Deep tournament runs and mid sized stack play

Hi there, recently I've been finding myself running deep in some low stake ($1-$5) tournaments online, I am fairly competent during the early stages of a tournament when the average stack is 50-150BB, and im reasonably competant when im short stacked bellow about 15BB, my issue is when im playing in the later stage of a tournament when the average stack is bellow 40/50BB. Aside from the odd bad hand I can usually find myself going into this stage of a tournament with a reasonably sized stack above or around the average. Then it seems to just go downhill from there, I have a stack thats too big to shove most hands preflop but I am also concerned about calling even small raises preflop with marginal hands due to wanting to preserve my stack, which I think leads to me playing too tight and being blinded out. Is there any advice anyone could give me for playing this stage of a tournament?
Thanks in advance and I apologise for the long winded question.

Its not easy at this point of the tournament and I get what you mean. You do need to open up a tiny bit more and take calculated risk. I get what you mean about calling a short stacks all in and if you lose how it hurts your stack size but this is what will help. Playing live I have seen players show me pocket jack and Queens or Ak and fold as they dont want to risk there big stack becoming a smaller one. That is a big mistake. If you happen to lose the hand so be it but when you win them you will become a monster stack. Just remember you will take calculated risk, not stupid ones. Calling a 12 BB shove with 99 many not be a bad idea, pocket 2's go into the muck.

I also struggle in this stage to some degree. Often at these stages, there will be plenty of 8-15 BB stacks that are open jamming a significant percentage of the hands...which overall makes play pretty tough. You definitely need to keep trying to play when you can, steal blinds in position, 3bet with marginal hands against guys that open too wide in late position, etc. I try to tell myself that I at least need to give myself a chance, and getting wittled down to 6 BB because I'm not playing isn't really giving myself a chance. Taking more risks means you'll cash less often, but you'll build a stack more often and give yourself a chance at the top-heavy paydays that you really want. Getting your money in down 60%-40% preflop with 20BB is a much better situation than letting yourself get wittled down to 5-6 BB and hoping for a hand...in my opinion.

You just have to be mindfull of what your doing. Watch what people are doing in front of you and if they are jamming it fold. If they are limping in then you can try to limp or steal yourself. Try to build your stack in this stage of the tournament so you can have a nice stack at the final table run

kkonicke said:

I also struggle in this stage to some degree. Often at these stages, there will be plenty of 8-15 BB stacks that are open jamming a significant percentage of the hands...which overall makes play pretty tough. You definitely need to keep trying to play when you can, steal blinds in position, 3bet with marginal hands against guys that open too wide in late position, etc. I try to tell myself that I at least need to give myself a chance, and getting wittled down to 6 BB because I'm not playing isn't really giving myself a chance. Taking more risks means you'll cash less often, but you'll build a stack more often and give yourself a chance at the top-heavy paydays that you really want. Getting your money in down 60%-40% preflop with 20BB is a much better situation than letting yourself get wittled down to 5-6 BB and hoping for a hand...in my opinion.

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This is a very good post... One thing I would add is that you also have to be mindful of the stacks acting behind you. If you are on the CO but have shortstacks in the blinds tighten up and only open the hands you are going to call their shoves with. It doesn't sound like this is your problem right now, but if you start being more agressive in the middle stages be careful not to be raise/folding a bunch as this will decimate your stack even faster than folding it down to nothing

Thanks everyone for your replies, appreciate you taking the time, I agree its a tricky point in a tournament, I think Im going to work on cutting down my Call/Folding of marginal hands as I think this is something thats costing me a lot of chips at this stage. Also think I need to increase my blind stealing in certain spots in order to take away that added pressure. I really like the response that said its worth taking calculated risks at this point and risking your tournament life to avoid getting blinded down to 5-6BB where you have less room for manoeuvring. Thanks again.