I've been playing more MTT's lately than I have in the past (other than my Mob days). Primairly small buy-ins $10 or under.

What I'm wondering is if there is an "optimal" strategy between small and long ball. I've come to realize I'm primaraly a long ball player, unless i'm just on a hot run of cards which is rare. If I'm lucky I probably voulinatirilly play like 15 hands in a tournament. The only real time I actually play poker is if I make the FT or mange to have a massive CL at some point.

Is one strategy "better" over the other, or would going from say small ball early in the tournament and switching later on a better oprion? I seem to find my biggest problem playing small ball is somehow the pots manage to get big. Usually because I'm potting it if I think I have the best hand, and often will get called sometimes against several players. Which can cost me a large chink of chips early on. Usually I play only my strongest hands (by "play" I mean shoving either PF or if I connect solidly post) up untill the antes come into play and from there I'll start to open up depending on table conditions. I'm generally not C-betting flops I miss with something like AK all that often prior to the antes coming into play. Even then depending on the stacks involved I won't.

For those who play a fair amount of MTT's do you have a prefered style between long and small ball?

Maybe my idea of long ball is different then. I assumed that part of long ball was playing a looser, but still aggressive game.