Strategy when large stacked

I threw away a lead online when i was large stacked (not overwhlemingly) but i was in a good position... i decided to play conservative, folding JQ JK and even aces .. this resulted in me losing a lot of hands as i werent playing them and i went on tilt and lost it all... so how should i play when ahead?

Well first of all, you most likely should have played those aces. QJ and KJ aren't the greatest hands out there. You can get into a lot of trouble if you are playing those hands when there is a lot of action in front of you. When you are ahead though, it is ok to take a few more risks then if you were just average stacked. You want to try and bully the medium stakes more, try stealing a couple blinds. When you are large stacked (depending on how much and how far you are into the tournament) you want to stay away from the larger stacks unless you have a hand and try and catch the short stakes when they push AI. Everything really depends on the table you are at, what the other chip stakes are, position, how far you are into the tournament, etc.

I wouldn't consider QJ and KJ as good starting hands just because you are a big stack. If you're gonna play them just as you would play if you weren't big stacked, then you're just throwing chips away in all likelihood.

To me, the benefit of being large stacked is that you can pick off short stacks by calling them with a greater range of hands. They are likely to be pushing with a wider range, so you even stand a good chance still of being ahead when the cards are flipped. And if you lose, you aren't crippled. I am talking about a situation where you have 20K and are looking at picking off opponents in the 3K range.

I think the above situation holds any time you have a small stack. Other things, like bullying other healthy stacks who don't want to confront you without premium hands, are more table dependent. Those guys might be reckless anyway and look you up with A9 when you've got KQ. In these cases, you may not be pushing it all in preflop, but if you raise and get called, miss the flop but still wanna be a bully then you can get in trouble quick.

Recklessness for the sake of it with a big stack is a recipe for disaster.

from my experience as a tournament big stack, you have to identify how long your stack is going to big considered big. for example, if you have 10x starting chips in a tourney with over 1000 players in it, you'll have a mid size stack by the time you reach the money, but by no means does that guarantee you a big cash, or final table. but, if you have 10x starting stack in a tournament with around 200 players to start, then you are in good shape to make a big score. your intentions should be to win it, not pick up a big stack and wait for things to flatten out, and at the same time you don't want to play over aggressively, but it doesn't hurt to try to pick up a few pots here and there. you just have to remember that it is okay to shut down after you've been called on the flop "To me, the benefit of being large stacked is that you can pick off short stacks by calling them with a greater range of hands. They are likely to be pushing with a wider range, so you even stand a good chance still of being ahead when the cards are flipped. And if you lose, you aren't crippled. I am talking about a situation where you have 20K and are looking at picking off opponents in the 3K range." This isn't the kind of thing I'd want to be doing. I don't want to get into the long explanation here, but calling off a big stack is definitely one of the last things you want to be doing 3K out of 20K is bigger than it seems. Especially when the 3K player could be really tight and you are calling KJ against AK. Hope my post helps, I've been in these situations with some very experienced players and I've found this to work.

They're right, when they say stay away from the big stacks, when you have a big stack. This just happened to me tonight.
I called a 4xbb PFR from table chip leader with pocket eight's. Flop came K,10,8 rainbow. I bet out with my set, and villian pushed. I couldn't hit the call button fast enough. He turns over KK to knock me out !@#$% . I think I put him on AK....ok truth is, I hit the call button before I had time to think about what he had.

Playing w/ a big stack (we'll say 60BB+?) in tournies is a lot harder than most ppl think. There really are a lot of marginal situations you can find yourself in because you can open up your range w/ a lot of hands.

Early stages of tourney - most other stacks are going to be fairly deep as well so I usually stick to a pretty standard TAG game and try to avoid other big stacks unless they're spewing.

Mid/late stages - when antes start to come in and the average stack size starts droppin, thats when you should start opening a little more, especially from late position. It's key to note what size stacks are on your left and what they are capable of. (15-20BB stacks lookin to resteal in blinds).

On the bubble is where you should open up even more, especially against those opponents that are just trying to make the money and who will fold 95% of their hands in the blinds just to make it ITM.

Another basic strategy I try to use early on in tourneys is playing 'small ball poker' and seeing a lot of implied odds type hands in position (small pps, suited connectors, etc) hoping that a big stack will overvalue TP or an OP when you hit.

large stack i like to turn it up and play 60% of hands im dealt (but you have to fold when ur beat) either limp in most pots or come in with a min raise (min raising isnt good at a table that reraises a lot) but most flops theyll miss and fold on the flop,

if theres somoene at the table that can cover more than half of my stack, i play really tight (22-24% of hands) and wait for hands to knock people out with (Sets, straights, flushes) occasional blind steal here and there

I get aggressive when the blind's near me, and try to steal in position. More of a controlled aggression, but it all depends on what kind of stakes (freeroll, low limit etc.). I've begun to try to steal much more than I used to, after seeing on a website that people steal from me a lot (I didn't know that I was that bad at getting stolen). With large stacks comes more opportunities to check-raise.

Anyways, I only play low limits and freerolls, so take that as it may (I am fishy).