All In Or Call In This Position ?

£5 rebuy B&M tournament. About 3 hours into the tourney I was moved to a new table where the following hand came up. I had been at the table for around 5 hands and hadn't played a hand yet. I was around 3rd in chips at the table. The bigest stacks had less than twice my stack. The rest of the table ranged from 3000 - 8000.

11,500 in chips, blinds at 400/800, UTG +2 Player UTG raises all in for his last 2800.
I have AKo

What is the play here ?

It seemed to me that the only options here were to call or go all in because a raise would commit half my stack to the pot. I didn't have any read on the raiser but as he was about to hit the blinds I don't think he had a very strong hand.

My reasoning for going all in was that unless one of the bigger stacks had a very strong hand they would not want to gamble a sizable portion of their stack on what could turn out to be a coin flip if they are holding a medium pair against 2 overcards. If any of the smaller stacks called I would only be a small underdog to QQ's or lower and even if I lost to a medium stack I would still be in the tourney.

Calling seemed to be a bad option as it would invite action because it would give the smaller stacks a chance to triple up. The other problem I saw was it might give the big stacks the opportunity to go all in and try and steal the pot. This wouldn't be an issue if they were stealing with weaker hands but in this situation I would prefer not to commit all my chips with AKo. The other problem I saw was if I called and another player with a medium/large stack called after me, what happens when the flop misses my hand ? Checking would be running up the white flag so the only option would be to push all in and hope the flop missed the other caller, or check and fold to a bet.

My reasoning for calling was that if the all in raiser had not been in the equation I would have raised slightly less anyway so calling commits around the same amount of chips that would have gone in anyway. Even though the pot now has 6800 in it, 2800 is still a sizable portion of most of the remaining players stacks so they would still need a decent
hand to call a large bet. If a medium stack goes all in for another 3000, I still have chips even if I loose the hand. If one of the big stacks puts me all in I can reluctantly fold. AKo is a good starting hand but a slight underdog to any pair so why put your tournament life at risk for what could turn out to be a coinflip ?

Having run through both positions I am still not sure what the best play is. Do I risk my whole stack for 4000 by going all in or do I play safe by calling and risk getting raised off the pot (and then calling an all in anyway). Do I call and then have a difficult decision to make when the flop misses me ? At least calling gives me an exit if things don't work out and I will still be in the tournament with 8700 in chips if I have to fold. The blinds go up to 500/1000 in 5 minutes and a 11,500 stack is not big enough. AKo might be the best hand I will see for some time so is it best to push ?

Any advice/opinions appreciated.

I wouldn't call, I wouldn't feel comfortable having someone else call behind here and then having a flop without an ace or king and him putting you to the test. I'd go all in right here and hope noone else has AA, KK, or QQ and decides to call here, and try to take him out 1 on 1 with 5 cards to come.

With a raiser and a reraiser both going all in, no pocket pairs under QQ is going to see this if they know what they are doing, and AK isn't likely to call this either since he fears QQ KK or AA. A call will get some of these other hands that are slight favorites or split pots against you to tag along, so all in seems like the best option to me, IMO.

[ansky451]

This is definitely a situation where you want to just push. You want this pot heads up, to isolate, and you want to put maximum pressure on anyone behind you with something like TT, which they probably fold to the all in. You also wouldnt want somebody with AQs trying to isolate himself, and pushing you off a superior hand.
Push.

[BlackAces]

I'd go all-in. You don't want to play against anyone but the all-in, and no one is going to want to stack off against a big stack without a real monster. You also don't want to leave yourself open to getting bluffed out of the pot preflop.

I had a similar situation in a live tournament last week. Blinds 100/200. UTG went all-in for 450, and UTG+1 reraised to only 900. I had pocket queens, and reraised to 2400, nearly half his remaining stack. It was a raise designed to get him to fold AK, thinking I had aces and was inviting action. He did fold AK, and swore as the flop came out king-high. All-in had AT and I busted him.