Cash games- chips are absolute, Tournament play they are relative

Just 4 years into Texas Holdem -and poker in general?

I mostly play tournaments and I only recently affirmed (at least to me) a concern I've had.

And that is - chips are relative in tournament play in that as the tournament progresses, the blinds increase and if you are in the final group to cash, where you may have started with 1500 chips ? you PROBABLY have 45,000.

Now, final stages of a tournament? You are paying blinds that are more than your STARTING stack.

So, I have been realizing that I need to let go in tournaments to some 'absolute' value - if I don't - I won't be able to bet in proportion to my stack and everyone else's stack.

In a cash game- oh, a dollar is a dollar

But in a tournament, there is what I'll just call a 'slide' - I am confident 90% of the people reading this are saying 'yeah - no sht Sherlock' - but I think it's a valuable point to realize- the 'letting go' and realizing 1 chip at the beginning of a tournament is not the same as 1 chip near the end, where in a cash game- 1 chip is 1 chip - always.

Perhaps I could call it 'inflation' - like fiat currency - where a dollar is a dollar, but it's VALUE can change...

Chip values change over the course of a tournament.

Realizing that chip values change over the course of a tournament is a very important step in your poker advancement. If you're thinking in terms of 10/20 blinds when the blinds hit 1000/2000 or even 100/200 you are going to be in very deep trouble. And pointing this out is important because a lot of newer players don't realize this when they start out. I know I didn't and my wife didn't either when I taught her. It took a while for both of us to get used to the idea of it's necessary to bet bigger as the blinds go up.
But there is an important concept I would like to add. You need to think of your chips in terms of how many big blinds you have as well as how many big blinds a bet is. If you're capable of mastering that a 3 BB bet (60 chips) at 10/20 is the same as a 3 BB bet (6000 chips) at 1000/2000 you'll be well on your way to overcoming this problem.