What the ?

3 handed. I'm to the left of the big stack, who's at like 7k, blinds at 150/300. My stack's at like 2k, and the short stack is under 1k.

I'm assuming, given the blinds and the stacks, that my best play is to wait out for second (which i basically never do).

So I get AXo first hand and fold it.... and big stack folds SB. Next hand, big stack pushes on the button. I fold my SB. Same exact plays next round. My stack's getting short and I'm frustrated, so I push with A9o on my SB. Big stack instacalls me with 96o with less than 2:1. Big stack again folds the short stack's BB, and then pushes on mine. I get A3s in the SB and push, he again instacalls, this time with 82, and I lose.

What was this, and should I have responded differently? (Sorry for lack of exact numbers... Bodog.)

[Newt_Buggs]

"what was this?"
sounds like a bad beat post

if you want to know how to properly adjust to a shorter stack ITM play around with ICM.

I'm not really concerned about the final; I expect very big stacks in $5+.5 to play super loose passive, and I think it gives me some nice EV.

My question is how do I respond when ITM and the big stack is pounding me and leaving the other guy alone. I guess I'm forced to play super-aggressively?