Making the FT

I know for a fact that the weakest part of my game is pushing on in that middle section and making sure I reach the FT/cash.

My natural game is to play tight and I normally do ok TBH but where I struggle is that middle stage where I should be pushing on and gaining chips.

The blinds are going up,Antes involved and yet I find it difficult to make the steal/play something like A8s, is this the sort of hand I should be playing at this stage ? If it is then it just feels wrong, If someone reraises me do I fold or shove ?

It's a big weakness and until I can do something positive about it the FT's will be few and far between

Any good articles out there ?

Any advice ? What sort of hands should I be playing ?

[GotaFancy?]

The middle stage is probably the hardest part to play.

Early is easy (if you're TAG) - sit there and wait for cards, then bet the fcuk out of them.
Late is easy - it's dictated by stacks and is shove or fold
The middle is tough and where some poker actually probably needs to be played I tend to sit the middle stage out and wait for the end game when it becomes shove or fold

It's tough to speak generally about hands like A8s - there will be situations in which all possible actions are reasonable.... If I'm on the button and everyone folds to me, and I have A8s, Blinds are worth winning, but I'm not short stacked (and neither are SB+BB) I'm almost certainly putting a standard raise in (and indeed will do with a wide range of hands)

I'm just reading "Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide" (recommended a while back by WASP) and you might find chapter 2 about "leverage" quite interesting - basically "small balling" keep pummeling away with raises and folding to resistance/reraises then when you have a hand and someone fights back, you can play a big pot with them.

If you raise with A8s, then you can win the hand if everyone folds, but if you have to lay it down, you get your money back when you put the same raise in with AA and your opponents dont believe you...

Play some deep stack STTs (or 2 or 3 table SnGs) - they'll give you plenty of practice and experience on the middle stages

[daftpegasus]

As Gaf says it's the hardest part of the tournament to play. It's the part where position, stack size and your reads on your opponents are critical. A8s on the button with nobody else in the pot is certainly a playable hand. A8s on the button with 3 All in's in front of you is obviously a fold.

Almost certainly this stage needs some luck to get through it. Whether you end up shoving, or calling a shove, you're going to have to dodge some bullets and get a little luck to get through the middle game.

One thing I find helps me is to switch to the stats/game screen where I can see the average stack size. I then attempt to keep ahead of the average stack size in the tournament. I find it helps me look for the opportunities to steal and keeps me focused on a goal. It stops me getting blinded away, and it keeps my stack size going in the right direction.