PokerStars Steps----Theory

[JasonP530]

I have been playing a lot of the Step tournaments lately. When I get down to 3 or 4 players in the higher steps(4 and 5), I am unsure about how to proceed. The blinds are usually at 100/200 or 150/300 with a 25 ante where my stack isnt quite big enough to push(the reward isnt worth the risk) and not big enough to call. How patient should I be in waiting for the other players to bust as opposed to actively trying to bust them myself(with calling hands like 99/TT/AJ for 1/2-2/3 of my stack?

Any help you could give with flat step payout tournaments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks as always,
-Jason

[SteveM]

As someone who usually plays turbos I found that I had to be a LOT more patient than usual. I also noticed that considering that 2nd pays the same as 1st, people were making mistakes. By being patient I give them more opportunity to do so. I was surprised to see how often we'd get 3-handed and and the other two people would be willing to take a coinflip against each other and guarantee me a risk-free seat. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] That said, you can't count on them doing this every time - but if I'm paying careful attention at the table (no multi-tabling for me) I've found that it was reasonably easy to figure out which tables I'd have to get in there and fight (whether that meant calling a LAG's push or being the bully myself was obviously read-dependent) and which ones I could steal the occasional blinds and coast in with a 2nd place finish. On a related note, I rarely felt like the best player at my table but I often benefited from letting players who were better than me take out the ones who were worse. Good Luck!