I think the answer is fairly well correllated with the traditional "stages of understanding" poker - playing your cards, playing their cards, and playing what they think your cards are.

In the low-limit SNG's, to be successful, you really need only play your cards. As you said, playing premium hands will usually result in an ITM finish.

However, with the home game SNG"s that you're describing (which I am often part of), you are playing position and the other player as well. For example, the last few times we played I remember a few hands

1. Beanie pushed me off the better hand with J-high (at his place - knowing I hadn't hit the 8-high board)

2. Mario pushing you off KK on the river that gave two aces and a flush possibility, when he had 10 high

3. Mandy trapping me with AA vs. my AQ

4. Me getting Johnnie to put all his chips on the line pre-flop with 77 against my KK

5. Me perceiving weakness on a SB raise pre-flop after you'd choked.

Now, as I'm sure you're going to notice, at least a few of these hands ended in bad beats where the trapper /aggressor / hero etc. got burned (#4&5). Well, "That's poker", but 9 times out of ten, it ends up that the person who played it well, wins. Notice I didn't say the best hand in this case (that would be back to the LL SNG's). But, I think that when you're against a higher talent pool, the "winner" will be the player who gets their opponents to make the bigger mistakes in game, and avoid their own mistakes. You do this by knowing your opponent, reading what they do, and at the same time, trying to make them err in their reads of you. Meanwhile, at LL SNGS, their mistake is usually made when they click "Register".

Mark