[Honest_Rob]

Here's how the hand played out.

230 man $100 buy-in NLHE MTT
Blinds: 200/400
Players left: approx: 160
Average Stack: approx: 4,800-5,000

10 handed
UTG(10,000): calls 400
MP(5,000): calls 400
ME Cutoff(7,500): [6s6d] calls 400
Button(2,300): folds
SB(4,000): folds
BB(10,000): checks

FLOP [3s 4c 5d]
BB: checks
UTG: bets 800
MP: folds
ME Cutoff: calls 800
BB: folds

TURN [3s 4c 5d] [As]
UTG: bets 1200
ME Cutoff: thinks a long time and calls 1200

RIVER [3s 4c 5d] [As] [Tc]
UTG: checks
ME Cutoff: checks

UTG shows AKo
ME shows 66

UTG wins the pot.

In hindsight I agree I should have raised the flop. It gives me fold equity and in this case I would have likely won the pot right there. I know that is results oriented thinking but I feel it would be correct regardless. Raising his flop bet to 2,000 would probably be optimal. The Ms in this tourney were all pretty low so smaller raises get more respect because they mean that much more of someone's stack. As it played out I put 2,000 in the pot after the flop anyway but I had no fold equity. I played it so weak it's been making me sick. I almost folded the turn but that seemed like an even weaker play to me because his bet was small in relation to the pot. Any thoughts?