Playing against an aggressive player 3-handed with >10BBs

I just dumped a 3-handed chip lead at the FT of an MTT. Needless to say, this is embarassing for someone who plays SnGs all day and reads this forum. The payout was 1-1.44-2.25 or 21-31-48. I know that one mistake I made was seeing that second was sweeter than in SnGs and overreacting to that (I didn't bother to calculate the ratio, just eyeballed it and thought it was actually significant).

Anyway, I encountered a totally new obstacle. Blinds were about 3k/6k, and we all fluctuated around 120k, basically even. One player got superaggressive and really frustrated me. The problem in particular that I had is that, at first, I didn't wanna push a 120k stack with 6k blinds covered, and if I didn't push, he often would--or he'd even stop and go, though I'm not sure he intended to before the flop. In a case like this, should I just start pushing with 20 BBs, and what hands should I do it with? Should I raise normally with premium hands to get him to push so I can call, and what should I do that with?

I think my major mistake was overestimating second--maybe I could've even placed second if I wasn't so worried about doing it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. So, lesson learned, and going to bed unhappy with a substantial win for me.

Advice much appreciated.

[bennies]

congrats on 3rd, hopefully it feels better in the morning...

I don't think pushing 20bbs is the solution. In these spots I tighten up, I dump A7, Axs, KTs, 33, hands that I might ordinarily raise with. With premium hands I make a standard raise and hope for mr. Lag to come over the top.

If nothing happens (but usually something will), my stack/blind ratio will decrease to about 10 where I shove about top 30 percent from button or sb.

[ QUOTE ]
congrats on 3rd, hopefully it feels better in the morning...

I don't think pushing 20bbs is the solution. In these spots I tighten up, I dump A7, Axs, KTs, 33, hands that I might ordinarily raise with. With premium hands I make a standard raise and hope for mr. Lag to come over the top.

If nothing happens (but usually something will), my stack/blind ratio will decrease to about 10 where I shove about top 30 percent from button or sb.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks.

[tigerite]

Outplay him on the flop. His actions should be pretty transparent if he's as maniacal as you say. Remember he'll miss on the flop 2/3rds of the time.