I was playing a tournament were down to the final eight. I have 8 big blinds (in the small blind) and a friend of mine in the big blind has about 10. Its folded to me and I go all in with an ace X. My friend folds I show him the ace and then when I throw my cards into the muck he turns over the other card and sees a 3.

I know that is wrong but that is not my question. The next day he says I always target him and he cant believe I would bluff him by going all in with ace 3. I tell him that for me I would always go all in with ace x from the small blind when its folded to me (and I only have 8 blinds). I also tell him that I play him the same as anyone else at the table (we were playing for a small amount of money).

So am I wrong to always push in in the above example? Also in what turns out to be one of two hands is there anyway that ace 3 is a bluff hand? To me it is better than the average random hand so I don't think of it as a bluff.

I don't like your friend.

The worst part of this is obviously that he turned over your other card without permission.

Also he is a bad poker player. Ax is an automatic shove from the SB there. When I see the first card is an A I don't need to look at the other card (though now I pretend to look just in case anybody is watching).

The thing I would talk to him about rather than strategy, is why he shouldn't have turned over your other card. Tell him you would be happy to tell him your hands just like he is happy to tell you his, but to turn it over means that everyone at the table gets to see how you are playing with a short stack. Not that he would see the importance in that either...

I need more details about the payout structure, starting stack sizes around the table, etc to check whether it's +chipEV and whether ICM agrees.

think of it as a 10 person sit and go. we are down to 8. three prizes 50-30-20.

My friend did get spoken too by the host and told to never do something like that again.

This is an extremely standard push and your friend's behavior is very poor and should be unwelcome at the table.

It sounds like this is a home-game-type situation. Is your friend not very experienced with poker? Hopefully the host explained to him why it's bad to do what he did, and what penalties would be for future infractions so he could learn from it.

As for your actual question, with 8 blinds, I'm in push/fold mode almost all of the time. Any Ax, folded to me in SB, is certainly going to qualify.

Poker is competition. I mean, part of the fun is working out how people play and adapting your own play to win the most against them. So for your friend to be complaining that you play "differently" against him is ridiculous. You SHOULD be playing differently against him if you have information about how he plays. Isn't that what he is trying to get by looking at what you folded? If he doesn't like the game that's up to him but to demand you "play nice" against him is lolworthy

regarding the actual hand - it is a very standard shove and not even close to a decision worth thinking about