when to tighten up

I was playin a points game on PKR today and was sittin in 1st place with 40 runners left payed to 15 I played pretty aggressive up to this point and should have tightened up my play from that point Cuz I continued to play aggressive with good hands of course... and became a Tilted donky after I got sucked out on... I prob would have made it to the payouts if I had of tighted up my game... This seems to be a problem with my game cant tighten up when Its needed to get paid

Was it a flat payout structure or progressive? You were in 1st at the time, but by how much? What was your stack and what was the average stack size? If you had a substantial lead and it was a flat payout, then just sit back and wait. If it was a progressive, then you might have the lead now, but chances are you still need to accumulate a lot of chips before you're HU, so continue to play your game.

"tightened up my play" .... idk.. 'it depends'.
There's a bunch of stuff to consider in later stage Tournament play... as a bigstack (depending on table & eff. stack sizes, image, etc.).. you might want to be taking stabs regularly & backing off if played back at... hoping to be played back at when you've obv. got good. BUT.. who knows? 'tightening up my play' is too broad of an explanation of how to play in spots.

For sure though... once you lose a big chunk of your stack, just 're-adjust' your play based on your stack size, the stacks of others on your table, the types of players on your table, etc. etc. etc. Look for spots.

I see lots of players who figure because they've got a good stack they're guaranteed a decent % of the prizepool & then go & spew & punt off their remaining stack after takin' a beat or losing a large pot. You just have to 'let it go'... move on... make best possible plays based on current circumstances/variables. It's not over til' it's over.
gl in the next one!

Why do players do this? When a player gets his AK beaten By AQ or some other hand where they were a huge preflop favorite. It seems a lot and I mean a lot just bust all in the next hand? Do they hope the table will feel compassion for them and their terrible loss or do they totally just lose control? Of course once in awhile they have a legit ALL IN hand but this is seldom and it seems they just give up for a second? I know I see this happen all the time.

idk... perhaps they feel they've been done some great injustice & have decided to give up. I like taking advantage of others 'thinking that I'm doing this'... but am actually over-shoving with a monster, hoping it looks like a tilted punt shove. (works well).

considering you dont think 77 is shove worthy with 10BB maybe their shoves are correct

I always expect my fair of suck outs and my fair share of bad beats. Happens in every tournament. If it bothers don't play any hands for a whole and regroup. Worse is to tilt out of a tournament. I have seen so many people go from massive lead to out in 5 hands because of it.
It easy to loosen your play but it harder to tighten up your play.