[Moonsugar]

I am speaking in general.

In the examples listed the problem is you are facing so many actors behind that the collective tightness, and your short stack, add up to looseness. But, as you allude to that looseness has a fondness for Ax not 8x so you are less likely to be dominated with 87 than A2, even though there is now possibility of overpairs to your high card. If you get called you will almost never be ahead, but you will probably have a better chance of sucking out. The blinds have to be VERY HIGH relative to your stack to want to push with either A2 or 87 here and if they are high enough you have to push with either, regardless.

I don't know the stack size:blind ratios and number of players left scenarios where I would fold A2 but push 87, do you?