Bump because I SO OWE MY RENEWED POKER CONFIDENCE TO THIS THREAD!!!
Also I offer a couple of additional tips that have helped me in my local live rollercoaster of a 200nl game (50/100 minimum and 500 maximum wheee #EdmontonFTW* )
1. When everyone is opening for $15 or $20 or even $25 (welcome to Edmonton live 200nlgames!) with 4 or more callers this makes effective stacks shallow and SPRs tiny and thus the game ain't poker it's an insane LOTTERY.
So at first try making YOUR opens just $10 or even $5 ... and even vs limpers. (Don't expect to win post-flop, and only value-bet a monster otf or steal ott if checked around.) Sure you will get mocked loudly and maybe experience a few obviously-light oversized 3bets (to which you can fold your non-premiums and again enjoy the shock and laughter) and of course at first you will probably have a TON of "limp" calls ("Family Pot") ... but you will find that most of those ridic huge pfr sizes eventually start shrinking from others too! NOW we have SANE eff. Stacks/SPRs so you can enjoy doing what OP describes!
2. Talk. You are gonna be folding UTG thru Lowjack (Hijack-1) almost always, so distract from your cautious patience! Talk non-stop, about everything happening at the table and around it and on the TVs etc. But avoid ever going into any analytical detail on strategy or math or reasons why you did something or why others may have done something in an actual hand.
For extra credit: make light mocking jokes at others' actions like when they get caught in a bluff or they check back a strong hand on a super-safe card or they FINALLY raise a hand pre after folding for an hour. Again you are completely distracting everybody from noticing your own collection of similar activities.
Ideal: be thought of as THE TABLE CLOWN -- but friendly-like (imagine the best aspects of Matusow tabletalk combined with the harmlessness of Negreanu tabletalk). Get in the flow withthis and you'll be amazed at how quickly others open up, with both their chips and their words. Soon you've got a table full of laughter (and thus looser play!) and some will even start defending themselves or others and voila Free Information!
3. Post-flop here is a way to build an INTENTIONAL image, and as a side effect probably "wake up" a table that is too quiet and serious: if last to act, before mucking (win or lose) SHOW -- with over the top confidence -- a SINGLE card. Make sure it is your "BEST" card, either one that makes the highest pair on the board or is the highest flush card or the perfect straight card or is an Ace or King if he above is not possible...
RESULT? The nits and TAGfish will get confused about your motives and over-think WHY you would give out free information, and will often voice outwardly their own thought process about your hand! But often they will decide to fold to you often pre and otf because "you always seem to have it" (their words!)
And the STATIONS (that you now have all to yourself mostly) will do a lot more "check to the raiser" stupidity thus allowing you to enjoy more free cards as needed. And since they are so cautious you can easily fold to THEIR aggression because it's always for value against you.
But you only do this SINGLE-show a few times, early on. Make sure to laugh and mumble something ambiguous if nobody really reacts. Give it time, eventually someone will say something -- and others may respond to that and even debate and ask you to settle the argument. Laugh it off, or tell them 5 different versions of your hand over the course of the next 2 minutes -- theb lean in to your neighbor and whisper something innocuous and smile and drop it.
Then LATER after you have been showing mostly winners at showdown and notice they are folding too often when you value-bet scary cards START DOING IT AGAIN BUT THIS TIME ONLY SHOW THE "JUNK" CARD! *now* talk about confusing the nits and TAGfish! Once they are clearly over-adjusting to your BS you can valuebet the hell out of bottom 2 pair and enjoy the frightening light call-downs from the previously-known-as-nits, watch them check-shove their overpairs and even overCARDS to your over-bet with an obvious-to-anyone flopped trips! Remember when they used to consider a stack-worthy "monster" middle set? Thing of the past
...
Through a combination of the above, you can get most of the table on this kind of foggy-brained tilt while you are in complete control and in full awareness = the best kind of moment in live poker. And insanely profitable if you stay disciplined and patient.
*Edmonton live games, what? Check Google for a discussion on another forum -- Why Edmonton Has The Best Low Limit (1/2 or 2/5) Action in The World (Literally)