[BTirish]

Given how close his stack was to one of the all-in players, I'm not sure I see the reasoning for the call.

You have to figure that at least one of these players has a pocket pair. The most likely holding for a player without a pocket pair is a weaker ace--but if there's a weaker ace out there, then your 3-way equity with AKo goes down.

I guess if he were very sure that the player with the larger stack had pushed in with a weaker ace, then the call would be justified. This depends on how big the disparity between the stacks was, though.

As it was, he ended up with a 3-way coin flip where going out behind both of the other players was a possibility. Justifying the call because it could put him in a position to win the whole thing has to be balanced against this possibility.

edit: I should add that I do not think it is a stupid or really bad call. Nor do I think I am qualified to pass any such judgment. I just see a difference between a 50-50 coinflip and a 3-way race when it's for your tournament life. Kudos to him for being willing to gamble to win--I just don't think it's the obvious best move.