So I was watching a stream from the European WSOP main event and asked a question which resulted in a few laughs from the Twitch chat. It's down to 11 players and I can't remember stack sizes but the hand went as follows:

BTN opens with KJo for I think 2.5x to something like 85k. BB then raises it to around 240k. BTN tanks a while then folds.

People in the chat were complaining about BTN tanking and I asked whether opening KJo at this stage of the tournament is the right move or if we are asking to get put into difficult situations by the BB on a lot of occasions. I understand later into a tournament we need to open more loosely, but when the table are 3betting fairly regularly, particularly the player on the BB, who has 3bet pre something like 6 times in 15 hands, is this still profitable over the long run?

I'm told this is a snap opener so I mean I'm guessing the answer is obviously yes, because why else would people find that question so hilarious?

you need to take position into consideration. While KJo is pretty standard fold utg or utg1, it is essentially the nuts on the button and open folding it would be a massive mistake. You should likely be opening as light as K5o and K2s in this spot.

Also, when facing a 3bet from a maniac, this should be either a call or a jam (depending on stack sizes), but maybe you recall the previous actions wrong (3betting 40% is laughably bad unless you are getting smacked by the deck)

Ok so standard opening as actually much lighter than I expected. villain here was actually 3betting that regularly, the commentator actually brought it up. Interestingly in this spot button folded and BB had QQ. Obviously BTN doesn't know this, so I was interested to see if other people are also folding this or not.

Unless ICM tells us otherwise? With 11 players left, it might be correct to fold significantly wider than we would in the early stages of a tournament or cash game.

Further complicating ICM considerations, there's a chance we have to take into account that making the final table of the WSOP Europe Main Event has additional financial/exposure benefits.

Was the table five or six handed?

KJo from the button in an unraised pot is a pretty solid opening hand on a short handed table.

It's Twitch chat ffs

Yeah I get that Twitch chat is filled with ****wads but I wanted to check I wasn't asking a stupidly simple question. I'm guessing that ICM makes my question more sensible. They were at a point where each place up was making a bigger difference to payout, with 11 players left the final table was obviously looming. So if we now take ICM into account, do we make this raise knowing we might be 3bet pre and having the intention of folding when he does 3bet us or do we consider his high 3bet % and fold or do you think he should have considered a different line altogether? (I understand that there's information missing from this hand so fair enough if you can't comment).

highly dependant on effective stack size for this situation. Kjo is very above average in at least a 15 bb or less scenerio.

Hero and V (all of them) stack sizes .. as well as what's going on at the other table are very important.

You should very much be opening KJo short-handed unless you are short stacked, then it's more shove/fold .. and probably much more shoving than folding. But you should also consider folding to the 3-bets more often as well using the same set of data.

There has been a trend as of late that you would flat from the B here as well. And I would consider that knowing that the BB is a 'defender' or chronic opener/raiser of pots.

You mentioned the tanking ... Our Hero may very well have been considering the size of the 3-bet. Even an 'extra' 0.5x in a 3-bet can give away that a player is stronger than normal. He may also could've been considering the stack sizes and the how often he would have to face a sizable c-bet from this player ... with a hand that can whiff or easily be dominated already.

You also have to consider how 'slow' the structure is in these events. There was plenty of folding KJ/pp types of hands when the WSOP ME got to 27 and under.

You should not feel 'bad' about opening KJ from the B shorthanded at all, but you also have to be aware that at certain stages and/or under certain stack size dynamic that all you are trying to do is steal .. but wouldn't mind seeing a Flop either. GL