Playing too passive at the final table?

Should you be aggressive at the final table if you are behind? A situation came up where 2 players shoved preflop, and I had a pocket set of 10s. I was probably 1/4 away from chip lead. I had previously been told to let them knock eachother out, but I just ended up not overcome by the blinds at the end cuz I was playing really passive. It actually happened twice where 2 players shoved and I had a pocket pair. 66's, and 10's. I can see maybe folding the sixes, but should I have shoved the 10s? It seemed like a good move to let them knock one or the other out. But, in hindsight neither paired the board. I was just afraid of one of them having pocket AA's, etc.

It depends on what your objective is. If you want to move up in the money then folding is the best play. If you want to win, you are going to need to take some shots and the pocket pairs are good hands to do that with, especially if you have them both covered. The ability to knock out 2 players and once makes this a really good spot to push if you are playing for 1st place.

Wolfe nailed it; it all depends on what you hope to do. If you want to climb the ladder and win a little more money, feel free to fold and let the others knock each other around.

If you're more interested in the glory of winning and taking the top prize, the pp hands you describe are a good spot to chip up and position yourself to be a powerhouse among the remaining players. Depending on the stack sizes, the ranges in these spots, while certainly including big pp's, are in fact much wider. A short stack is going to have an enormous range to stick it in and 10's are generally going to be ahead.

I too have been having that same problem, where i keep waiting for the shorter stacks to get knocked out, but at the same time my short stack gets even shorter, to the point where im forced to push allin with hopefully some live cards, so im working on my problem, but like the others mentioned above, you should play to win 1st place, but after i seen some instructional videos recently, i learned that it all depends on your bankroll, if you have a healthy bankroll, you should take more of the necessary risk in order to take home the biggest piece of the pie, 1st place, but if your bankroll is not so great, your most important goal should be getting ITM, taking less risk, and try to survive, in order to climb the money ladder.

You can't let your stack get below 5 times the big blind.
Simple rule to follow when your on the final table.
Pray for the Big Blind special.

It`s a common mistake to play too passively at the FT. However, pocket 10s is a borderline hand against two all-ins and you could legitimately fold that and let them take each other out. Your M (ie. stack size relative to the blinds and antes) is the key factor. Do you have the time available to wait for a better spot ?

I wrote some stuff here about FT play which you might find useful.

Yes. When there are fewer and fewer players at the table, you should be more and more agressive...with good cards of course. In heads-up Q2 are good cards.

I think you can legitimately fold in this situation. I don't want to put pocket 10's or 6's against two people all-in. I just don't like the odds in that situation. I do think you should play more aggressive though. It's easy to play conservative, especially at the final table when you're in the money. It's like in the stock market, people like to cut their winners off instead of letting them run. I don't think you were that short-stacked in the situation to warrant a call though.

Whenever I've made it past the bubble in a tourney I always shift gears and get really aggressive. If I'm short stacked I'm shoving any pocket pair higher than 66 OOP, if I've got chips to play with I always put pressure on with raises preflop in position.

Short stacked before the bubble I'm folding just about everything though

You`re welcome.

I think folding was your best bet, because i think you need at least AA,KK,QQ, it ends there to put the rest of your chips in. If your in the money get aggressive and shuve those 10/10.