Shorthanded Play (2-4NL and higher)

[NiceCatch]

Ok Neon, I like the advice. How about playing against a guy like Papagallo? I actually found I had the most success by tightening up and not taking alot of flops.. to me, the math of it is if he's going to be betting $18 to steal my $2 or $5 blind (because he raises so much in position preflop), I only need to play (and win) between one-third and one-ninth of the hands in which he raises to recoup my blinds. I also noticed that when I slowed down preflop, he did too... I think he realized I was just trying to pick him off. I guess my point is, aggression against an ultra aggressive player is not always necessary... is it?

But then there are those who would say fight aggression with aggression... re-raise preflop. I dunno... like I said before, doing this type of thing out of position, with no real preflop read possible sounds like suicide.

BTW, it seems to me like there are a fair number of games at Pokerroom where everyone is seeing the flop for $5, but where the pots are staying pretty small. When players "get out of line" and start raising preflop, the others just wait for an opportunity to trap them... I guess it's just a real cat-and-mouse game.

I ask again: is high bankroll variance a given in top-stakes SH NL?

Neon, one other question: do you agree with me when I say the the 2-4NL 5max and 6max games at PokerRoom are much softer than the SH 5-10NL games?