Thanks all for the feedback. Based on this I plan to conduct an online Check-in the night before my 6 am flight departure. I will miss that flight and show up at the gate for a noon departure and ask for standby. There are multiple flights after that in case I don't get on so I can just keep trying.

Availabilty so far looks good for the date in question and I do acknowledge I'm taking the risk that I might not get on but so far most of my standby requests as a 1K have cleared even when they told me it looked hopeless so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.