learning quickly, played a lot of 3 card in my time and as you pointed out I chip away at the hands maybe hitting a flop with equal chips thats in the bet to win the pot from a small pack. This works well for me and I find that I can control things better once I've got above the 3k mark before the break. I messed up on the WPT by sitting on the fence and not stacking or going all in and giving another player the chance to make a hand.
I've noticed that unless your brutal it gives people a chance to call you so all in can be a great weapon :)