Ok, I didn't play those 180-men tournies on PS for a while and thought I'd try a couple.

The first two went well, I saw the final tables in each and placed 3rd and 7th.

The third I had a good start as well, tripling up fairly quickly. But then I decided to get all my chips into the pot after the flop being a 55:45 favorite and lost. Now in a cash game that would be fine, but I felt it was maybe a mistake in a tourney?

Or let me rephrase the question: Is the reward of doubling up again in a relatively early stage really worth the risk?

Avoid conflips at all cost. Your goal, imo, is to have enough chips that you never have to get all in preflop without KK or AA. If you're short stacked it's fine though.

Just play small pots and you'll have enough to avoid taking a coinflip.

You can't win in the early stages of a MTT but you sure can lose.

Nothing wrong with a coinflip early on. I'd be more inclined to avoid them right before the final table if you're better than your opponenets, but early on if you lose just buy in another one.