PS Strategy--Battling the weak/tights 5 handed

[Cactus Jack]

Times have changed. Where once you could depend on the fish playing laggy to the money, they've now schooled up and are playing weak/tight forever!

What I've been seeing nearly every time now, 11s and 22s on Pokerstars, is it gets down now to 5 players, surprisingly early. Then, for orbit after orbit, they bet/fold round and round. The blinds aren't pushing anyone yet, and they trade chips enough to keep everyone above panic mode. If one gets down to 1k, they go all in and pick up a couple of blinds and are back to comfortable. They probably have two good hands when they do this, which can happen. The blinds will fold up to an all in. And on and on it goes. If you're playing correctly, you're dead.

e.g.--I managed to double up on the very first hand with quad 4s. I thought I was easy from here on out. It got down to 5 players, and I was staying even--between 3 and 4K--by stealing blinds. Then, I had a run of pretty good hands, at least hands that should be played at this point, made my usual 3 and 4BB raises and would get either folds for few chips, or one caller. After realizing I was up against a better hand, I had lost 300 to 500 or more chips. Went from being chip leader to playing my butt off to stay in it. Then, I started thinking about what was going on, and for the next half dozen SNGs I played, I watched to see if a pattern was developing. Pretty sure there is one. (I know you guys need a couple hundred SNGs to be "statisically valid," but I'm fairly sure you can see a pattern with even a small sample size if you've been playing long enough.)

I think what is happening is they've learned to play tight, which gets them down to a short table. But, rather than expanding their starting hand requirements, they are keeping with their strategy of playing top 20% or even top 10. If they don't have AT or better, or a pair, they fold. This can go on for a long time, until two get a hand they want to play and push against each other. If You play your usual game, it's like punching into a bag of marshmellows. They absorb every shot and you come away with little, but can easily loose ground if you run into a big hand.

So, I'm stealing enough to build a 3k or better chip stack, then letting them knock each other out. If I get a big hand, I'll string 'em out to get them committed. Pushing is suicide, as they'll either fold right away, or you're either coin-flipping or beaten.

Patience, I believe, is what it takes now. Enormous patience. These are pretty easy games, very predictable. If you can outlast and outplay them, then you're almost a lock to get ITM. Get ahead of yourself, and they're gonna make you nuts.

What you tink, guys? Anyone else seeing this? Anyone got a better strategy for battling this form of "collusion."

CJ