Of late, I've become something of a 'nearly man' when it comes to MTT's.

These past six months have been pretty good in terms of furthering my poker education, increasing volume but making sure this doesn't interfere with family time, and going on some really deep runs in MTT's, and above all, enjoying my poker.

Discounting my 36th place in the Sunday Storm back in January (in which I really should have gone deeper, but the less said about that the better), I keep getting myself into situations where the FT is in plain sight, but ultimately, just come up short.

I'll be brutally honest, there are only a couple of times where I've had 2/3 bad beats that have crippled me (I was chip leader in the hot $3.30 last week with 50 players left, and lost 3 hands in 10 minutes which ousted me!) I feel the majority of the time, is purely down to my decision making and mindset, and an uncertainty of what strategy to employ.

Once in the latter stages of an MTT, I'm generally finding myself with around 25-35bb's, and playing a cautious style. I've found I make too many bad decisions when opening fairly light, and end up talking myself into poor calls. I just can't put my finger on why I keep coming up short. Am I being too hard on myself? Is going deep a victory in and of itself? Look, winning a big heap of money would be great, sure it would - but, I want to win because I want to feel like my time and effort have been justified. I put a lot of time and effort into studying and playing in between work and family, and it's precious time - time I appreciate and value, and when I play for 6 or 7 hours and win $40/50, it feels more like a defeat than a victory. It feels like I've wasted my time and efforts.

I suppose this post is a little bit of soul searching, and me looking for some clarity. A lot of it stems from a friend of mine doing really well these past few months. I introduced him to the game, and have coached him to a point where he's a competent player. Since January, he's won around $25k online (compared to my $1600) and although I'm super happy for him, I'm a little envious. I just can't seem to hit those heights and it's a little frustrating.

Cashing isn't an issue for the most part. It's finding that formula in the latter stages, and going with it.

When I asked my friend what his strategy was for late game, he simply shrugged and said 'I just play really tight, and look for easy opportunities'. Oh, OK...

One weakness of mine, is that I try and create opportunities out of impatience; opportunities that really aren't there - I get too fancy, and end up making mistakes.

Perhaps it's a combination of me just not being good enough to win, and not being realistic enough to see this, or maybe I'm just missing something that could prople me that little bit further?

Sorry for rambling on - your thoughts are most appreciated, and any tips/advice for late game MTT are welcome.

There are probably a million things that you could improve or do differently, but the one big thing imo is the cautious playing style you use when it gets closer to the FT.

That style will get you in the money a lot and might be profitable depending on how top-heavy the payout structure is, but it’s not getting you all the way to the top unless you run insanely well.

At some point you have to accumulate chips and punish the scared money players, not the other way around.

I think you're right mate. There are times when I do play without fear and play really agressively. My game, my style is really high variance - I'm usually a go hard or go home type of player. I guess I just need to find that right balance.