Heading off a potential problem

[BlackAces]

I just started playing NL SNGs at PokerStars, after abandoning Party because I couldn't get the damn thing to stop timing me out. I only have 26 results so far, but they're promising: 14 cashes, including 2 wins (one 9-player and 1 18-player), 6 seconds and 6 thirds, and an (albeit early) ROI of 51.3%.

While I'm happy with these figures, I'm worried about my ability to sustain them at anything close to this level. My problem, as I see it, is that I play way too tight, especially early. For my last 5, here are my seeing-the-flop stats from outside the blinds, with results in parentheses:

4/93 (2nd/18)
4/50 (7th/9)
6/62 (2nd/9)
2/49 (5th/9)
1/35 (3rd/9)

Yes, that's a grand total of 17 flops seen outside the blinds in 289 hands. I didn't include hands played in the blinds, because the ones where I got down to headsup or 3-handed would skew the results.

Usually what will happen is I'll double through some unsuspecting soul with a dominating hand at around the 75/150 level and be able to move chips around when it gets down to 5 or so, or I'll take a bad beat and get busted or crippled. Very rarely am I able to accumulate chips early, for the simple reason that I rarely limp preflop. The few flops that I do see in the early and middle stages are the result of either getting a low-to-mid PP in late position and trying to flop a set, or raising preflop and getting called. I also avoid calling raises without a really good hand, as my postflop play is what I would consider subpar. But then, what would you expect, only seeing 17 flops in nearly 300 hands? [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

I realize I haven't really gone into specifics, but any suggestions on how to profitably loosen up? Or is this even that big of an issue for SNGs?

Chris