9 handed blinds 300/600 50 ante
early stages of a tournement
utg adkd raise to 1200
folds to small blind
small blind raises 1200 to 2400 with unknown hand
big blind calls 2400 with unknown hand
utg calls the 2400
flop comes as jc 8c
small blind leads 3600
big blind calls 3600
what should UTG do?
stack sizes utg 19k sb 40k bb 30kk

Shove pre with that stacksize and that many chips in the middle, as played shove now.

i thought a lot about this hand, i'm certainly ok with shoving pre considering the amount in the middle relative to stack size, against strong opponents or with tournament considerations I certainly don't think a shove is terrible. I just think this hand plays well in position and you are giving that value away when you shove. You are also facing a range amongst both opponents that is weighted towards hands that either aa which have you crushed and snap call, or B hands that you play well against in position tt jj qq kk ak. I believe the majority of your opponents range will make a call here, and you are never in great shape when called. He could have the random junk outside of that range which snap folds but unlikely. It just seems like the stronger play is to flat. One thing to consider (in favor of a flat) is your flatting range is essentially as wide as your opening range giving your opponents, one of which who has a made a bizarre bloat the pot oop little to no information about your hand. Many players will flat AA here so that must be included in the flatting range.

There is also some merit to a 4 bet fold but this seems even weaker, it's bascially an im scared to shove bet even though your opponent will read it as strong, and there are some opponents whose five bet range will include ak qq jj and you are forced to surrender your equity.

Shove pre
Shove over the stupid 3b and cold call unless you get some nutted read
As played, fyl