Feel like I made a mess of this hand from the Hot 16.50.

PokerStars - 200/400 Ante 50 NL - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 21.85 BB (VPIP: 18.52, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 27)
CO: 35.21 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 8.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)
Hero (BTN): 26.27 BB
SB: 20.63 BB (VPIP: 18.52, PFR: 20.83, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 27)
BB: 30.26 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 19.23, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 27)
UTG: 31.36 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 37.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
UTG+1: 4.25 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 27)

7 players post ante of 0 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.37 BB) Hero has A K

fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, Hero calls 3 BB, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (10.37 BB, 3 players) 7 T 8
BB checks, CO checks, Hero bets 4.68 BB, BB calls 4.68 BB, fold

Turn: (19.74 BB, 2 players) A
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (19.74 BB, 2 players) 3
BB bets 22.45 BB and is all-in, Hero ???

Felt like my stack was an awkward size for a 3b at the time so I opted to call, hoping the 3x raise would get through the blinds.

Nobody makes a move at the flop so I decide to stab with the overs and backdoor NFD.

Turn I wavered between betting and checking. I was worried that if I bet and he shoved, I would puke, and I didn't want to fold out the weaker pairs in his range. I also blocked both nut flush draws so I wasn't too concerned about a heart or diamond on the river.

River brings the diamond and he shoves. Ugh. Does he have enough busted draws in his range to make this call?

Shove turn. Lots of draws out there you don't want to give a free card to. V may very well have you beat on river but he could also be pushing weaker aces so I don't think we can get away from TPTK.

I would shove pre.
as played - def shove OTT. The pot is already bigger than you stack, so you don't fold your hand anyways and you have to charge fd's. seems like and ideal spot to shove.

I'd mainly shove pre here but flat is OK - As played not stabbing the flop here- it hits BB range pretty well. As played shove the turn too much in the middle to give a free card - as played there are too many missed draws to fold.

Yeah I think the three of you managed to capture all my thoughts about this hand. Bottom line is I shouldn't have made it to the river in this spot.

Here is what I'm thinking in order of preference:

1) Shove pre - it's a tad on the large side but pretty unexploitable

2) As played on the call pre, don't stab flop for reason oldgoat mentioned

3) As played pre/flop, shove turn

4) Last resort as played up to the river, call

Anyone disagree?

This is why you 3b/shove pre. You don't want to keep someone's range wide enough that hands like Q9dd or 45dd are seeing a flop against AKo. Between his 3bb, the blinds, and antes, a fold from everyone preflop isn't the worst thing in the world if you shove, and you never know if you might not get looked up by a hand like KQs or AQ/AJs which you dominate.

His raise size makes a 3b kind of awkward here so I think shove pre is the only correct answer.

As far as the rest of the hand, yet, I think you guys summed it up pretty succinctly, including a call on the river since a lot of his flush draws are limited here. Expect to lose often though and you should be kicking yourself for playing so passively. You can flat AA or KK here pre with the large sizing by an LP raise but you shouldn't be flatting AKo.

Also, 3-bet shoving having stack >20BB with AK is so common move and you can see it everywhere that I sometimes doing it with QQ, KK, AA with an idea to represent AK and induce V's call esp if he raised pre from EP - he might hold a pair which is coin flip with AK and decide to call and check how is it with his luck today...Works OK versus loose opponents.

Yeah, I agree apart from 1 as I don't mind the flat but 3betting small or shove is probably the line we want to take most of the time but mixing in the occasional flat is decent as it also allows SB or BB to get more aggressive.

Shove pre.

Why are you betting this flop? The flop hits the BB range pretty hard so just check. Why check the turn when you hit the best card in the deck to bluff also?

I have to go with shoving pre-flop here, there's no reason to play this hand out with 20BB's and you should be glad to collect villians chips if he folds. Also, you should check behind the flop a decent amount of times and bet the turn as someone mentioned above serves as a good bluff card for you and you can also deny equity to other draws.

I dunno

I can't tell if you're joking or not when you say I dunno. But you should usually know why you're doing anything. Like why am I checking a set on this flop or why am I stabbing here. How does my overall range of hands want to play this hand.

What I mean is I realized immediately that I played the hand badly so I don't have a good explanation for why I did what I did.

Makes sense then.