A final table play from a winner-take all tourney

[Dentist]

WSEX had a 300 FPP tourney in which the winner got a 7 day cruise from Carnival and the 2nd through whatever just got more stupid FPP's.. so essentially it was winner take all.

42 players entered.

It was down to 5 players remaining and I was the chip leader but not by a large margin.

I picked up A K offsuit on the button with the blinds at:
500-1000
I have approximately T15500.

UTG raises up to 4500 (he has T 9000)
UTG + 1 with 1900 chips calls all-in (this didn't concern me as "moving up the ladder" meant nothing and I put this guy on a desperation call since the blind was going to destroy him soon.

I re-raised enough to put the original raiser all-in.

UTG had AQ, the other player had A blank.

The turn card came a QUEEN and I went from chip leader to relatively short stacked very quickly... eventually finishing 3rd.

Of course I'm not trying to be results oriented here, but since I completely missed as well I began to wonder.... what if he would've had something like 88, 99, or 10 10... I would've lost that coinflip.

On one hand.. i am trying to WIN this thing.. not place higher and if I had won this pot I would been in a VERY commanding position to take this thing home.

On the other if I lost I would be and WAS in bad shape.

If I had folded to the obvious "race" I would have been in about a 3-way tie (with the 4th person pretty shortstacked) with 4 players to go.

Was this the right play here? I mean, it turned out it was in VERY much the right way, I was at way more advantage than I could have hoped.

but his raise left "him" pot committed and it could have very easily been the same result with him having any pair.

So, forget that I lost, how do you guys rate the play?

[SossMan]

Well, in a winner take all, it's all about getting any plusEV situation that presents itself. I think you have plenty of overlay with the all in player plus blinds/antes to take a coin flip. Unless they have AA/KK, you are in good shape.

[AaronO]

As usual, Sossman's assessment is right on. Personally hate AK, but how can you get away from it there?

[SossMan]

Don't hate on AK...it is what it is: A drawing hand that you can play very aggressivly preflop because it is usually not in bad shape.