Yesterday I was in an MTT with about an average stack. There was only one guy at the table with a huge stack. Shorty with about 1/2 of my chips goes all in, I have TT in late middle position, and feel strongly that I have him beat, I pushed to isolate. The big stack with about 3x my chips overcalls w/ QQ. shorty had 55. the QQ held up and the big guy got a twofer. I was just wondering what others thought of his play. (feel free to comment on mine also, I had about 8x the BB which was average, but I don't like to sit too long in that situation, I was going to make a move soon regardless.) I had been playing tighter than I usually do because of the table I was at, so I don't think the big stack would assume I was making this move with a weak hand. Hope you guys can follow this, I have to get that hand history thing down someday. i would have played the Queens in his position also, would probably have pushed, instead of overcalling as the players in the blinds had a few more chips than me. Probably no difference as they would have been playing for all their chips anyway, and would only come in if they had AA or KK unless they were suicidal.

Wow there was a lot in there Kowboy, I am going to just respond to what sticks in my head from the end of the post, and I may post a follow up question about other areas later. You say that all you worry about is being an average stack until you get into the money. I make note of the average stack out of habit, and because I know so many other players are concsious of it, and want to know what they may be thinking about stack size. However I tend to ignore avg stack size when making my plays.

I consider myself short when I cannot make a standard raise, without being practically committed. Often tourneys seem to get to the point where all the average stacks are only 8 to 10 times the big blind. When the blinds are high, I usually open raise between 2 and 4 x the big blind depending on several factors, usually it is 2 1/2 to 3x the BB. So when my stack
gets low enough that 2 1/2 x BB is over 30-40% of my stack, I start making moves to get to a more comfortable position.

Say Blinds are 1000, and I have an average stack of 10000, with a pair of Tens, I raise it to 2500, get called, flop comes w/ two overcards, and I fold to a bet. Now I have 7500 chips, get another medium pair, raise 2500, get reraised, and have to fold. Now I am down to 5000, am card dependent, and have to push with any reasonable hand, and as soon as the blinds go up again, I have very little folding equity and can expect action when I pick a decent hand to make a stand with.

So sometimes I would rather take a shot and push, or make a big enough raise that I am pot committed. If I get played with and double up, now I have enough chips to make a reasonable opening raise without hurting myself if I have to lay down a hand, and am in good shape to start stealing some to try to keep ahead of the blinds. If I get no action, and everyone folds, I can get my stack healthy with just a few of these steals, and then the table is ready to pay me off when I catch a monster, as they now suspect I am an incorrigible thief.

Tell me the flaws you see in my reasoning here.