Hoping some ICM wizards can chime in here and tell me if this was a +EV play or not. I'm still learning ICM so any feedback or info will be much appreciated. Live event, $75 buy-in 5k guarantee. Players are mostly bad with some decent regs.

Blinds: 4k, 8k

Hero: Hand AQ LAG, 20s male
Villian: LAG, 30s female, reg, hoodie & headphones
Stack Sizes: Hero 130k Villain 110k (both top 5 in chips)

Top 9 get paid.
1st place gets $1900
2nd $800
3rd $500
- A lot of the prize money goes to 1st - you get the point.

History: I've tightened up a lot since opening 3-4 times in a row, once with AA vs. villain where we shoved over her 3x open. Then next hand we opened and took down her BB. We are both the most active players at the table and she has not played back at my opens or 3bs yet but seems frustrated. The entire table seems fed up with both of us for stealing their precious blinds. Villian has open shoved 4-5 times since our arrival to the table (~1hr). We are both the biggest stacks at our table where everyone in this tourney plays down to 5bb in their stack, then decides its time to jam.

Pre-Flop
Hero: (UTG) 20k open (sizing might be too big here?) I like to size up when UTG w/ my entire opening range
Folds to villian on Button.
Villian open jams to 110k effective. 90k to call to hero.

We thought for a while here and ultimately made the call. I put her range at 88s+ and KQss/AJo+

Some more history, the last tourney she called our shove over her open for 15BBs w/ KQ. We had AJ then.

We table our AQ

Villian shows....?

Is this a good move considering payouts, villains potential range and ICM implications? I'll post villians hand after some responses. Thanks guys!

Because you say most people suck at your table and only one reg, I would fold. Why go to battle with the other big stack that can actually play poker and jams in an UTG open from a big stack as well?
Take advantage of the smaller fish while they are there.
ICM pressure adds to the fold.

In a top heavy structure like this and with only 14BB left after your open, it is a crying fold.

Open is fine, 2.25BB would work as well.

Shove pre.

Appreciate the insights. Would you say opening this hand to 2-2.25bb pre and folding to a shove is better than just open shoving pre?

Even if we're 4th in chips it still makes sense to shove pre with under 20bbs? I know the conventional wisdom is under 20 bigs only shove pre but with these types of tournaments where I'm in 4th with ~17 bigs it still makes sense to go with under 20 bigs either a fold/shove pre strategy?

Gotta call it.

This is a micro speed tournament. It's basically going to be a crap shoot at this point. Also, you are still ahead of Villain's range. I think the range you gave her is reasonable, but I would probably also include any pair. I'm sure after you run the numbers its +EV.

In top heavy tournaments, I wouldn't worry as much about ICM here. top heavy means icm matters less. Do you really care about min cashing for $80? You should want to put yourself in a spot to win the $1900.

Thanks for the input! Good to know ICM didn't really matter too much in this situation. I was playing for 1st and that ultimately was what made the decision to call easier.

Fairly standard call as played, especially against good reg. Open shoving UTG is not a mistake either, especially versus fields where players tend to be tight and overfold.

If you are a big stack in the tournament with only 16 BB's, then that means there are multiple stacks that are under 10 BB's. In that situation you should probably tighten up your range and play all-in or fold poker. I would open-shove here.

Agreed. I think its best to not be opening w/ marginal hands and just fold/shove. AQ would be at the very bottom of my range for a shove from EP.