Playing to win

While I agree with this in general, I don't think this is true early in a tournament. You will rarely see consistent top players getting all in early unless they are sure they have the best hand. I think it is a major downfall to many amatuers. I you get allin early you are probably only going to win 50-60% of the time and even then only slightly increases your chance of getting in the money. That means half the time your completely out and the other half you have a shot but could still get busted out the very next hand anyways.

I agree with what you said:" most top players rarely go all in unless they are sure they have the best hand" and tournaments aren't won in the early rounds.

If your afraid of getting felted your gonna bleed chips. The style of play of Pro's changes based on the type of tournament, short stack vs. deep stack, turbo vs. 20+ min levels.

In most of the tournaments I play in, a short stack tournament, you push your big draws and two pair or better and try to run over the weak players.

Well pushing big draws is rarely a mistake, unless you are certain your opponent has better than top pair. With that said anyone would commit with 2 pair or better. What are the buy-ins for these tournaments. It is usually hard to get your stack in early with a big made hand, assuming the buy-in was more than $20 and no re-buys.

Well, it depends of blind structure of the tournament and prize structure as well. Also if u guess u are playing against a pro, it might be a strong move to push all-in because he is more likely to wait better than a top pair to call in early stages (specially if u have large stack ). There is also some players that plays excellent with large stack ( Gus Hansen like ) and may like to gamble in early stage to play for winning-final table from the very beginning. As usual in poker it's hard to find a general rule ! :-)

i never go all in early in a tourney. Its too easy to get knocked out by a fish who flops a set who went all in with a pair of 5's and challenged you. Then they luck out with a 5 on the river. Your 2 Aces mean nothing then. In fact i figured out long ago that if I don't all in, i can't get knocked out.
I go all in if my chip stack gets below 10 x the BB. i'm in trouble and then i only do it when i'm in position and most of the people have folded and the blinds are huge.
I guess i've had some bad burns going all in with perfectly good hands.