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Is there any way we can provide some guidance as to how much of your stack you can use on "speculative" hands in level 1/2?
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A good way to do this would be to do the same thing we do for push/fold scenarios, but slightly more complicated and imprecise. First, take 9 equal stacks of t1500, blinds of 15/30, and a 50/30/20 payout structure. Then determine what the stacks would be in a few likely cases, such as
<ul type="square">[*]win t100 from one player[*]lose t100 to one player[*]win t500 from one player[*]lose t500 to one player[*]stack one player[*]you get stacked[*]you and another player lose t100 and t500, respectively, to a third player[*]two other players play a t200 pot after you fold[*]two other players play a t1000 pot after you fold
and calculate your ICM-based prize pool equity[/list]
After that, guess probabilities for each of these cases and multiply each case's probability by it's equity. By changing the probabilities of the bigger pots, you can see what effect cEV-neutral plays with big swings have on your overall tournament equity.