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Hi Sam

First of all, making it to the final table in a 500+ tourney is a great achievement by itself; you need to give yourself credit for that. Well played, Sir!

Once you're at or near the final table, resistance will generally be competent. The weak players will have gone bust a long time ago, and you won't get anything for free at this stage. No matter how you approach the challenge of winning it all, you must expect the rest of the match to be a really tough battle with small margins and close calls.

Also, at the end stage, blinds will often be high compared to most players' stacks, which forces you to play your good hands with a lot of resolution. Most of the time you won't have enough chips to get subtle and lay down a hand such as top-pair top-kicker, even if you meet resistance. Giving up the value that is involved in those situations simply won't maximize your chances of winning.

The hands you mention, AK, AQ, AJ, JJ, TT, 99, are just the kind of hands you want to play strongly to hold your ground in the end game. Sure enough, as soon as you enter a big pot you can end up losing your stack, but then again - if you get too cautious when the blinds increase, then you're bound to lose.

Certainly, there may be times where one or several players are very short stacked and you can climb a couple of steps in the payout ladder by just waiting for them to bust out. Then, by all means, lay down 99 against a raise from the chip leader. But remember: in order to win first place, you need to push your small advantages to the maximum and hope not to get unlucky.

Keep up your good play, and I'm sure you'll get your fair share of tournament top finishes with time!

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