Advice about a hand late in a tourny

[scream1158]

I was in a tournament last night and was on the button. There was 17 people left in the tournament that paid top 12, blinds were at 400/800 and about to go up. I got dealt A7 offsuit with 5000 chips left and everyone folded to me. The small blind was had about 40,000 chips and the BB had about 7,000. I raised to 2400 and the small blind raised it to 4000. BB folded and i called. Flop was Q junk junk. We both checked. Turn A. Small blind checks and i go all in. Small blind had A9 and i lost. Should I have just pushed all-in on the raise preflop instead of 2400? Or should i have just folded the hand because the small blind had so many chips? I figured i would take a shot at the blinds, but didnt want to put my whole tournament on A7 offsuit which ended up happening anyways. I think i played it poorly because i should have just went all in preflop or folded but it was really late and i was exhausted. Thanks for the comments.

[Pat Southern]

With less than 10 big blinds, you should be pushing or folding every hand.

[scream1158]

The only reason i raised to 2400 instead of all-in is because that is what i had been raising to recently and showed a few strong hands before taking a beat to put me down to the 5000. Now that i think about it, the all-in would have definately been a better decision, but i think if i could go back to it i would have folded and tried to get a better hand to go allin with.