I gotta say that I share your early level frustration. I find that with 3000 chips to start with people just assume that they are so deep that they can chase anything resulting in a huge number of problems for me. As for strategy I try to use early is to play pot control as best I can. I have been running into a lot of trouble with players floating me on the flop then betting out the turn and causing me to fold with no end of headaches. I have started messing around with checking back flops then betting turns that have been checked to me and on rare occasion raising bets on the turn if I suspect that the player is trying to steal on from me. In the micro/low stakes stuff I have been finding a huge problem with getting out of the early game. If I get out here cleanly then I can usually make a decent run which is really frustrating.