If you are late and nobody has raised then any ace-rag all in when you are very short stacked 5 or less BB. I'd want at least a decent off suit if I had some more.
One tactic is to wait until you are Small or Big blind and try to peeve your neighbor blind. Don't you just hate it when you limp in from small blind and then he raises. So if there is no other limpers then raise your neighbor and go all in at any site of a good hand whether small hit or draw. It is sometimes easier to double up on a neighbor who thinks your
bluffing.
Another tactic I use is if I have a very small stack <4XBB and the table is loose then you know you are going to have your next all-in called by 4 people. Heck even bullets will likely lose against 4 competitors in on it. This is where you take advantage of other players all-ins (PREFERABLY BY AGGRESSIVE PLAYER). So if someone goes all in with a big stack and you have a 7-8 offsuit and your on a loose table with <4BB then why not throw your chips in and hope they are pushing AK,AQ,KQ,KJ, or some similar non pair, you are not in against 4 opponents and stand a 35% chance at doubling.
Now another good thing when low stacked is if you slow play a monster hand. In this case you do not want to go all in and perhaps your raise should be 2XBB (or call anything) to keep others in the pot and hope they pair up their Jack or Nine against your KK. It is risky to slow play and not defend your hand, but with 4XBB to your name you want 2-4 people matching your pot so bet slow but get your pot in there before river. Slow playing can bite, but A monster hand successful here could put you back in the game at 14XBB or the like. An all in could work as well if the table is loose depending on how you are viewed.
(how many turn off their screen on these all-ins? I sometimes do and hope the math pans out).
With 5-8 BB though I'd be looking to double up.
Many people call/limp with ace-rag, and if a table of ten has folded down to the blinds then it is likely there is some high cards still in the deck for flop. If you get an Ace- decent (8+) rag in Small blind then an all-in to the BB might pay off with a call and some luck if they have lots of chips.
There are so many circumstances and opportunities to look at, so this is not an EASY question.
It happens to me often too. I dont have problems to built my stack in beginning of tourney most of times. But in later phase (close to bubble) I have problem to stay with average or above... I still have feeelings like I am card dead... Then its hard and I am forced to preflop allin actions, which I dont like
