when you are holding a hand like AK in position with lots of limpers, you should still raise it up, even if they will all call. when you have an equity edge, you want them to put a lot of money into the pot because you will win it more often than anyone else.

on that hand...ugh, you are right in your assessment of that hand, you played it extremely weak. preflop you should definitely raise to something like .2 (3xBB+2xBB for limpers). you are in position, with a great hand, why would you not want to be playing for more money after the flop? along with the stuff i said before, bet more on every street. on a board this dry you will basically always be wanting to play for stacks with top two, but you need to bet more on the flop to make a bigger bet on the turn seem reasonable to make a bigger bet on the river seem reasonable. does that explanation make sense?