Can you acquire the gamble?

[Little Wing]

I’ve been playing live LHE for many years, mostly 3/6 with some 4/8. I probably play a couple hundred hours per year, and I win somewhere around 1 to 2 BB/hr. While I have not posted here very much since I registered, I am not a newbie and I am very comfortable in the card room.

I’ve always been a real tight player for just about all of my poker career, rarely bluffing or being very aggressive, really weak-tight. I was still a winning player, but just marginally. In the last year or two I’ve made a conscious effort to open up my game a little, mixing in a few bluffs, widening my range of pre-flop raising hands, etc. Although some of this is unnecessary at the limits I play, there is no question it did help my earn rate.

The card room I play in spreads a couple of 2/5 NL tables on weekends with a $300 maximum buy-in. I know a couple of people who play regularly in the game, and they all tell me it is pretty soft and they think I would do well and should try it some time. Additionally, I have played limit with some of the other NL regulars, and many of them are very weak players. I am thinking about giving it a try and I need some advice. But to be honest, the thought of calling a $200 or $300 bet with less than the stone cold nuts is absolutely terrifying and I don’t know if I’ve got the gamble in me. I realize you never know for sure until you put yourself in that position, but I was wondering if any of you had the same problem starting out in NL but you got used to it, or is this something that is naturally in a person that he cannot get rid of.

Again, I would like to try it, but I have a lot of respect for you guy’s opinions and would really like to know what others on here think before I do.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Edit: not sure it this is the correct forum for this but please feel free to move as necessary. Thanks.

Edit#2: I should add that I wouldn't try this with0ut first reading a couple good books on N/L and hanging around the N/L forums for a while. Would this ease the "pucker factor?"