[Roswell]

I was just thinking about a situation that comes up late in online tournaments. Let's say it's in the money with 3 tables left. The blinds and antes are so high that someone is open-pushing nearly ever hand. Let's say you have about 10 BBs - say $120K and the blinds are 6K/12K/600 ante. You pick up AK in a middle spot and it's folded to you. Is this an auto-push every time? Or, do you want to make a smaller raise to $30K or so, intending to call any reraise?

In the past I have always shoved in this spot. I want to send the message that "I have a big hand, so dont try a resteal." However, if you raise smaller, maybe someone will make a move with QsJs or AT, hands over which you are a favorite. Thus you'll be in a better spot to double up, rather than just win the blinds and antes. On the other hand, someone may reraise with a small pair like 44, and you will have a coin flip, when they would have folded that 44 if you pushed. It's a riskier play, but could it be worth it in order to break through the field and build a final-table stack?