Do you ever avoid marginal spots to reduce variance?

In tournaments, there are spots that are probably slightly +EV but come with a lot of risk.

Sometimes I avoid them just to stay in the tournament longer, even if it might not be optimal.

Do you take every small edge, or do you sometimes pass to reduce variance?

Well I try not to play scared or try not to play perfectly, so if I see a spot to go after I usually do it, and if I’m wrong and get busted, or right but still get busted, then you know tomorrow is another day, there will always be another tournament. It’s an imperfect game so if you see an edge I say go for it.

Nesehorn156 said:

In tournaments, there are spots that are probably slightly +EV but come with a lot of risk.

Sometimes I avoid them just to stay in the tournament longer, even if it might not be optimal.

Do you take every small edge, or do you sometimes pass to reduce variance?

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If you are playing in MTT's vs weak fields not playing in many marginal spots is +EV. The problem only occurs when you mis-judge a spot as marginal when it is not.
ICM -Independent Chip Model-- built into the math of its strategy is avoiding marginal spots. This does not mean only folding-- Solver ICM in certain spots has us going all-in even at 30-40bb stack as a 3 bet because the spot becomes marginal when we non-all-in 3 bet and are called or Villain goes all-in and the call becomes marginal for us.

The key is to study and learn the correct spots so that we make strategic plays not fear plays.

Without ICM — I take almost all +EV spots.
With ICM (bubble, final table) — I sometimes fold marginal edges.
The idea is that I’m not avoiding risk; I just require a bigger edge when busting becomes more costly.