> That's exactly right! That's why you take a stand when you have enough chips left to have significant fold equity.

And remember, this isn't the movies. There isn't one clearly right thing to do and one clearly wrong thing to do...sometimes even playing face up, both players belong in the hand.

When you're short stacked and catch a small pocket pair, for example, it's usually best to push all-in, especially in mid-to-late position with no callers.

If your stack is significantly small, it's worth it for someone holding two overcards to call. They're behind on the hand, but the equity they gain from bumping you out of the tourney (at 6:5) is worth a lot more than the equity they lose by having you double up a small stack.

But that doesn't make it a mistake for you to push. You're ahead of most calling hands.

The hard thing for me with tournaments (I don't play many MTTs) is balancing the "slide into the money" vs the "get ahead or get another game" idea.

If you have a conservative style of play that gets into the low money half the time, that's not as good as getting you into the high money one quarter of the time. As with everything in poker, you have to decide if you'd rather win more money or win more often (hint: money is the right answer :) )

In a one table tournament, this is less of a factor. Third place is worth the time and there are few strategies that will chronically land you in third without giving you a shot at first or second.