Coping with large field sizes
Some of the tournament field sizes on Pokerstars can be huge. Several thousand players or more can be very common. But how do you navigate such a large field, and more importantly make some profit in doing so?
The first task is to come to the realisation that all of the money worth making is at the final table. So placings such as 14/3500, 22/2340, 11/3165 whilst they might look very good at face value, are basically not a hell of a lot better than a min-cash.
The second task is to make sure you dont get knocked out needlessly early. You cant win a poker tournament if you are not in it. Gambling it up too much when say 40+ BBs deep too early is not really going to dramatically improve your tournament chances, but it will certainly increase the chances of you busting out.
So now try to combine the two. Play pretty tight early on, but as you get a few hours deep into the tourney start to crank it up a bit and take a lot more risks. If the poker gods are with you (which they occasionally will be) and you get to the last ballpark 100 players, now is the time to really start pressuring your opponents. Be prepared to risk your tourney life now in the quest for a big stack here. For every 5 or 6 times you may fail, it will be more than made up for by making a final table and achieving a good score.
If you can get through to the top 100 (of a tourney with 2000+ entrants) about 5-7% of the time, and then convert that to a final table about 15-20% of the time, then you will make profit. Conversely you could finish in-the-money 30% of the time in a tourney and still be making a loss.
In summary, lack of final tables will be the death of your bankroll, so be prepared to risk a lot whilst deep, and occasional bomb out more than you feel would happen in your natural game. The times you get to the final table with a good stack will be the paydays which keep you afloat and in profit.