Unfortunatly you got played there. Although you could do something about that though. In this case the second highest stack didn't want to take risks so left it up to the big stack (you) to take the lowest stack out. The lowest stack obviously has to take risks, going all in on good hands trying to double up and going all in trying to steal the blinds.
The best thing to do in this case (in my humble opinion) is to attack the second biggest stack. You will have to try and steal the blinds of him/her and call his bets pre-flop. After calling a bet pre-flop, you then bet into him on the flop where the player will most likely fold as he's shown to be a player who doesn't want to take risks. If he then calls or raises you after the flop you know he's hit and consiquently fold.
Doing this will keep your stack either the same size or you make it grow. Now you can wait for a good hand to take the small stack out because you get your money from the other player. Not only that but now you've put pressure on the second highest stack making him take more risks with the small stack. Hence either the small stack doubles up leaving two people who have to take risks or one takes the other out.
With two people having to take risks (that when the small stack has doubled up), you can either start bullying and raise every hand stealing enough blinds to be able to lay a few down where you get raised or you get them to play each other and play the waiting game.
Anyway, that's one method to play the end game
