No Limit tournament

I'm relatively new to the game (6 months maybe). I played in my first tournament the other day, no limit hold'em with about 100 players. I'd like your opinions on the hand that I went out on.


It's down to 4 tables. I'm in second place at my table with a little over $3000 in chips, tournament leader has about $4500. I tell myself that I was going to play super tight and try to make it to the last two tables, since the top 18 get paid.


Now, at this point we have $20 antes and the blinds are $100 and $200. I'm under the gun. I get dealt AK off suit. I see $500 in the pot and decide I have a good chance to add to my stack. I bet $600.


Folds around to a player in late position. He's just been moved from another table, so I don't know anything about him. He's got almost the same stack as me ($45 less as it turned out). He thinks for what must have been 3 or 4 minutes, and finally bets all in. I guess with all his thinking he must not have aces or kings. I figure I'd be about even money to take the chip lead in the tournament if he has a lower pair, and I'll need a big stack to play the stronger players later on. I call.


Sure enough he's got queens. No help for either of us and I get knocked down to $45, basically out of the tournament.


So, did I make a mistake? Looking back I think I'd probably take the same chance again. Should I have though? Should I have just called the $200 big blind and laid down to a big raise? Should I have mucked when he called all in?


Thanks for the help.

It really depends on what you want, if you want a good opportunity to make it to top 5 places then you could take a chance with your AK vs QQ, since your probably even money. I would probably fold in your situation, i have a good chip stack and i am not willing to risk it on a 50/50 coin flip especially at this stages of the tournament. From my experience when someone takes a long time then raises or moves all in, this usually means he has a big pocket pair (Just my opinion).


Anyway I Hope I helped, for a more detailed answer post this at the tournament section.


-MJ

Thank you MJ, and I will try it in the tournament section, I didn't see it there.


Thanks a lot.