It sounds like you're not adapting to the situation. When you're at around 100BB playing against players with 10-20BB you should be more selective with your range as your opponents are looking for spots to get their stacks in.
In many ways this is true. Having a big stack - 100+BB late in the game is amazing - if we are in the top 10 out of the remaining field after a bubble burst that's a beautiful thing. A big stack comes with a lot of advantages smaller stacks do not have, this gives us an edge - that also means if we lose our high stack we can lose our edge so we should be protecting it while we are using it to our advantage.
Connecting with the quoted reply - yes we typically want to put the max amount of pressure on the smaller stacks - but we dont want to do this in an unreasonable way. There is no need for us to get overly pushy and shove something like K6o into the SB and BB just because they are 20bb stacks...the only thing that will call us in this spot is usually a hand beating us anyhow. So losing 20BB wont kill us but it will not help our run either. We dont want to just spew chips and give them away. If you want to apply pressure with a weak hand like K6o or something similar then raise it up. If you get 3bet you can fold and if you get called you can navigate the flop and later streets accordingly.
Mix it up with the smaller stacks you easily have covered - dont spew chips raising everything in every rotation - dont overcommit with weak hands and just stay focused on making the final table. Folding wont kill you, it's a good thing to know how to do
Now the opposite side to stacks you want to be going to war with...the other big stacks are always something to be approached with caution. Whether they are good players or horrible players if they rival ournstack size then we need to understand that even if they dont have us covered - they can do some serious damage to our game. I've made this mistake countless times and still catch myself doing it once in a while today. Anyhow - there is no reason to avoid the other big stacks altogether, if you have a strong hand you want to get value from whomever at the table is willing to donate - but there is no need to try anything risky vs someone who has about the same stack size as you.
For example - how many times have you seen two big stacks go at it (you involved or not) - and the flop comes out Ace hi - they go to war, get it all in, and one has AK and the other has some sort of 2 pair hand or flopped a set? I've been this guy, I've also been the other guy who out flopped the AK - and I love being that guy. When my opponent overplays and over values their hand like this and they are willing to stack off I will always be there to take it. Think about it...yes you flopped top pair top kicker...but if you are getting raised on a dry unconnected flop by a player you seem to think is fairly decent...does he really have AK too? - even with an ace on the flop reducing the chances significantly? - would he raise or go all in with worse than AK?
Think about it. If we have AK, we start the hand with 100 BBs and a 72 BB stack opens to 2.5BB - we 3bet our AK to 8.5BB and they call - the flop comes A hi - they check, we bet 10BBs and they go all in. Well this is a bad spot for us...if we think they are doing this with less than AK we call them off all the time. If we perceive them to be a good player, one very aware of what our 3 betting range could be - then what's the harm in folding? Sure we flopped very well and pretty strong, but why does that mean we cant fold? If we let this go we are still over 80 BBs deep and can easily survive as the field narrows and we can keep laddering up the pay jumps. We don't need to be folding strong hands like this all the time - in fact it's very player dependent - but I'm just saying there is no harm in making a solid disciplined laydown when your stack is at risk. It could possibly save your tournament
I know this was long, hope it helps. Good luck!
