However, if you have a premium hand, don’t be afraid to push in your chips. If you want to be a contender for first place, you’re going to need a lot of chips. If you play your premium hands aggressively and double up, you have a better chance of this happening.
Extract as much value from your premium hands as possible - Too many people overplay their premium hands because they're afraid their opponent will hit a bigger monster on them. They'll bet too much post-flop and push their opponent out of the pot - even with a monster.
Use probabilities to your advantage to determine the odds of your opponent beating your hand. You need to trap with those big hands. Too often, people will raise too much with huge pockets causing everyone to fold. If you do this, you won’t get the full value out of your great cards. Bet sparingly and keep as many people in the pot as you can.
Well-times aggressiveness goes a LONG way. "Well-timed" means ALWAYS consider your position when you make a move. "Aggressiveness" means don't be afraid to push your good hands.
If your hand is good enough to see a flop at this stage, it is then good enough to raise with. Hence, only play (raise) with premium hands from early position. The selection of hands to play (raise) does increase in late position.
There's nothing worse later in the tourney than raising pre-flop in early position when the blinds are big with a hand like AT only to have someone slam over the top of you in late position.
Be sure to protect your chips in tournament play. This means don't raise marginal hands out of position. Putting your chips out there in early position with a hand like ATs is not protecting your chips.
You're gambling that no one else has a better hand, or at least is afraid to attack back, with the entire table to act behind you. What do you do if they slam over the top of you? Fold and give up a large amount of chips? Or call and risk your tournament life on a hand that is more than likely dominated? Not a decision I'd like to make, so avoid putting yourself in this position.
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