Most of the time you shouldn't even play a game where the other players are tough, good players, but there are times when a game gets temporarily short-handed and you will want to keep the game going even though you're only competing against tough players. Only do this if you know it's a temporary situation and that other, weak players will be showing up soon. Against tough opponents, not only will you find it difficult to win consistently, but you'll also tend to experience much wider than normal swings in your results.

Hand domination is the key when playing against tough players. You just need to have the best hand. When you're short-handed, then it sometimes doesn't take much to have the best hand. A 9 is often a big card in a short-handed game. A hand that has two cards, 9 or larger, is worth opening with a raise. A single Ace often has enough high-card value on its own that it's worth opening with a raise with any suited Ace and unsuited Aces as long as the kicker is at least about a 7 or higher.

A King doesn't quite have the high-card value of an Ace, but suited Kings with a kicker at a 6 or higher are usually worth playing. Some of the midlevel connectors are also worth playing even though they don't have much high-card value, for example, 8 ? 6 ?.

When you're on the button or the small blind and no one else has opened yet, you can play more aggressively. Raising with any Ace is often correct.
You might want to sometimes limp in with hands a little weaker than suggested by the table. In a short-handed game, the second pair is often enough to win, and with hands like 7 ? 5 ?, it's worth seeing the flop if you can do so cheaply.

Don't overdo it if the players are really tough. If you do this, it's a good idea to also limp with your very best hands, so that your opponents won't start automatically raising whenever you limp. Hands that are worth limping and then reraising if raised include big pairs, 10 ? 10 ? and higher, and the big suited aces, A ? J ? and higher. If you limp and reraise with these hands and also limp with weaker hands like 8 ? 5 ? or 3 ? 3 ? , you won't have to worry about becoming too readable.