This hand is from the Borgata $100k Guaranteed deep stack, there are about 90-100 players left with 63 reaching the money so we are getting close. New TPE pro Jamie Kerstetter recently moved to the table a couple of orbits ago two seats to my right. We have played in a few tournaments before at early/mid stages and I have a decent idea of her game, what she is capable of, and that's she's an MTT reg. Likewise, I'm pretty sure she knows I'm an MTT reg, competent, capable of making aggressive plays, and so on. Never have gotten into any deep strategy discussions with her, but we were bantering a bit about TPE stuff and her articles, etc.

So on to the hand: Blinds are 2500/5000/500a, going up to 3k/6k/500a in about 15 minutes. Table seems to have been playing pretty slow with people taking a long time for what seemed like simple spots.

Jamie – CO – 140-150k

Hero – SB – 130k

Random – BB – 60k

Preflop (12500), folds around to Jamie who opens for 11.5k, btn folds, I have AQcc in the small blind. I feel Jamie is opening pretty wide here as she should be. I am trying to decide between 3 possible lines here, though more considering two of them.

1. 3b shove – not my favorite, though I'm definitely ahead of Jamie's opening range, I push out too many hands I have dominated which may give me action. Plus I feel 26bb is a little much to be jamming over a 2.3x open. It lets her play a lot better against my hand as she will never fold a better hand (though I probably fold out 66-88, maybe 99). Probably the lowest variance option as I'll be getting folds a majority of the time.

2. 3b/call – Definitely willing to get it in her against her CO open, and making it 28.5k gives her room to 4bet shove especially since she should know I'm capable of being light. She also has a great stack size for 4bet shoving. While I still get it in against the range I'm crushed against, this allows me to get it in against some more hands I'm beating.

3. Flat – While 3b/call is probably the most standard line in this spot, I feel like there are some merits to flatting. Biggest one being the sunglasses hoodie guy in the BB. If he takes the squeeze spot, I can get it in against the both of them in a spot where I will be well ahead of their ranges, as Jamie won't likely think I'm that strong and iso-shove, or if she folds it's an easy snap against the BB. If the BB folds, it will disguise the strength of my hand and she will probably have a hard time getting off AJ-A9 or KQ/QJ if the A or Q hits. There are also flops I can check/shove draws and such.

So while debating between options 2 and 3 I ultimately decided to go with 3. Unfortunately the BB did something unexpected and just flatted here, so we go 3-handed to a flop.

Flop (39500) JTTr (no clubs)

Hero checks, BB checks, Jamie bets 22k

Hero ???

So now trying to decide on semi-bluff shoving or just folding. While I flatted with intentions of making plays on boards such as this one, there is a very short stacked player to contend with. She is betting into 2 players on a board that should be hitting our ranges pretty hard (or at least mine). She could possibly be bet/folding, as she left herself with 20-22bb, but I'm not so sure she's bluffing especially being committed to call the BB. What do you guys think?