A couple of tricky hands

[krammatrix]

These two hands was in a 30 dollar MTT on party, around 1300 people started and there were 200 left. Top 130 got paid. I had a larger sized stack of 9000. Avg. was 6600

Hand 1: Blinds 200/400
Villain raises to 1400 UTG with ???
Hero calls in MP with As Kh

Flop: 6d 7d 9h
Villain bets 1900
Hero Folds

Is there nothing i can do there? Should i have pushed before the flop? I knew that I could wait for a hand and didn't have to commit myself to what might be a coinflip. I tend not to push preflop with AK. If i was first to act, should i have bet it?

Hand 2: Blinds 300/600 (I had about 7000 in chips at this point, which was avg.)

Hero raises to 1500 in UTG+1 with Jc Js
Villain calls in BB

Flop: 6d 8h Ks
Villain Checks
Hero bets 2000
Villain Raises all in (8400)
Hero folds

I felt like I had to bet that flop so that he wouldn't just push me off my hand with a big bet on the turn, and I also felt like I had to make a relatively big bet or else he would sense my weakness. I think now that I maybe should have checked the flop and then folded to a bet on the turn, just to protect my chips, but is that the right play? I seem to lose all my chips every time in the MTTs with hands like these, where i probably have the best hand but am not sure, and then end up getting pushed around.

I had told myself that i was going to maintain my stack and cruise into the money unless i picked up a monster, but I still managed to lose over half my stack on those two hands.
How should i have played these hands? Thanks in advance