[sthief09]

you'll probably get better responses by posting in the psychology forum

but based on your post, it seems like you'd rather be a break-even player at a table full of tough opponents than a winning player against a bunch of loose aggressive morons. that's completely understandable, but unfortunately it's tough to find a game like that.

there's always the option of playing online. the online games tend to be tougher than live games at the same limit. if you don't want to do that I suppose you could always move up, but I've never played in LA and I've never played even those limits so I can't say that from experience.