially if you are timid near the bubble.

Another thing to consiter is that these days ppl are uber agressive early on trying to build up big stacks, so if ealry on you arent keeping up, dont let it get to you too much, pick your spots and try to get the most value for your money, and hope to aviod tough beats because as I said ppl are making "Arron Kanter-esquse" calls (If you remeber he was the one who called all his chips on a flush draw with one to come) in their efforts to get a strong stack.
And as cop said before it is pertenent to be aware of your talbe mates and position and be willing to use these to pick up blinds and antes through out the trny.
Andrew "Sammy Jr" G