getting better all the time

After some cold cards, and a couple of small losses in the ledger, things are turning around. Not only as far as the hands I've been receiving, but also with reference to my play.

I think every poker player who is really interested in actually learning the game can feel when they've reached turning points. It takes a lot to actually learn the concepts you need to win, but it takes the experience of playing the game while considering the concepts to actually see them work. I've been reading some literature about cash games recently, and there's a universal principle that it's super important to understand: Don't go broke with top pair.

This is a tough thing to do, since top pair is often the best hand, especially against weaker opposition. However, the fact is that if the stacks are even remotely deep, top pair's probably not going to end up being good if you're forced to go all-in with it. A couple of authors have different ways of stating this.

Here's how Dan Harrington, 1995 World Champion put it in vol. II of Harrington on Cash Games:

If you have shown consistent strength throughout the hand, and on the turn your opponent either bets into you or raises your bet, top pair is very unlikely to be good. Let the hand go.

Put more mathematically, you need to be shorter on chips or the pot needs to be unusually large for you to be pot-committed with top pair or an overpair. The book Professional No-Limit Hold'em advises that ideal stack/preflop pot size for hands that are likely to make top pair hands ideal is 4:1. In other words, if you have $100 in your stack, the pot needs to be $25 or more when the flop is dealt before you can think about pot-committing with top pair top kicker, etc.

Otherwise, you're probably going to get shown trips and have to ship your stack across the table.