How much do you let tournie position affect your decisions?

[Dodgey]

I'm doing well in MTTS - have for a while now, but sometimes I wonder if my monitoring of my position affects my play adversely.

Example: I'm in the lead by 10k chips. 32 players left. I end up in a fight on a draw. I have an up and down straight draw. I have him covered easily. He pushes after my raise. I have about 2:1 to hit if I call. I fold. Why? because it's a 1 in 3 chance I'll win, if so great. If I lose, My chip lead goes down to 2k instead of 10k. All on a 3:1 call.

I was pondering, perhaps if I didn't know the exact ship standings I'd have called?

Note: in MTTS I watch the tournament lobby when I'm doing well. I'm not interested in making the bubble. I want top 3 or better.

What do you think or do? do you ignore the leaderboard (like a live game where you never really know where you stand, unless you are on a break) or do you use it to your advantage?

p.s. oops! - this should be in Holdem Strategy

[spr]

I dont know whats right, but playing alittle tight to make money is fine by me, hell I dont even get mad when players hold the clock till the last second to increase thier chances to get in to the money. I also seem to moniter where Im at in a MTT. If I have a guy covered with that many chips I would have called, if you loose then play alittle tighter If you win you are sitting real well for the Final table (Where you want to be) not going to make many FTs without taking a few risks and I would rather have 3-1 odds then what you might ve forced to take latter on in the Tourny

[Assistanc3]

looking at the leader board is very useful and if you can take advantage of reading it

you can spot players that are more active and involved in hands, even when they are on a different table, that gives you information with out even being there.

by your above example
your the chip leader, but what I would be looking at is the 2nd place stack at your table, to me thats more important then 2nd overall.

its who can catch me now

[Dodgey]

Funnily that's exactly what happened in a recent game when I won. It was all about maintaining a safe lead, and making sure if I folded a hand i was involved in that it went to someone that was not a threat. Mind you - that was a "top x places get a ticket" game

[Mist]

If it's not relativly deep in a tournament I don't really care about my chipcount compared to other players. The only thing I care about is my stacksize compared to the blinds and antes.
As the tournament goes on you become more aware of the other players stacks, but your own stack compared to the blinds is still as important until the bitter end.