I just finished 3rd in one of my first SnG with real money (1$+0.10$ on PokerStars), despite grabbing a comfortable advance as chip leader for quite long a time. I earned myself a mere 1.80$, when I could have won the whole bloody tournament if I had kept myself anally tight. However, being the aggressive, hard-ball player that I am I played aggressive when I thought I had the best hand... only to find by the backdoor that I hadn't the best hand after all.
I lost my nerve many times during that SnG, because my opponents were extremely, extremely tight passive almost to the point of being afraid of their own shadows. I wouldn't say I was going on tilt, but I was growing more and more impatient with them. Each time someone would bet, others would almost immediately fold. The slightest raise from someone would almost certainly end a hand, stealing the pot. They would also refuse to fight against one another. We stayed at four players around the table for two hours, fold after fold after fold. I was tempted to say that we were playing poker, not having an accountant meeting.
Needless to say, I found I was playing a bunch of total wussies. Sometimes I even played worse hands only to prevent the pot to be passed around the other players without at least a little fight. I have even seen a player check from flop to the river
while having a made straight right from the flop!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
So, what are your strategies when you are playing against a whole cast of cowards around the table? How do you exploit their weakness?