Steve - why no Ace Rag?
My guess is that he feels that with two limpers in front, any call of our Ax is likely to have us dominated.
It"d be a really unusual range if equity for A2o is lower than 87 suited. Almost always better to get it in with Ax.
If we shove 87s, we are far more likely to have live cards if called.... someone who has limped a hand that dominates 87 (perhaps 89, T8, etc) is far less likely to call than someone who has limped Ax. In my experience in these low buy in tourneys, a limper with Ax is never ever ever folding to a 10x shove from the blinds..... with so many limpers before us, one of them is likely to have Ax, meaning a shove with A2o is going to be crushed a lot of the time.
What limp-call range would you give them?
If they only call with better Ax and pairs then yes, 87s has greater equity. But as soon as you add even a few broadway hands like KJ etc, Ax increases in value massively as it you can actually end up getting it in ahead. Although you"re "live" with 87s more often you"re still almost guaranteed 30%+ equity with Ax, so you"re never in too bad shape.
For a range of 88-22 and A2+. A2o has 37.68% equity vs 44.46% equity. Adding 3/4 other hands sees it swing in A2o"s favour, so if you think they"re calling with KQ, KJ, KT, QJ etc then it"s a little better to have the Ace.
They"re probably folding anyway, so who cares what you have?