The old notion of passing up marginal +ev spots in tournaments...

[tmcdmck]

chip equity and cash equity are different. if you double your chips by busting someone out, you less than double your expected earnings in the tournament, since everyone else gains some tournament equity by another player busting out.

To conclude it is categorically wrong to say you should take ANY +ev spot in a tournament if you want to maximise your hourly rate. infact, if someone shoves the first hand of a ten man sitngo, calling is negative cash equity unless you are 54% favourite to win the hand. I have a link somewhere that explains this all much more clearly than I ever could; I will post it when I find it.