I disagree with the idea that you have to cheat to consistently get a high monthly finish.

I also disagree with the idea that the same people get the high finishes every month because they are better than everyone else at diplomacy.

I think the way it is (or at least the way it used to be) is that, before you can start having a positive ppg at the high tables, you have to establish your personality among the top tier community. I've made a couple forum posts about this before... and, yes, I think it's completely stupid, the idea that you have to basically pay your dues before you're accepted into the top club. But that's the way it is. It's partially due to the fact that top players cannot trust you because you're an unknown, but it's also partially due to the fact that they know they can wrong you, and you won't be able to seek much revenge because you aren't as big a revenge-seeking threat as the other top players they play every day with. A potential PGE by a noob is nothing compared to one by a consistently-top-finishing player.

Anyways, once you stay up there long enough (i.e. bleed off enough of your points to them), they will start understanding that you might be a recurring theme up there, and they will start respecting you more.

I seem to remember a community noob account that nuflis/XC/unlucky put together, called [confidential], or something like that... where they basically proved this point. Individually, all three of these guys are accepted and respected in the top community. However, while playing under the anonymous account, they said there were innumerable times where they were attacked because they were unknown, and were taken advantage of in that way. Even when they tried to use the exact same strategy, exact same diplomacy, as they would under their individual accounts, they would still be given lower placement by the top community. I believe this case study was a strong indicator of how the top tables work.

So, to sum up: top players do indeed have a slight advantage over noobs to the tables, and not simply because they have better talking skills. That is straight bullshit. They also have an advantage because they know they can take advantage of noobs. This is the way it is. The only way around it (for now) is to bust out of your noob status by hanging around the top tables enough that they accept you as a member of the top community as well. This is basically what shadolin did too. At least this is my $0.02. Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh, maybe the community doesn't act this way any more, but it sure sounds like it.

they probably dont have a job and can play 24/7

In response to monte's post:

http://test.kdice.com/discussion/topics/44761986?

I totally agree with monte's post

I semi-retired for the Xth time a few months ago because I had more important things to do with my time.

Of course I couldn't really quit and played some alts to play a few for fun each month.

Gaining 5 to 10k was easy but once you get on the top table, you have to be prepared to pay some kMoney first. It's easier to do that when you aren't really interested in the points but just want to play some at 5k.

After a few 2k/5k games, people usually realise you are an alt and it gets easier to get the place you fairly deserve (based on your start and the evolution of the board in the first rounds). The main advantage you have over the real noobs is that you know how the other regular players will react (and who/when they will truce) so you can survive much better than the real newcommers.

Last month I played a few with my PGE PGA account. It's an old account I created when I had much sympathy for the battle Leekstep was fighting for a PGA free kdice. But then he got entangled in all the cheating himself so that kinda stopped my enthousiasm to use that account. (Why did I bother explaining all this???)

Anyway, I never bothered to change the avatar but once I played the 2k and 5k tables people assumed I was Leek and cut me the slack I needed to just play my own game immediately. The disadvantage of course was the fact that some regulars still hated Leek and screwed me for my avatar as well. Oh well, I enjoyed the games and it was fun playing you all again btw.

So imanema, at the same time I would advise you to stay away from 5k because all the great players play there and it is difficult to win a 5k anyway but at the same time I would advise as many players as possible to play 5k because the larger the group that plays them, the better the odds are for everyone that plays it fair up there

D) do not let emotions like anger affect their strategy <---- so NOT true (lots of top players let anger affect their play and a lot of times it helps them to get better placement)

The full monte is 100% right.

i agree monte is correct

well, i think its basically what ive done over the last 3 months, before i played this game off and on and mostly just muddled around the 100 tables forever for the first 9 months (look at the stats, pretty terrible) but anyways, when the tournaments started, i won a couple of those and started playing the high tables, it was a daunting task at first, trying to play amongst the 'elites' or as i like to call them now 'oldfags', but i got adjusted to it
the problem with 90% of the people that come to the higher tables and claim PGA PGA PGA OMJEEZZZ THATS SOOO NOT FAAYUUURRRR YOU GUYZ R ALL FAGZ, dont realize the finer points of the game like a silent truce, or truces>flags>tourneystrat, or farming (which should be done whenever possible)... and since the oldfags realize that you guys will prolly do something stupid (like cut them after they moved their 8 away from you) so they would rather run the 8 into the noob than run it into the player next to them that they are familiar with, its not a PGA with all the top players, the top players just dont want you ruining their game
so how do you get accepted into the clique at the top?
-dont play stupid
-talk
-dont be a complainer
-respect the other players opinion
-read the board
-offer truces (especially ones where you agree to take 2 right off the bat, makes the other party think youre awesome)
sure, youll have to take a few hits once you reach the top, but once youre there and you get trust, youre good... or at least thats how it worked for me

"-dont be a complainer"

Nah Fc, being a complainer works just fine.

ok, if youre pat or jose complaining works bc people love to ear them scream