AA slowplayed at final table

[Toopskees]

This hand was played by a friend of mine who wanted some other opinions. Poker Stars $20 multi, 170 entrants, top 20 places get paid. There was a history between him and another player (we'll call him Villain for lack of a better moniker). With around 24 players left, Hero won a big pot from Villain (the big stack at the time) with bottom set vs OESD that missed. Several hands later, Hero with 77 called an all-in by Villain (who was by then on a short stack) who won with pocket Q's. There was some less-than-goodnatured banter going on between those two after these two hands.

Anyway, fast forward to the final table with 9 players left. Hero has average stack with around 20,000. Villain is second chip leader with 40,000. Blinds are 3000/6000. Hero is in the BB with AA. Villain makes min raise to 12000 from EP. A short-stack in MP goes all-in for less than the BB amount. Everyone else folds. What is the best way for Hero to play in this situation: smooth call preflop to try to maximize chance for winning more chips and therefore winning the tournament, or reraise all-in to try to isolate against the all-in short stack?

I have already told him what I would have done, but he was interested in hearing what other esteemed forum readers had to say.

[young nut]

well...I guess it depends on how many player are left at the table and how big the pot size already is. I sometimes do try to just flat call an all in to get a bigger pot with my AA, but if the pot is large enough for me to want to get it heads up, then I will come over the top. We really need to know the pot size and player count for this situation when the action gets to your friend.

edit: oops, I am so out of it, failed to realize the only important stack sizes here are hero and villian. On that note, I would push this hand, and villian will no doubt call due to pot odds.

[shoeman]

I'm not really a veteran of the MTT forum but this post caught my eye. You have to push in this situation. Villian has raised to 12,000 which is over half of your stack. You have only 8,000 chips remaining if you call. You must push this because Villian would be a fool not to call getting great odds. He would be calling 8,000 to win 32,000 + BB. Villian has a better chance of folding after the flop.

[Rick Diesel]

As others have already said, you HAVE to push preflop here, as there is no way villain could, or for that matter, should fold for only 8k more. Villian may, however, be able to fold after the flop if he misses the flop completely.

.....you do not want to see a flop with a K, Q, J and Villain is sitting on KK, QQ, JJ or, for that matter, hit any set.

[Simplistic]

considering hero is all-in no-matter what, push PF to get the odds call.