ATC

I get asked a lot about what situations I will risk my tournament life with ATC (Any Two Cards). The answer for me is "not many". I'm very comfortable playing an extremely short stack at some points in a tournament and I'll let it go when most people push. I believe that gets me to the money more than most players. I make the money about 21 to 22 percent of the tournaments I enter.
That would seem to indicate that I play too tight and probably bust out before the final table. While that sometimes is the case, I make final tables fairly often so I don't think it's a big concern.
In a multi-table tournament you can look at the blinds, the average stack, and your stack and make a decision if you are in build mode or survival mode. If I'm average stack or above, I'm definitely in build mode. I'm seeing flops and broadening my hand range. If I'm low I'm in survival mode and narrowing my range of hands and playing them hard looking for a double or triple up to come my way. There are exceptions to this as table conditions can greatly affect your ability to see cheap flops and your ability to buy hands.
So back to the question. When will I play any two cards?
Here's my answer:
1) I'm in the blinds and over 1/3 of my stack is committed by the blind. I'm probably going all in here unless I have a completely horrible hand and there's more than one raise before it gets to me.
2) I'm a big stack and there's an all in from a short stack and I'm the only one left to act and I'm getting 4 to 1 on my money or anywhere near it.
That's about it. I know I'm in the minority on this one and there's some situations most people go all in that I don't, but that's the way I play it.

Good luck at the tables this week everyone!!!