AK in middle of stages of MTT

[asics]

Need some help with whether to call a push when holding AK in the middle stages of a MTT. I'm slightly above average stack when the hand occurs. Thanks for the help. (Sorry..tried the hand converter but couldn't get it to work).

***** Hand History for Game 2564591467 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:14989650 Level:6 Blinds (75/150) - Friday, August 19, 23:50:31 EDT 2005
Table $34,000 Guaranteed(430088) Table #6 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: AZDAN ( $1705 )
Seat 3: JUST_RAUL ( $4395 )
Seat 4: HERO ( $2625 )
Seat 5: USDepository ( $2355 )
Seat 7: gator1968111 ( $2607 )
Seat 8: Dolphan1 ( $5185 )
Seat 9: lts33 ( $7084 )
Seat 10: phoenx ( $1884 )
Seat 2: AlmondsAreIn ( $805 )
Trny:14989650 Level:6
Blinds (75/150)
There is no Small Blind in this hand as the Big Blind of the previous hand left the table.
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HERO [ Ad Ks ]
Dolphan1 folds.
lts33 folds.
phoenx folds.
AZDAN folds.
AlmondsAreIn folds.
olddog999 has joined the table.
Player olddog999 has been moved from table 69 to this table
JUST_RAUL raises [350].
HERO calls [350].
USDepository folds.
gator1968111 is all-In [2457]
JUST_RAUL folds.
HERO ???

Two questions:

1) Was it incredibly weak to just call the initial bet?
2) Do you call the push for basically all of your chips with AKo?

I was just moved to the table so no reads on anyone. Thanks for the feedback.

[Exitonly]

in early stages of tournaments i've started to mix in just calling raises with AKo because you have a lot of chips at that point and no need to commit a lot preflop at that point.But by this point, you don't have all that much, <20BB's.. so here yea i think it's too weak to just call and i would push. and for your second question, you're not 'commited' but you still have a good chance of having the best hand, and if it's not best, you're likely in a coinflip with good odds.

[Pasterbator]

I assume that when you just call the initial raise, you're trying to trap. Looking at it from the SB's perspective, there was an almost minraise from LP, called by the CO. He can be making this bet with AJ+, 88+, thinking he has the best hand. Nobody showed any true strength here, so i think that makes it an easy call.

And if you lose you still have 18 chips left.

[Blindcurve]

Question 1: I don't know if it was weak, but you should raise here, if for no other reason than to limit the action behind you. You would prefer to play your hand heads up with position and you can more easily create these conditions by buying the button.

Question 2: I don't think he has to have a monster. He sees: Weak raise, weak call. I'd think his range is 88-AA,ATs-Aks, AJ-AK. This is insupportable because I haven't done the math, but I think if the OR folds you should call. I think you have the Villain dominated. Worst case is a coinflip.

FOITNOF,

-D.

I don't think it's necessarily weak to call a small raise with AKo, but if I did that I'd probably be prepared to go all the way with it. One problem with just calling is that with players still to act, you have no real information about their motivation to raise, though if you're prepared to go to the river, I guess that doesn't matter.

You can make educated guesses about their range of hands by taking a look at their stack size, but by now you're getting about 3300-2100 on pot odds (if I'm adding everything up correctly), and any reasonable range of hands that he might be pushing with must be called. You are only a big dog to exactly two hands (well, six combinations of AA and KK), a coin flip to the underpairs, and a big favorite to some very plausible hands he might push with. (Additionally, if I'm hovering around 20 BB in the mid-levels, I'm more apt to start getting my chips in the middle in these situations...the antes are a-comin', so I look to gamble with what I think are small favorable edges. A simplistic way of looking at it, but...)