Bubble play with two huge stacks . . . I'm lost

[Taraz]

So I was playing a 22 at Party tonight when I found myself on the bubble with 100-200 blinds (and moving up to 150-300 in 3 hands) and the chip stacks looking like this:

Me(1000)
To my left (1000)
Dude(3000)
Guy (3000)

Guy (who was to my right) was limping with 54o and other garbage and minraising with QJo, etc. Dude was just chilling folding and pushing occasionally. The other short stack was folding almost everything unless he had a hand.

I found that I was powerless to do anything and I got really frustrated. I could never push into the other short stack because Guy was always in the pot and willing to call an all-in and I didn't want to go out in fourth. When Guy folded I basically pushed anything, but that was only two or three hands and I kept blinding away.

It got to a point where the other short stack was about to bust out when he was in the BB with .5 BB left but Guy freaking minraised w/ his QJ, caused me to fold the winning hand (a measly 86s) because I had only 3 BB, and thereby allowing short stack to win.

So basically in this situation do I just have to take a coinflip type situation and hope for the best? There was one hand where I was dealt 55 in the bb and folded to Guy's minraise because the other short stack had 1.5 BB and I had 3 or so. Should I have called? I was just completely lost and confused, please help. Thank you.

[igotBlackJak]

ur goal at this point, imo, is to stay ahead of the other shortie... if it gets to the point where he is 2 blinds ahead of you, you must make a move... if it is staying even, no worries until you pick up a hand, or someone else makes a mistake...

at 22 u be suprised how many times Big stack and 2nd stack will allin each other...


hope this worked out for ya...

peace

[Taraz]

bump

[lastchance]

Pick up chips, push +EV spots (and there will be a lot of them), don't be completely unwilling to make a stand, (I think would have called 55 there, and I probably would have found a better spot to call).

Remember, getting 4th is bad, but folding your ITM here is more likely to get 4th than good play.

Push good hands in good position, call great hands against big stack because it really helps having 2k to 1k rather than hoping other guy doesn't get enough hands to win or steal.

[Isura]

I struggle with this situation too. How much should our pushing and calling standards change as a function of the looseness of the big stacks. For example, the big stack will limp in and call a push with stuff like A6, QJ, then is it better to push hands like 55-77, AJ when the "Guy" in this example limps in? If we think we will be say 60/40 instead of 50/50, it seems like pushing here is better than waiting around and being blinded out since we don't have much folding equity as stack decreases and the big stacks play so loose. What general tactics can we use to combat the big stack that habitually limps and minraises on the button?