more thoughts...these sng's....one of your comments, several had limped in and so you bet 5x the BB,...probably not enuf....if early on, depending on what you have, you need to make it more, like 9-10x BB...if you want to get rid of all but 1, if you have AA or KK, if you have QQ or AK, perhaps, if you get repopped, you might need to let it go with QQ or AK, if it was the UTG or UTG + 1 who limped, then RR'd you.
Another thought, yes, you're moving in the right direction moving your post flop up to 3/4 or 1x the pot...anything less often screams weakness and an attempt to steal...so always make it 1x the pot or even 1.5 x,,,(if it's worth 3/4, it's probably worth 1x to show some strength and to save some for the turn card in case they call, thus giving you a free card perhaps) Often i'll go ahead and 1.5 x the pot...this will clearly let you know where you are...usually it'll win the pot right there...if you're called, then you slow WAY down, if raised, you know they REALLY have something and can let it go...when i made this one adjustment to my game, my ITM went way up, as did the number of 1sts over 4th place finishes...you may consider only betting 1/2 pot if you have the nuts, hoping to get a call or reraise.

Haven't read Doyle's book, but I've heard him say that he does better against good players than bad players. A lot of people think that's hogwash, but I don't disagree that that's possible. In fact, I think I fit into that category. I can't win to save my life at Party Poker, I do much better at the Poker Stars and Full Tilts of the world.

Anyway, I want to move up to $20. Have a couple of times, haven't fared very well. Probably just coincidence more than a real trend. But I've hit a nasty streak in the past five or six weeks in which my bankroll has suffered dramatically. So I'm going to stick with the $10s until I can replenish. Hopefully, soon, as I feel like I might be coming out of it with that aforementioned wakeup call a couple of nights ago.

Well, those bet sizes are something I'm adjusting. I was having great success at Absolute ... over 50% ROI over a couple of months' time ... sticking with 3xBB as standard preflop. Would usually get one, maybe two callers tops. But that would be fine. My thought was to only have one or two opponents who I could put on hands. Then if the flop would miss me or one of the callers would show some strength on the flop, I could easily decide to get out because I wasn't over-committed. That strategy seemed to work fine for the longest time.

But then it was like someone flipped a switch two or three weeks ago and all of a sudden I was running into all these loose, passive calling stations. And I couldn't figure out what they hell they were holding. You couldn't tell if they were on a gutshot draw or if they had quads. Check-check-call-check-call-check-call. That's all they would do. A long way from the previous fad of throwing all-in in the first few hands to try to double up quick. I knew how to deal with that minefield.

I wrung my hands over it and got frustrated as hell for a week or so before it dawned on me that I was falling into their hole. I was limping and chasing a lot more than I should have been. So about halfway through that one SnG a couple nights ago, I had an epiphany and retrieved my mean, aggressive, ruthless attitude from under the desk and put it back on.

Part of the adjustment was beefing up my standard betting/raising rules. But I think the key was getting that aggressive attitude back. I had really let that slip without realizing it. I lost a decent-size pot the other night to one of those candyasses that pissed me off because I knew I should have taken it down. It dawned on me that I had been playing defensively instead of offensively -- and that's not my game.

And now I'm taking the approach with these people that on the hands I want to play, I'm going to force them to show me something -- if you don't have a hand to play or if you have one and are too timid to play it, then get the hell out of my way or I'm going to flatten you like roadkill.

I may not be qualified to say this------- but ADAPT !! Every game is different...Every situation is different...Not saying I am in this category, but seems to me that's what a good player would do...
My 2 cents
B

I've noticed this type of play on a number of SNGs that I've sat at. It's quite annoying to have 8 or 9 players still around when your stack is only about 4-5x the BB!!

My approach has been to loosen up some of my starting hand requirements early on in the SNG where the blinds are cheap... since most of these players are playing very passively, it's usually quite cheap to get into pots with some speculative hands. I don't do it ALL the time, but I would guess that, as long as position is good, I'll come on in with some of those middle suited connectors every second or third time I get them. The key, of course, is playing them well after the flop. Regardless of the hands you play, should you hit,you have to make decent sized bets post-flop to find out where you are (just as WildBill suggested above).

The "old style" of playing just premium hands and big pairs early on in a SNG will not work very well against passive opponents. Conversely, playing everything under the sun doesn't work very well against aggressive opponents either. The bottom line is that it's usually fairly easy to figure out by the end of the first level or so what type of table you're at. At that time (and not at level 5!) it's time to adapt your play. There's a good tip around here somewhere that goes something along the lines that the optimal style of play in poker is that which is OPPOSITE the style of your opponents... It makes sense that in these passive SNGs, you should use that passivity to your advantage pre-flop and then get aggressive post-flop should you hit nice hands. You might have to limit your bluffs a little in such arenas however, since you can't really put anybody on any sort of hand, but with a little adaptation, I think these types of tables can be beaten as readily as those "old-style" aggressive tables. Remember, the small limit SNGs may be passive or aggressive, but they are ALL weak! Use the weakness to your advantage.

SnG's have definately gotten tougher over time. I don't know what more to add than what has already been said.

Wow, CJ. Hope you feel better after a good night's sleep. It's a puzzling situation, but I don't think as dire as you think (or at least thought last night after a particularly bad run).

Part of my epiphany the other day that I didn't get into here was that I started trying to make sense of a senseless betting pattern. I'm still working on it, but here is a sketch of what I have so far.

Their betting language --> My betting language --> My reaction
Preflop limp --> They have nothing --> Fold or raise at least 4xBB
Preflop 1xBB raise --> Have pocket pair, suited connector or a face card --> Play my cards/postion
Call my preflop raise --> Could have nuts, could have nothing --> Wait and see
Bet 1xBB on flop --> Got at least a piece of flop --> Fold or raise pot
Check on flop --> They have nothing --> Bet pot
Call my pot bet on flop --> See Call my preflop raise above --> Wait and see
Bet 1xBB on turn --> The have something --> Fold or raise big
Check on turn --> See Check on flop above --> Bet big, they'll probably fold here
Call my bet on turn --> They have something --> Check the river, they probably will, too
Bet 1xBB on river --> Could have nuts, could have bottom pair --> Call or go all-in
Check on river --> Could have nuts, could have missed draw --> Check or go all-in

A couple of notes: I've noticed that this type of player will never reraise a raise of more than 1xBB, unless he has something on about the turn and wants to go all-in. (An aside: I've noticed that an all-in bet to them is all-in minus about 1xBB worth of chips.) But for the most part, he'll either always call or fold.

The more aggressive of this type will throw out a 2xBB bet now and again. If you see this at any point, you don't have to expect he has the nuts, but you can be assured that he has a monster of some stripe.

I am finding that you can wear these people down. Most of them will fold by the turn if they don't have a strong hand and you keep after them. I believe my downfall when I first was encountering this style of play was that I would slow down and get defensive if one of them called me on the flop. I have found that if you go after them again on the turn, you can get rid of them.

If you want to see a cheap flop, fine. But don't get into the habit of chasing hands and calling a bet. Either fold or raise. That's the only way to play 'em. If you start calling their bets, your stack is going to get nibbled away to nothing.