MTT Strategy

[DryAngel]

Hi all,

I am a new player and have been learning poker through books and posts here. Many of them say the cards do not matter most of the time and "read"/feel of the situation matters more.

So far I am having some success in <= $10+1 buy-in MTTs with a TAG strategy of playing my cards only at first and once I get into middle stages with a good stack, I loosen up and mostly either hit my unlikely holdings or steal pots.

My question is this: Is my strategy too basic? Do pros/good players play loose from early on even when they don't have a sizeable chiplead? How do they identify the situations early on when they might not know anyone at the table?

I apologize if my questions are too broad, just wondering if there is a better strategy in case I go card dead and become a short-stack by middle stages of a MTT.

Thanks.

D