AK late in tournie

[Padster]

This is my first post here so let me know if I'm missing lots of valuable info. It's a hand from a week ago that's been bugging me since.....

Late on in a $25 mtt I'm in 8th position out of 25. Top 20 pay but only $60 until you hit the final table. Top prize $1.8k. My aim is to hit the final table rather than scrape into the money.

BB=$800, I have around $14k chips. Pattern of play has tended to be blind stealing with 3x bb raises into unraised pots pre flop, not huge playing back action so far. None of the protagonists in this hand have been particularly aggressive or tight that I could tell (including me).

UTG+1 flat calls (he has around $15k chips), another late position caller (around $8k chips) and then me on the button. I have AKo and put in a $4k raise. (Pot already had $2.8k in it). UTG+1 calls, other guy folds.


Flop comes QT3 (2 spades). UTG+1 bets $2k into the pot of $10.8k. I raise to $5k, he thinks for ages and reraises all in (he has AQ but I'm now screwed chip-wise and so call and go out).

So apart from the obvious stupid call all-in should I have played that differently?

My thinking was he didn't have AA, KK or QQ or he'd have popped back pre flop. I put him on medium pair or AK, poss AQ. If he flopped trip T's he doesn't bet out, so at crunch decision point I put him on AK, AQ or a medium pair (and hope not trip T's). Admittedly that means I'm hoping to tie at best if called, but at this stage of the multi it's all about representing, and my raise has to look very scary to any of those hands.

I guess my question is, how do I play AK from that position? Is the proper way to play it exactly as I did but fold to the reraise and hope to scrape the money? I think it probably is, but that means 2/3rds of the time he calls my pre flop bet I commit a large proportion of my stack at risk to anyone with big stones and a pair. Is that just the way it goes? I can't see how I can play it differently pre flop.

That's it, any comments welcome.