Well, it unfortunately looks like no one is posting any more in this forum, but I'll do it anyway, since it belongs here really--although also in MTTs.

My point of departure is actually the late phase of HU matches, but the results should apply equally to the final HU battle in any tourney, provided that Ms are low.

Here's the question: You're fairly short relative to the blinds (<10 BB, let's say), and your opponent pushes. When should you call? Let's further assume that your opponent will push fairly often--maybe not every time, but frequently.

Well, I just ran some odds and found that SCs (which I think I've been laying down way too often here) are actually very good call hands, also the bigger the better, and the suited part isn't a huge factor. Let's just take to begin with that your opponent has A3o.

You should definitely call with 87s up to a stack of 48 times BB, because you're actually 1.04:1 with this hand vs. his hand. 86s is only slightly worse.

With 86o, you should call with 8.6 times BB (you're 1.2:1) and with 96o up to 6.2 times BB (1.3:1).

You're actually better off with the hands than with KJo, which is also 1.3:1, just slightly worse than 96o. However, the one thing about KJo is that it probably dominates part of villain's range (namely worse kings).

Also, 87s vs. AKo is only 1.4:1, so it's really not that disastrous if villain has even two overcards. With a stack of 520 and blinds at 50/100, you should even call that with open cards.

I do note that the best situation on these connectors arises when villain has an A with an undercard to your hand. So, the bigger the connector, the better (like T9, JT, etc.).

My conclusion really was that it's not bad to push this type of hand when you're short even against a villain who is going to call a lot, and it's also a good idea to call and try to double up as small underdog with this much blind pressure on you. These hands are very often coinflip situations that you can't afford to lay down when the blinds are large.

Chen and Ankenman have a table in their book on pushing and calling ranges. I think it's set on cash games, so it would be a bit different for a tourney situation. I think there are some ICM calculators available online that could give you ranges also. IIRC you can profitably push any two HU when bb is 10% of your stack.

The 10% (or 10bb) figure is from repeated ICM calculations at end game situations. I would look at my play through SNG wiz and see if I made any mistakes and it turned out that in many spots I could profitably push any two or nearly any two when big blind was 10% or more of either your stack or your opponent's. It was indeed surprising. Cash game numbers will differ. Again, that 10% is only a vague recollection, my trial period is over, so I cannot check. As EP9 said, a lot depends on your opponent's calling range as to what you might push and vice versa.

No,
A big blind that is 10% of your stack is equivalent to a stack size that is 10bbs.

50/100 blinds and a 1000 chip stack, for example.

*Welcome to the discussion, btw. I don't think I've seen you post before, though your stats say 6 posts and an August join date*