AQo in small blind with 20bbs left.

I played the other night in my local casino and wondered what the members thought of this play. I had 12000 left and the blinds where 300-600 so i've got 20bbs left. I am in the small blind and have had nothing all night. I pick up AQo which is the best hand I have had for ages. There is an EP raiser who makes it 2,100 to go. It gets folded round to me, I think I have two options. 1. AI or 2. Call and shove any flop if there is no ace or king. I have only just arrived at this table but I know the raiser is a good player. The BB has yet to act. What would you lot think the best play is and why. Cheers.

It's tough to tangle with an EP raiser especially at a new table (i.e. unknown opponent). I hate calling here. I think you have too many chips for a stop/go here. Don't know why you care if a K hits the flop... only flop I check is an Ace to go for check/raise. Otherwise push on any other flop if you want to stop/go.

Back to preflop don't really feel short enough to force a coin flip in this spot. As new player to table this is a reluctant preflop fold for me.

I would fold. Icky spot though. What range is he folding to your stop and go? I think he calls off 99-AA. A 16BB donk shove sort of eliminates top pair from your range right? He'll be happy to look you up with his pre flop value raising range...unless he has AJ/AK.

I would think his stack size is very important here so we know if you have fold equity. Interesting hand though. I don't think people give enough thought to these situations where you have very little info. They are probably what separates elite from good tournament players.

Was any bubble looming? That would make the fold easier for me. Against an active player, I might shove here most of the time. Since you just sat down and he's good, I would practice avoidance.

Thanks for the replies guys, well what I did was shove partly because of the poor position I am in and secondly because of the poor cards I had been getting. The blinds where going to be 4-800 within a couple of minutes then I am only looking at 15bb. Unfortunately the BB went all in as well as did the EP raiser. The BB had ppQQ and the EP rasier had AKo. The ppQQ held up and the BB knocked us both out. To be honest I did'nt consider the fold maybe I'll look at that in the future but AQo is quite a good hand to be shoving with when you are going to be short very soon. That is what I thought anyway and as for the stop go he is only going to fold AK which is what he had actually. Thanks any further responses would be most welcome.

Eff stacks? How many at table? Standard opening size?

stacks; EP around 12-15000 less his 2100 raise, BB had 40000 he'd just won a big pot but I was not to know he had a monster. 10 at the table.

Shove or fold pre at those stacks. I'd fold, his ep range probably looks something like TT+, AQ+ and he isn't raising to fold so he doesn't have air at all imo.

reads are important in this spot

BTW If it wasn't clear already, you need to post at the very least stack sizes, # of players at the table to have any meaningful answer.

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If you think EP's range is tight, this is an easy fold.