Hella Hold'em

One of the areas with which I'm feeling some growing pains is in the whole "big hands, big pots - small hands, small pots" theory. Well, not in the theory itself, but in the re-classification of hand values in a deep-stack cash game (as opposed to a tourney where the blinds are a greater portion of your stack, and always rising). It can be perfectly appropriate to push all in preflop with a premium pair or even AK, but deep stacked in a cash game - well, I'm still adjusting to the fact that overpairs, top pair, two pair - even trips don't constitute hands that you really want to be playing with any majority of your stack at risk.

I took one on the chin tonight and it kinda stings a little. My opponent "followed all the rules" so to speak - he did everything perfectly to make me think what he wanted me to think. And I did. And in the process, I pot committed myself with top pair, top kicker (turned into trips on the river, where I fell into the trap and took the lead betting, and was too far in to give it up to a min-raise).

Was conscious of the fact that the pot was getting too big for a TPTK hand - it DID cross my mind. But online, so many things fly through my head, and sometimes I only truly consider what I'd thought AFTER a play is made. The pace is fast and frenzied, even with only a couple tables up. So, I acted first, considered later - and lost a little chunk. It stings a bit.

However, I know what I did wrong, and I will consider my errors while SLOWING DOWN next time...

In other news, I'm trying out Poker Copilot for the Mac. There's really no good (and currently supported) poker tracking/HUD software out there for the Mac, since Poker Tracker appears that they will NEVER get their Mac version out the door... until I found this gem. It's working well and gives me everything I need. I'll carry out the trial but this one is a likely purchase.