Tweaking the plan?

Maybe it might be time to give the tournament strategy a tweak. Last night started OK (got a double through with AA in first hour and then more than doubled-up when I reraised a late raiser with 33 on BB and they held up against his AT). At the second break I was average stack and lying 18th of 43.

I then got lucky when I went all in for 10,800 with A9 to grab 4,200 of blinds and antes and got called by the SB's AQ. A nine on the turn moved me to 25,000 chips (7th of 34).

Now, the next jump in prize money (doubling) was at 30 - so you'd think I'd make that easy, yes?. Each round was now costing 6,200 chips, so I couldn't just sit back and wait for top hands - blinds must be grabbed at least once a round. At 16,000 chips, I'm on the button and A4 seems good enough to go all-in (B+A are 6,000). SB has AQ and wins the hand. I have him covered so I'm still alive (though 2,700 with blinds at 1,200/2,400 is practically a coma).

My aim now is to try and hang on to get 30th - it's between me and a guy at another table, and we're both taking maximum time on our hands. He looks favourite to go out first, but he has slow-playing help on his table so I'm all-in first. As luck would have it. I'm happy to see my BB hand is a pair of tens, but someone else's AA does for me and I'm out in 31st. As for the other shortstack, he triples up with Aces and actually goes on to make the final table.

My possible reason for changing tactics came in an earlier hand. Normally, when I'm trying to grab the blinds late on, it's with a hand I don't want action with (Ax or a mid-low pair), so I don't mind going all-in for 9 or 10 BB or so, because that should scare off everything but a monster. However, in this tourney I got KK and thought about raising by the more usual 3 or 4 BB, to try and get some action. I decided against it, because it would make me very easy to read. All in it was, and everyone folded.

Could I possibly risk giving away some information about my hand to observant players in order to make more use of my huge hands? Lately I've not been able to build a huge stack in tourneys because I'm only ever picking up blinds late on, which keep me where I am, relative to other people, rather than propelling me towards tournament domination. Usually, the first time I get called, it's by a better hand and I'm gone.

Toy with trying to get action with big hands late on - don't just settle for the blinds.

Tonight I didn't get the chance to try the new tactic out as I crashed and burned just before the first break. I called a 4BB raise with 99 and two of us saw the flop of 66T (2 clubs). He checked and I pushed all in (I had about the pot in chips). He called with AK clubs and he filled his flush on the river.

I'm currently wondering whether it's 'all-in' or 'all in'. I veer between the two, but I think I'm coming to the opinion of losing the hyphen.