3 players....now what?

[nickey009]

This past weekend I played in a 100 buy-in tourney. There was a re-buy period and 31 total players. The prize fund ended up being about 5100-5500 bucks. At the end of the tourney 3 of us were left and chip stacks were about even.

I had a pretty good read on the player to my left. He was tight. How tight? He often folded his SB to the BB and just gave him the chips. He'd fold to any raise unless he held something premium. If he re-raised he typically had the goods making it pretty easy to lay down.

The player to my right was a little more tricky. He doesn't surrender his blinds hardly ever. He'll make a raise at my to try and steal my blinds. Has the stones to go all-in a draw if he feels he has good outs or can just take it down right there.

So, here's my question. When I have the button how should I be playing? The player to my left was folding his SB to the BB very often and if I had opened with a raise there's a good chance I'm taking down a ton of those pots. Plus add to that the fact that in subsequent rounds I'd be in position makes it very attractive. However, the stacks were all about equal 30,000 - 40,000 each and blinds were at 2,000 - 4,000. If I'm coming in for a raise I'd have to be like 12,000 which is over 1/3 of my chips.

So what should I be doing?

[A_C_Slater]

Was this tournament at a Knight's of columbus hall?

[MLG]

this probably isnt a helpful answer, but you should be making a deal.

[37offsuit]

Right about the deal. 3 people left with even chips, the cards are going to speak unless someone screws up badly.

Assuming you can't get the deal done, you CAN NOT let the tighty fold away all those SBs to the more aggressive player. You have to make stands and steal blinds.

When the blinds are this high compared to the stacks, I tend to look at my stack as having 2 or 3 barrels, meaning you can make only 2 or 3 meaningful bets if you don't pick up more chips. So say you try and steal with 1/3 of your chips. If you get called you have to determine whether to fire another barrel if the flop misses you. If you do, will it be a single or double shot? You also have to realize if you don't fire, you're down to 1 or 2 barrels left if you end up not winning the hand. The blinds are coming quick so you have to be aggressive.

Missing with the first barrel doesn't take away your chance of winning. You can always push on another hand to try a steal again and if you get called, you race.

The only really bad strategy at this point is to get blinded out.

[nickey009]

I suppose I could/should have cut a deal but that's really not helping me.

This was a home game and not a club tourney.

I liked the 3rd posters thoughts on how this should be played. It's just tough because there's 2 people to act after me when I'm on the button and I feel like if I commit a third of my chips to the pot I'm almost forced to go in on the flop hit or miss.