I figured it was middle play. If your middle play is solid, you can build your stack and position yourself to finish strong and fight it out for first. many times, when it gets down to 5 people, they tighten up. if you can be a bit more aggressive/opportunistic, you can steal some blinds and build up a stack. If you tighten up, your stack slowly fades as you wait out the shortstacks, often crippling you once you hit the money. Ya 3rd is great because it pays, but lets face it, no one is satisfied with anything but first.