These tournaments are very different than normal tournaments for many reasons. The basic reason is because no money is at risk and only the top 10 get paid.
Because of these reasons i play this tournament very different than other tournaments and have a good bit of success placing in about 15 to 20% of them.
I honestly look for some good spots early where there is a lot of chips in the pot. If i have a suited connector, mid pair, or 2 face cards, i shove and take my chances. During the middle of the tournament i'll try to stay away from larger stacks unless they are playing kind of wild giving me good implied
odds if i hit the nuts. I find people who go all in preflop and call them when its say 1/4 my stack or lower and just take chances with mid pairs and suited face cards or AK or AQ something like that. It usually works good to build the stack.
Now during the end of the tournament, Usually the last 4-5 tables. I will tighten up again and wait for some chances w good
pot odds or implied odds and see how the cards are running. Even w KK or AK i play it kind of soft until i see the flop, Once i know its safe i will make a move for more chips and usually get paid pretty decent, But i will warn you, if someone is running good, they will continue to run good on THAT table. If you get dealt a KK or AK id look at the flop before pushing preflop, because chances are they are going to win no matter what they have, thats just how i see the software running. I play those cards softer towards the last 2 - 3 tables. On the final table, just play solid good poker, you can reraise w AK or KK becasue you are more than likely ahead and on the final table it seems the cards hold more often than the few tables before that.
In the mid tournaments if i find myself w a good draw on the flop, nut straight w a rainbow board or a nut flush draw w a straight draw i will call all my chips off just to give me a really big stack going towards the last few tables.
Remember you are only playing for the top 10 places and playing great poker isn't going to work i promise you, there are just too many people that will call with nothing or 1 pair and try to hit anything to your good plays. You WILL be losing with good cards often.
If you want to try to play the best poker possible, play soft soft soft the entire tournament, although this is going to be hard to make you chips against all the people pushing all the time and when you find yourself w a KK or QQ you will be outchipped so badly that you will find yourself getting call by 2 or 3 other people because your stack is so low. That is just how poker is played.
My advice is play very loosely and take big chances to get a big stack, then you can dictate the speed of play, and pick off others who go all in preflop w mid pairs and suited connectors.
Tighten up during the last few tables and you should make the Final table. If i play 5 a day i usually place in about 1 of them, sometimes 2. Good luck.