AKo in EP w 12bb, way early stages

[surviva316]

basic situation, but decisions like these seem to dominate tourney play. push? or just basic bet sizing? if it's 10bb then it's an easy decision to push, and if it's in LP and i'm folded to, i'm likely to bet size, but i don't know here.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t3905)
MP2 (t2520)
MP3 (t2370)
CO (t6130)
Button (t1255)
SB (t4390)
BB (t1845)
UTG (t990)
Hero (UTG+1) (t715)

Hero's M: 7.94

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with A, K
1 fold, [color=#CC3333]Hero bets???

[fjuanl]

pretty easy shove. 12bbs isnt enough to play postflop and i think people will call your shove with a lot of garbage this early since it doesn't threaten their stack.

[chardrian]

I bet 240 there.

allows worse hands to call - and they will call - and makes it a very easy pot sized shove on the flop.

[Luco]

I see what Chardrian is getting at, but I'm still inclined to shove here.

[Trons]

IMO, another aspect to just raising as opposed to shoving that I like is that you can get a lesser hand to think they have fold equity against you. They don't, but not everybody will see that. Somebody with a hand like ATo may fold to your shove, but shove over you if they think they can get you to lay your hand down for your whole stack.

[Luco]

So the question becomes whether allowing more marginal hands to see a flop (and you could get more than one caller here) is worth it with AK. If you try this trick and someone flops a set with their 33, or pairs their jack with QJs, you'd feel pretty shitty. I guess it comes back to knowing your opponent's tendencies as to which you would choose.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good play with a made hand like JJ+ but AK is still a speculative hand when it comes to it.