How to handle Button-Small Blind-Big blind play?

[jimmer]

I played a $4.40 180 seater sng last night and finished 12th. But I went to bed convinced I lost out big-time against the players sat either side of me. When it came to Button-SB-BB play they really took me to the cleaners. The problem was simple – I never had the cards fight back.

I’m guessing getting my head around this is a big part of going deep in any tourney and if I want to start cashing regularly I need to start controlling these situations more. I also feel if I took a stance earlier, I wouldn’t of been bullied so much every single round later on.

I read an article once from a guy who said that when he gets raised from the SB or BB he waits until he gets an Ax and re-raises them back. I was thinking about doing this but never got an ace to try it.

So the question I have is;
How do you handle these situations? What’s doing through your mind? Do you flat call the raises or re-raise with junk? Are the cards important or is it purely a psychological battle?

For your information: When I joined the table there were 22 players left. The top 18 got paid. Blinds were 200/400 50antes. Stack sizes were:
Seat 6: zmilko (18414 in chips)
Seat 7: jbdb3 (10791 in chips)
Seat 9: AKvicenteKA (27231 in chips)

In relation to each other, our stack sizes stayed pretty consistent throughout. (zmilko’s was always bigger than mine and AKvicenteKA was always bigger than us both.)

I'm guessing most of you have been in this situation, so all comments welcome.