playing while ahead is far more dangerous than playing from behind. when you play from behind, you know that you are waiting solely for a strong pre flop hand to try and double up on. playing from ahead though, you have a cushion to play with, and most players use that cushion far too liberally.
one leak that i noticed in my game was that i was playing the right cards, but i wasn't playing my table position to my advantage and i was allowing opponents to control my betting.
if you are fortunate enough to climb your way to the top in the early blinds (which would most likely necessitate a double up), you are actually in a great position, as long as you are controlling betting. playing with a lead, you will be able to play a lot more speculative
hands. but you should only play them from late position, leaving premium hands for early to mid position. you should not call and previous raises with speculative hands. if there were no previous callers, you can make a raise to try and steal the blinds. if there were previous callers, you would want to limp and hope that you can sneak up on a hand. but don't call any raises with these hands. that was my biggest leak, i was calling raises with speculative hands from out of position, which put me in a lot of difficult decision post flop. do i
bluff for half my stack? do i fold the large ammount i've already invested? a couple hands like this, and you stack is diminished. so my best advice is to play your position, and control the betting (and in turn the pot size), that way you limits losses if you miss and maximize wins when you hit pay dirt.
