[Pokey]

I've got a problem, and I can't tell if it's all in my head (bad luck lately, bad table selection lately, etc.) or if I'm actually just crippling myself without knowing it.

So, I'm tight at the tables. I play a 16/9 game, give or take. If I find myself with a bad streak of cards, I can easily run below 8% VPIP. Now, when this happens for a few orbits, I get ridiculous respect for my raises. WAY too much respect. I find that at the tables, I either win a very small pot, or lose a huge one. My bets and continuation bets get folded around unless my opponent catches something monsterous, and then I get put in horrible situations with decent hands (TPTK) against LAGs who take shots at me. If I shoot back, *BLAMMO* they put me all-in. If I don't shoot back, they eat me alive, one preflop raise at a time.

SO, I tighten up even more to avoid having my bets and raises picked off by hyper-aggressive opponents. That means that I'm playing even fewer hands, losing even more from the blinds, and getting even MORE respect from my raises, meaning I barely break even, if that.

There's GOT to be a happy medium that lets me win a big pot on occasion, but still play tightly. Is there some "trick of the trade" for tight players that gets them action? I get so depressed seeing four lagtards on my table going all-in with 3PNK, and then when *I* try to get involved, they fold out or beat me with some stealthy monster.

Yeah, I'm probably just bitching, but my serious question is "how do you get action as a tighty?" If the answer is "just play tight; you've been incredibly unlucky" I can live with that, but if it's something else, I'd love to hear it.