Should you alter your play in this situation>

[PokerCat69]

The game is now 4 handed and two players have 80% of the chips, your in third position with 15% and the short stack has 5%.

I see two options here and one of them is to play your game like normal and hope to pick up a few pots and battle it out for 1st.
Or you can retreat, go into a survival-type mode and wait for the short stack to go out.

I've played both ways and am unable to draw any conclusion which method is better. Perhaps some of you can comment on this.

[tigerite]

You would have almost no chance of 1st in this position. Your only hope is really to survive and not let the short stack pick up any/many pots, and hope that the two big stacks go to war (which frequently happens if both are gunning for 1st). This way you may even pick up a 2nd.

If you calculate this via ICM giving 4000, 4000, 1500 (you) and 500, your $EV is 0.2233. As 3rd is only 0.2 this gives you some idea of your position. Both 4000 stacks have 0.3474.

[captZEEbo1]

seems like whenever I pansy play as the 3rd place man. The guy in 4th folds everything, until he's obliged to call (bb is most of his stack). By the time this happens, I am down to say 800, and he doubles up. Now we are even. I fold again. Then shortstack steals from me. Now I'm the shortstack. I call an allin when I have to and am up against a monster somehow.

SO the lesson is, don't take TONS of unnecessary risks. But you still need to steal a few times. Dont't lay down AT on the button for fear of being called (or even like KJ, etc). One thing to note is to be wary of pushing against the shortstack. If you are called and he wins, you are in a world of pain.