Mid-stages push

[thegreatchris]

Early to mid stages of live $60 MTT...

My stack: ~8000, slightly below average
SB, BB, UTG, CO all sit with ~10,000

I've been completely card dead, but have stolen blinds five of last twelve hands with bad suited connectors to chip up to my current level. My image is relatively tight, but table does not seem to be too concerned with images considering some of the play to date.

Blinds are at 200/400.

UTG limps. I squeeze KQdd and limp behind in MP. Button calls along with the blinds completing. Pot is 2k.

Flop: 10d/7h/5d

SB leads for 2000, BB and UTG think briefly before folding. I shove for 5500 on top.

First, am I better off raising preflop and trying to take it down there?

Second, is my push standard here with two overs and the flush draw or should I have played this differently?

[blockafor]

I like a raise pre-flop to an amount just large enough to give you folding equity on UTG but not so large that you are pot committed. I think 4x is good. This also allows you to potentially buy the button and prevents having someone behind raise multiple limpers to an amount larger than 4x.

I like a flop push.

[ilushan]

Well, looks standard.
But in Russia you have no fold equity in this spot. And live players are horrible, so 5500 is a good stack with the blinds 200/400, so I'll consider just calling the flop bet to reevaluate later.
And, yes, I will probably raise preflop. Russian live players are not folding preflop [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img], but I'm eager to build a pot here.