Ponds i can see are going to get much like espionage was. I had books and books of notes i used to make up on opp. strategies and tendencies i got so good at it i knew what there setups were before they moved a piece. Much is the smae with ponds its all about tendencies and memorizing them. Ponds can become a science if you let it and if you put in the time you could win 95 % everytime. but you will have to do so much research on your opp that you would only be able to play 1-2 ponds at a time. And that is without playing any other games! Not worth it considering only paid members can play the game. I got so many espionage(sabotage[it was actually on IYT the other version of the game i did that on]) wins via researching my opp it almost felt like cheating! It just made the game unfun. Eventually I stopped doing it after I found a glitch in the game and everyone stopped playing that version.