@skrum: i don't argue about the fun of subgames with you. they can be fun alot. im just talking to those who might be sick of playing 0 tables for 10 games straight now and see no fun in not progressing in any way.

why would one care about PPG? We only congratulate the player with most points at the end of the month...

I don't agree

If you are at 0, you still have to give it all you can to get top3. At 0 tables, you are probably not playing against the best players around so you can still gain points if you tried. There are still good points for 3rd at 0. So if you ask me, quickly stating you will go for 3rd will take the heat of you and you probably have a 30-50% chance at 3rd.

@shiryu
first of all thanks for readind my strategy and thinking about it.

"I don't agree
If you are at 0, you still have to give it all you can to get top3."

which i say is pretty time consuming and frustrating. and most people i know consider me somewhat skilled.

"At 0 tables, you are probably not playing against the best players around so you can still gain points if you tried."

I see teh flaw in your reasoning here. You assume that less skilled players are easier to overcome i guess. Thats a bit far off though. 0 tables have all sorts of players: bloody noobs, top player alts who play for relaxation, stupid pgas, clever pgas, friends playing to show each other the game, players not able to speak or understand proper english... just to name a few here.
A skilled player can overcome most of them and will get out with +score pretty easy. but the noob struggeling for something probably tries to get somewhere where the play is just a little less erratic.

"There are still good points for 3rd at 0. So if you ask me,"

Thanks. if i would have asked you you'd know and i wouldn't have written this strategic essay.

" quickly stating you will go for 3rd will take the heat of you and you probably have a 30-50% chance at 3rd."

Well. I don't have that much experience with 0 tables but i may say i have a lot of experience with higher table diplomacy. And i gotta tell you: stating that you're only going for 3rd helps you only if there are less than 3 larger player feeling they can get 1st or 2nd. if not you're just making it worse for you. I leave the whys for you as an excercise.

it is also about time.

why waste precious time striving for 5th when you can't go backwards. just move on to the next game.

i see it a lot on free poker sites where n00bs try to double up the handout. if they lose they get a refill.

@MadWilly first of all thanks for reading my comment and thinking about it.

"which i say is pretty time consuming and frustrating. and most people i know consider me somewhat skilled."

***It is, it can be and you are***

"I see teh flaw in your reasoning here. You assume that less skilled players are easier to overcome i guess. Thats a bit far off though. 0 tables have all sorts of players: bloody noobs, top player alts who play for relaxation, stupid pgas, clever pgas, friends playing to show each other the game, players not able to speak or understand proper english... just to name a few here.
A skilled player can overcome most of them and will get out with +score pretty easy. but the noob struggeling for something probably tries to get somewhere where the play is just a little less erratic."

***I agree with your point about the struggling noob. It will be better for him to start a new game early. I also agree with your point about the skilled player because you said exactly what I wanted to say here: "A skilled player can overcome most of them and will get out with +score pretty easy"-> it pays off for the skilled player to invest a few more rounds and try for 3rd anyway***

"Thanks. if i would have asked you you'd know and i wouldn't have written this strategic essay."

*** You are welcome. but you still should have written your eassy since now I just realised you were giving good basic advice to the starting player. ***

"Well. I don't have that much experience with 0 tables but i may say i have a lot of experience with higher table diplomacy. And i gotta tell you: stating that you're only going for 3rd helps you only if there are less than 3 larger player feeling they can get 1st or 2nd. if not you're just making it worse for you. I leave the whys for you as an excercise."

*** I wasn't talking about higher table diplomacy (sad to say that was a flaw in your reasoning as well), I was talking about lower table diplomacy. Of course this strategy gets slaughtered at higher level tables. But at the 0 table, again, I still think this strategy has a good succes rate for bad starts ."***

To conclude, I will vote for your strategy idea as it indeed is a good idea for the players that are struggling to get to the 100 tables. But now you will need to write another strategic essay for when that player manages to reach 30 points, otherwise your "start new game early when you are at 0 points" has a rather limited strategic effect ;-)

i dont agree - 1 reason: i play for fun mostly and not for points. making points is part of the fun, yes, but playing the game itself is much more.. and i tell you, there are some quite epic battles at the 0 tables!!

Agree fully, there is no point on fighting for 4th for 30 min and get nothing out of it when u can just loose just the same as 5 6 or 7th

ya i agree madwilly, its also good to try to connect lands after each turn to get more dice.

oh wait? too stupid to mention? ya, you too.

On 0 tables half the time half the players lag out or flag out before round 5. Therefore even if you have a crap start you can quickly gain points.

Thumbs up on the advice though. I think a lot of people use it and w/e i'm on the 0 tables it makes it easier for me to gain points. :P