25NL - Family pot, AK in the BB

[phydaux]

Here's a situation that came up recently, and I honestly didn't know what to do.

25NL on Stars. Only about the 2nd orbit, so no real reads, although UTG+1 and I have already tangled twice, and he seems a solid player.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

CO ($12.80)
Button ($9.10)
SB ($7.05)
Hero ($27.70)
UTG ($23.45)
UTG+1 ($19.40)
MP1 ($28.95)
MP2 ($13.90)
MP3 ($13.60)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
UTG calls $0.25, UTG+1 calls $0.25, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP3 calls $0.25, CO calls $0.25, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, SB completes, Hero...?

My first instinct is always to be the aggressor. I want to send my opponents a message that if they play a pot with me then their whole stack might end up in the middle.

But in this situation I've got a strong but unmade hand and lots of opponents. If I raise here, say to ~$2.00, and get an early caller, then I'm giving the whole rest of the field great odds to call with all kinds of speculative hands. I'm only going to make TPTK 1 time in 4, and those times I miss I'd be faced with either committing a lot of chips to a c-bet when I'm OOP, or check/folding when there's a chance my overcards are still the best hand.

But that's the price you pay when you play OOP, isn't it? Maybe I should re-read my own Pooh-Bah Post.

Even though my first instinct is always to raise, I think the best play here is to check my option and see what flops.

What do you guys do here?