Open a game and then press a key after x seconds

So i have lots of games that ask me to press a key to continue. I want a ghetto way to automatically do it with autoit. Can you please help me?

I have tried this:

run "C:\Program Files (x86)\Sample\Sample.exe"

SetKeyDelay, 3000

Send {1}

 

But the game crashed immediately. I dont know much about programing so can you please help me? Some games start slow, some games start fast before getting to the "Press any key to continue", I want to manually adjust the delay of the keystroke. I just want to get a cup of water or something and when i come back i can have my game already loaded.