Total chips in play - 470K. 10 places (final table) paid. 8 players left.
$1250 for 1st, $1000 for 2nd, $750 for 3rd, 4-10th agreed on a deal for $300 each.

Hero has 97K chips and is the chip leader on the Button. Villain has 79K chips and is second in chips in the BB. Villain is a regular tournament crusher. Hero is a cash game crusher who's dabbling in tournament play. We've crossed paths infrequently in cash games, and hero has a healthy respect for villain as a player capable of making the right play.

Blinds 3K/6K with a 500 ante. Pot: 13K.

Folds to Hero who is dealt TT on the BTN. Hero has a sLAG image. Hero raises to 18K. SB folds, Villain in the BB ships all-in. Hero???

Thoughts and some history.
Hero just tank called all-in with AKo against AJo two from the bubble, and snap-called all-in with KK against A2s on the bubble. Hero obtained the chip lead, got moved to the final table, and started opening QTs and called a shortstack all-in (lost against KQo). Hero then opened KQo UTG and snap-folded to a medium-stack shove. So, hero appears to be changing gears, is on the button, against an accomplished tournament crusher. With that image, is this a call? With the stack sizes is this a sigh fold? If I fold here, will I be exploitable?. If I call, I could be ahead and if my TT holds, I could have 38% of the chips in play be nearly impossible to beat. Alternatively, if I call and my TT is way behind or gets cracked when ahead, I'd be crippled. Would you call or fold in this spot?

I dont think theres a universe where I'm folding TT to a 13bb jam over our button open, especially after we've opened 3x guaranteeing the blinds cant flat. This hand is good enough to minraise to induce a shove from either blind, but if you're not comfortable calling off a 13bb rejam here then just ship it pre.

As played I'm snapping it off as we easily dominate his range in a lot of cases.

Why so big pre? And this is just the easiest call, not even close.

Can't fold here with only 13BB remaining.

I don't think winning the hand makes you remotely unbeatable. You would have less than 30BB with the average stack at 10BB. Someone should be shipping pre-flop almost every hand at this stage. You still need some run good to win.

Think the only question here is whether open shove or raise/gii is the better play with TT in this spot. At 13BB effective I think open shoving our entire playable range is fine.

As played this is a pretty standard call.

Thanks for your responses.

Results: I was near the top of my button raising range, and so I snap-called. I got shown Aces. I flopped a set, and then he turned a set. It was one of the more memorable hands of my tournament life.

The other 6 players were some combination of recreational passive scared money types (which is also why the chip leader had only 16BB). It was easy to keep picking up the blinds and antes, so I was questioning whether I should have avoided the second big stack and picked on the others and made the huge pay-jump.

In any case, that would make me a passive scared money type too, and a better spot may have never come up.

Since there's no pay jump until 3rd there's not much icm consideration here. To pass on this spot would be a huge punt imo especially considering this is a short stack FT structure.

16BB, TT and everyone folded to hero on BTN? Isn't it a no-brainer all-in?