Good Day RIO community; I recently played this hand in a live 1k and it's really the only hand out of the three bullets I fired that has me with an uneasy feeling. It's during my first bullet, at an absolute beast mode of a table. This could of very easily been the FT of this event, with several of us having 100k+ in live winnings.

Villain is mostly unknown to me, however has seemed to be pretty sticky pre flop. He is on his second bullet, which did weigh into my decision, because no one wants to buy into any tournament a third time (or a second for that matter). Other players in hand are largely irrelevant.

I have a solid/tight image, as there really wasn't much room to mess around at this table. I can't remember any significant history between villain and myself from previous tournaments.

Blinds are 100/200; Hero has ~20k(starting stack), Villain has ~17k

Hero is dealt Ac9c in MP and opens to 525. Villain calls from the HJ, CO calls, BB calls.

(Pot = 2200) Flop is 8c6c5s. BB Checks, Hero bets 1350, Villain and CO call, BB folds. - This is a pretty good flop for our hand, and leaves lots of draws for both the other players to be on, all of which we are likely to beat. It's possible one of them flopped a straight or set, but if so we are going to hear about it soon, so not too worried. Plan is to bet/fold to most turn raises. Since both these players have been calling pre flop fairly liberally, their ranges are still quite open.

(Pot = 6550) Turn is As. Hero bets 3250, Villain calls, CO folds. - I wasn't big fan of the A on the turn, as I'm now behind any hand that was floating me on the flop for the sake of floating. I still think V has a lot of flush draws and hands like 87s/76s in his range, as well as some 99/TT(maybe even JJ) combos. I think it's possible he has a made hand like a straight/set or two pairs, but I really feel he would be shipping on the turn with those to protect the hand, or to get me to make a bad call with my A high FD's(essentially the exact hand I have, and that I would of folded here). I strongly considered a check on the turn, but at this point I decided to turn my hand into a bluff/semi-bluff, and set up for a river shove. The bet sizing was to set the pot to be = to V's remaining stack, while also allowing me room to fold if he shoves Turn.

This is where I feel my thinking broke down. Does it make sense to shove pretty much every river? Is it a mistake to do so vs V's perceived range? How often is V going to be slow playing something that he can't fold, or can we really expect him to fold hands as strong as bottom set? I don't think we are ever getting 66/88 or a straight to fold, but 55 seems to be a more difficult call.... So are we better to just check/evaluate river? Would we have been much better off to just check turn and attempt to keep pot size much smaller?

In the end, I committed to a line, so I stuck with that line. I feel that, while it wasn't a great play, it wasn't completely horrible - I'm just curious what the rest of you think. For what it's worth, river was Jd, I shoved, V tanked for nearly 2 min and finally called with a set of 5's, and I'm not too sure he actually thought he was winning. He told me afterward the thought I rivered a set of Jacks, but just couldn't find his fold button.

Cheers!