Quote Originally Posted by Thunder
I know it can take over an hour to figure a guy out, and perhaps that is a negating factor a smost SNGs are finsihed within 40 minutes. And if so, should I not be too concerned about reading my opponents and just focussing on the hands and the cards on the board?

I am just concerned that I may become extremely 1 dimensional if that is the case - hence the comment about playing cards rather than playing poker.
I think this gets back to the point that was made previously of not trying "read" a specific player quite as much as just trying to classify him into a type of player. That doesn't take me an hour, and I'm not any good at reading hands/players either.

It'll take more than just a couple hands, but not too much more.

It's usually easy to tell if a certain player has no problem getting involved frequently, against who you'll want to have a hand at showdown(though not necessarily the nuts), or if he is someone who is going to play tight and not take any chances unless he has a very good hand (steal pots from this guy and back off when he wakes up). (fwiw, I've been playing the $5 SnG's on stars)

Then of course you watch for them to change modes as you get further in the tourney, but I haven't found too many players smart enough to do this at the lowest levels.

As you get more time with a players, you might be able to fine tune your play against them, but I haven't had that become much of a factor for me up to this point.