Stars 3.30 rebuy tourney, 1200 left, 700 get paid. Blinds are 300 600 and 50 ante
Hero has 16,700, villian has 9,000.

Hero has AQ and raises to 1800 UTG. Villian in UTG+1 goes all in for 7,000 more. Everyone folds to hero.

To do the quick math, the pot is about 12,000, and I have to call about 7,000. I'm getting laid 12-7, or in other words If I can win here more than 37% of the time I should call. .

Its an EV coinflip. If you think you need to build a stack fast call, otherwise fold.

Based on where I am at in the tourney, with average stack being about 16,000, and the details I gave above, do I need to be accumulating a lot of chips right now?

I don't raise AQ UTG here with an average sized stack. As played I'm on the fence but I think its a fold, you will still have a decent stack to work with.

Yes you need to accumulate chips, but not desperately enough to take an EV coinflip where are an underdog to win. Re the next post, folding AQ preflop first in from any position is too tight. I can see arguments for limping or min raising, but not folding.

I limp it in this situation, never said fold it

Yeah, I misread the "fold" in the second sentence.

thanks,
copernicus, where do you usually play and what stakes?

Pokerstars (mostly), FullTilt, UltimateBet. anywhere from $11r to the nightly 100k, sats to the sunday million, 20/180s. Live at Foxwoods, Caesars, Mirage and Bellagio mostly.