Shootout

I was recently invited to Harrah's to play a freeroll w/ a large prize pool (200k based on 1400 entrants). The first round was structured as a shootout w/ four flights of 50 tables. Each player started w/ 1500 and the top two players from each table would advance to the second round after two hours. The blinds started at 25-50 quickly escalated.

Because of the structure, I planned on playing relatively loosely early to try and build a chip stack in order to withstand the large blinds and the two hour time limit.

However, I found that most of the players on my table were novices. In this type of game, I like to play tight and wait for a big hand knowing that I'll probably get some bad calls.

What is the best way to play a tournament w/ this type of structure?