[illab]

I think he means they go up in value preflop. You can push 88 and 99 because chances are that you wont go up against an overpair so youre never a big underdog. If you lose with them you didn't waste a lot of money or time compared to a normal tourney. You probably wouldn't play those pairs too aggressively in a tournament until its gets very late or shorthanded.

AQ or AJ are nice hands to see flops with but since the blinds go up so quick and the stacks are so small in a SNGs you might have to go alin preflop or call an allin. Pre-flop AQos is only a 60-40 favorite over a hands like K2s or 45s.