Late game strategy? When to/not to take the flip?

[Eratosthenes]

In hand 2 you are getting 3:2 if you push and are always called. That means you break even (i.e., EV = 0) if you have an average of 10.5 outs. You have fewer than 10.5 outs against only sets and AA. There are a few hands where you are only a little +EV like KK, QQ, AK, A9, A5, and A4. Everything else you have a big edge against. Therefore, I happily call the flop.

I am OK with smooth calling raises with hands like AQs in position in the right spots. The reason to make that play is to get into spots like the one in hand 2. If you are not going to play aggressively on these flops then calling a raise with AQs is hugely -EV.

I read Howard Lederer's chapter in the Full Tilt Tournament Poker Strategy Guide last week. He advises playing small ball with pretty short stacks--much shorter than most 2+2ers would play. I don't think that this is a good idea in the $20-50 BI tournaments that most of us play. I think in these tournaments that cutoff for playing small ball is somewhere between and M of 5 and 10, depending on the table conditions.