Middle tourney help

[bengele]

I am have problems getting a rhythm in middle stages of tourneys when my M is in the yellow and orange range.

This hand is an Empire 1+0. Average chips is ~3000. 70 left top 30 pay.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (10 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

UTG+2 (t3150)
Hero (t1705)
MP2 (t3944)
MP3 (t1383)
CO (t1230)
Button (t4349)
SB (t1405)
BB (t2787)
UTG (t1617)
UTG+1 (t2060)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t300</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, MP3 calls t300, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>.

Flop: (t750) J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, MP3 checks.

Turn: (t750) 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t500</font>, MP3 calls [t1083] , Hero calls t583.

River: (t1833) 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: t1833

Is A8o too weak to open here? If so what would your opening range be?