Moved up to Mini Step 4, 1 away from big money

I managed to dominate a step 2 and move up to step 3. Early in the Step 3 I was dealt AA. I raised and my opponent called. The flop came out 10 high. I bet 1/2 the pot. He raised all in, which was a big overbet. I figured if someone had a real strong hand, they would have bet less or just called. So I called and sure enough, he had pocket Kings. The turn and river did not help him, and I had a quick double up.

From there I played carefully. The blinds started to increase and I managed to steal a few. A couple of times, players played back at me and I had to lay down. Overall, I was slowly chipping up.

Then at level 5 with blinds at 200-400 I was dealt pocket Queens on the button. I started the hand with 4868 in chips. 6 players are left. One fold then Jeff710 goes all in for 1110. Dabeers34 who has 3024 in chips, just calls. I decide to push all in thinking I can pick up the dead money from the blinds and Dabeers. It helps that I cover Dabeers just in case he is slow playing a monster. The blinds fold and Dabeers folds, so it's heads up. Jeff710 shows a pair of 3's and my hand is good. That pumps me up to 7688 in chips with 5 players left.

The final four get a free entry back to level 3 so that is a major bubble point. Nobody likes to go backwards. I am now looking to steal a little more when the situation is right. 2nd place in chips is kbooya with 4283 so I have a cushion.

I wait a few hands. They fold to me in the BB. (They must be trembling in terror). On the button I am dealt As 3s. I raise to 1800 which is now 3x the big blind. I win 900 in blinds. Next hand I am dealt Ac 9c. I open raise to 1800 and win 900 in blinds again. Third hand I am dealt Ac 9c again. Again I open raise, this time from UTG to 1800. kbooya raises me all in for 3183. So it's 1383 to call into a pot of 5883. I am getting over 3 to 1 to call, so I have to. I am hoping he has a small pair. He turns over pocket 9's. However, I get lucky and spike an Ace on the turn and now I am pumped up to 13,871 with 4 left.

Here's where we stand:
larryvq 13871
dutchkid52 4675
Oman7 340
Dabeers 1114

So the strategy is to implicitly collude with dutchkid and play every hand with Oman and Dabeers in the blind. Also to put pressure on dutchkid since he will be in no mood to call any raises with the others so short.

However, the next hand Dabeers wakes up with Ace-Jack and moves all in. Dutch calls with T9o in the big blind and loses. So now Dabeers has 2528 with the blinds at 300-600, so he has a little wiggle room.

Oman is eliminated by Dutchkid the next hand so here's the latest chip count:
Larryvq 13,571
dutchkid 3901
Dabeers 2528

with 300-600 blinds, I feel like I could almost just hang around and do nothing. Both of these players have been weak-passive so I should probably steal occasionally just to maintain my chips.

It took at whopping 58 hands before we finally eliminated another player!!!!

There was a point where I lost the chip lead and even was down to 4x the Big Blind, but I scratched and clawed my way back to the lead, because these guys just would not steal the blinds.

When it was all over we were up to 400-800 blinds with a 25 ante. I didn't even know they had antes in the sit and gos.

Somehow Dutchkid managed to finish in the top two with me and we are on to Level 4. If I manage to get a top 2 placing there, it's on to the final level where first prize is $2000.