MTT...close to the money...what to do??

I seem to lose it being so close to the money. i played in a 5.50 $ rebuy yesterday...10k prize pool..I was in number three position..still 120 players left.top prize 1.5k plus..cant remember. I'm sitting really well in chip count at 134k...yet I can't help myself from calling 20k raises if i have things like AJ offsuit or A10 suited...they beat me down 40k with their stupid pocket nines or something...happened twice yesterday when I was in the top four positions for two different 10k tourneys...Any advice about what to do when you are in the top five and close to the money..????
frustrated now...about to eat my laptop!!!

I don't play mtt's much anymore but stop worrying about being close to the money, your goal should be to win it and to do that you need to take chances, flat calling 20k raises with AJ and AT is just spew imo, your calling off 1/5 of your stack with hands that could very well be behind or flipping all along.

Post some of those hands up in the hand analysis sections of here to see where your going wrong, apart from that, if your going to play a lot of mtt's don't eat your laptop when you bust out, learn to deal with variance b/c it plays a bigger part in mtt's than say cash games.

When you're close to the money, control yourself.. watch the table and aim for the dead money. Attack mid-stacks who are tight. Attack low-stacks if you're got a hand you're willing to show-down against.

AJ -A10 are decent hands to show-down against but look at the blinds and players who raised initially.. if they're loose and if they did raise with 99/J10/KQ.. well done, good read.. good call. Missed your cards? Tough.. that's tourney variance.

However, there's another school of thought that says that you should tighten up and play PREMIUM hands coz essentially top 3.. you can wait! If and when you have a showdown and you show them you have such a premium hand.. it will do wonders for your table image.

You need to give more info about that tourney.. what were the blinds? what was the average stack? being 3rd.. doesn't mean much if blinds are really high and you are only say.. 20k more than the average stack. Remember, in an MTT.. you always have implied odds. Each hand you play means you could lose your stack thus diminishing you chance of reaching the final table and scoring big.

Having a big stack on the bubble is very advantageous. You don't want to be wielding the bigstack club for making hero calls. Instead, use it to attack blinds &/or making resteals. Be the one putting them to the decision.... not the other way around.

+1

Some people make the mistake of equating being aggressive near the bubble with being willing to play big pots. When you have a large stack at that point in a tournament, your primary form of aggression should be betting more often that you normally do when you have the chance to be first into a pot. So it's a form of stealing more.

The flip side is that since you're playing more hands than you usually would, your range will be wider. So you also have to be prepared to fold when someone comes over the top and you have a hand in the weaker part of your expanded range.