Home game report: caught between a rock and a hard place

Last night we played a super tight 4 handed sit and go home game. Small pairs were being played cautiously and weak aces were hitting the muck. When the cd player stopped you could hear a pin drop as we sat statuesque like deer hunters 4ft from their prey. I have never felt such a tense poker atmosphere and my emotions were a mixture of doom and elation when I was dealt QQ early in the game and got reraised by Hitman preflop.  Following Hitman's raise Pokerhontasz and TheConge called in the other two spots and I repopped the hand with some trepidation. To cut a long story short I lost half my stack on this stupid hand and Hitman would go on to ride my chips to heads-up later on. At one stage Pokerhontasz got coolered with trips undeneath TheConge's turned full house and never really recovered fully, so she was first out in the shove/fold stage. I was out shortly after and head's up was a very short affair because Hitman was tired and zombie re-shoved Q6 into The Conge's aces preflop.  The real story of the match though was TheConge's relentless button raising strategy.  Time and time again I had to look down at Q4o, J6o etc in the small blind hoping for a glimmer of a hand to 3bet with but none came. He played great last night, and more so when he didn't really have much of a hand to start with, because he played his position. By acting last after other player's decisions TheConge could wait to judge tells/range/action/board texture etc. and make some good post flop moves. I wish I could play this well when on the button but I am so rooted in 'level one' poker because of playing gutter stakes online that I cannot make the leap, or do so at the wrong times against the wrong players. TheConge and I have had our higher level battles in the past, but last night I was sandwiched between his button and the big stack's big blind.