top 3 ppl out of 120-140 get paid? thats crazy, it should be like the whole final table gets $.

Blinds of 3k/6k with you having 12-15k chips is what Harrington would call the "dead" zone. You have virtually no options here... you have to push every time you get a decent hand.

If the blind structures are very fast... meaning that towards the end everyone is just 15-20 hands of cold deck towards being out of the tourney... then I have had a lot of success with both laying back early on until blinds get very large, and then playing like a bulldozer to pick up some huge pots... or trying to get a VERY large chips stack early on, and then really throwing it at people as the blinds get large and they tighten up. Either way, once the blinds get big you need to start picking them up at least once every time around the table. You're playing against the blinds more then the players or the cards... so understand that sometimes you're just gonna go bust when you run into big hands, and make the moves you need to keep a decent stack.