Recently I've been through a bad run of a couple of thousand hands with no improvement (and no substantial loss either) in my bankroll.

I play .25/.50 on 'stars and noticed that I was playing pretty much ABC poker and forgetting all about deception plays like limping with strong hands and raising with weak ones. I think I was in a bit of a rut.

Anyway, I started to mix it up again and found that I got a lot more action.

How often do you guys mix it up (e.g. limp with AA and not with the aim of reraising), and in what situations?

I usually like to establish one type of image and then play the opposite way later on. For example, I will often play aggressively early on, raising a lot of hands particularly if I feel that the table is too passive. Once I do this a few times, I will slow down a bit and wait for the better hands to raise with. You will usually get more action this way. Or if you have noticed that you are not getting enough action because you have been folding the whole time, you can try a few low-risk bluffs PF and on the flop, raising with less than premium hands from LP and then betting the flop. This of course has to be done carefully as you usually want a weak-tight opponent to play against, not some calling station.

I try to be deceptive all the time. I limped with AA under the gun and lost 250 to Q8.

Very droll, Mr. Brox.

Since I came over from limit and started playing NL 50's, I am pretty convinced that very few people are paying attention at those tables (just like limit 3/6 players). And the people that get the most attention are the ones that are either raising ALL the time, or are flipping over junk at showdowns, or both - not the people playing well.
What is interesting is it's often like I'm being allowed to play NL in a limit game. Way too many people limp in and many only raise the minimum. If I was to limp in w/ AA, too often 3 or 4 people would often limp in with me. One big pair plays well against one or two opponets, not four or five.
So I don't play deceptive because 1) I'm not convinced they are paying attention and 2)with my big one pair type of hands I don't want that many opponets seeing if they can outflop me.
Mike