grrrr......King of the mincash

Hey everybody, long time no post....sorry. I feel like the prodigal CC member.
Anyway, I am getting totally frustrated. I used to play almost exclusively on bodog and enjoyed my fair share of tournament wins and final tables, but I switched to Carbon when Bodog went anonymous. Since switching I have become the King of the Mincash.
For example, today in the Poker Maximus mini Main Event...$!! buyin, 4800+ players, 570 paid. The first two hours I was as high as 5th place and no lower than 40th and then, no matter what, I could not grow my stack past $40K. I cashed in 400th place for $23.50 in an A ten suited all in from mid position to lose to AJ in the BB. I suppose I could have waited a bit longer but I was down to $20K or so and the blinds were $800-$1600. But that is just todays story. I am continually cashing for 2-3x my entry fee and not making the final table.
I know my late game needs some work, but I am beginning to worry a little that maybe the competition is too good once I get deep. Anyway, any suggestions on how to improve my late game would be appreciated.

Thanks,
FITEMAN

Final tabling is going to be very, very rare for fields this deep. Try your hand in some 180 player SNGs (if Carbon has then) to get some final table experience.

If your pattern is to accumulate chips early and then gradually slide down the leader board, you might want to look at your middle game, not just your late game.

And also at how you typically get chips early. If it's by playing tight and waiting for big gifts, such gifts are more frequent early on when the field has a higher proportion of poor and weak players. As a result, the importance of winning smaller and mid-sized pots rises, including stealing blinds. .

Find players who play like you do, and put them to big decisions.

If you are use to playing at Bo, you might want to compare the blind structures for similar tourneys. Merge is very aggressive and once they start escalating mid-tourney, only the biggest stacks aren't forced into allin or fold situations.

For example, merge bb's can go 100,200,300,400,600,800,1200 (7 levels)
While bodog might be 100,150,200,250,300,400,500,600,800,1000 (10 levels)

Huge difference. Antes also are more aggressive.

Merge forces you to take more risks just to keep up.

Thank$ for the advice...

Thanks for the advice, especially the suggestion to check KC's strat guide. I came in 2nd in a Carbon $3.30 $1K guarantee for $232.20 with 540 entries yesterday. sometimes I tend to overlook things that I already know. KC's middle game advice was spot on. I would get a nice lead early and then I wasn't concentrating on stealing blinds enough. All the other posts helped also. CC is awesome. Thanks again everyone.

FITEMAN