Id say it also depends on the routing, many of my flights lately went out full w/o any SBYs. I was toying with doing this on my last Outbound where I had an early morn flight. In teh end I decided it was too risky, had I played the game net result would have been spending an extra 12 hrs at the airport as all the flights besides the last 1 of the day went out full w/o SBYs

In alot of cases its a big risk not taking your flight if it isnt 1 of the last ones of the day. If you dont take your early flight its a good chance you wont get out and kiss the tkt goodbye and the new one will be anything but cheap

this includes trying to use the 3 hr rule, as flights nowadays are full and soldout