This is obviously a dumb mistake. But the thing is I keep making them. All logic goes out the window for me at times, I just can't understand why I make them. Am I overly excited? Do I tend to overvalue mid and high pocket pairs because they're rare and believe they can't be beat? I completely understand this is false logic, yet at times I just can't shake my emotions when the stakes are high. One last thing, maybe I can't be a good loser when pot committed. Often times I'll shove when I have a substantial amount of money in the pot. I mean for any beginner this is probably normal, but I've been playing for a while and I need to break this habit of shoving when I'm deep in the pot. I think this is more of a psychological problem than a logical one. Anyway, here's how it played out...

Both players I deemed tight after a few dozen hands.

Me CO: 1010 $50
SB: Likes to defend blinds $48
BB: Tight $51

Preflop:

I raise to $1.50
SB: Raises to $5.00
BB: Raises to $13.00
Me CO: Call $13.00
SB: Fold

I called because I hoped SB would call as well since it would only be $7 for him to call with me calling behind him. At this point I tried to set mine with 1010. Bad strategy?

Flop (Total Pot $31):

Qd 5s Jh

BB bets $10
I shove all in to $37.43
BB calls

His bet seemed small so maybe I thought he had AKo. In any case, number one I should have gave up the hand at that point since my original plan was to set mine with SB calling as well. I guess I could have called the $10 and saved my $27.43, but if he did have AK and a 10 hit I would have been beat either way. What do you think was the correct play? Fold preflop, fold flop?

Moreover, what type of self-talk do you tell yourself in this situation when you are pot committed? I'm trying hard to learn to stick with my original game plan which allows me to fold easier. However, in this situation I'm heavily pot committed my logic goes out the window. What can I do to learn to fold even if pot committed?

I used to do the same thing. It changed when i started really cramming numbers. Pf you need to fold because sb is more likely to 5bet shove than flat. You flatting here is suicide.

When set mining you have to start repeating to yourself from the moment you call, "fold if i miss, fold if i miss. Do not get sucked into playing a flopped draw EVER!!!!!"

As a practice exercise, try folding ALL pocket pairs except AA for an entire session no matter the situation. Doing this changed my life.

Once the BB cold 4bets preflop I'm letting go of TT. I think he's only doing this with a real small range, most of which crush us. This is especially true since you think both players are on the tighter side. Set mining for 26% of our stack doesn't make sense even if the small blind tagged along. Once this flop comes down you should be done with the hand. Best case scenario is he has AK which still has like 34% equity against us. Against all of his other hands, we are drawing slim or dead.

I think you need to start thinking in terms of ranges instead of specific hands. You shoved the flop because he might have AK but if you look at all of the possible hands he could have here, you were in trouble.

I fold PF to the 4-bet. I imagine shoving is better than calling.

Calling specifically to set-mine is bad because we don't have the odds to do it (we hit a set something like 1 in 8.5 times), and shoving your no-equity hand against a villain who has range advantage in a low SPR spot is... probably bad.

1/3 PSB range betting this flop is probably an option if you're the BB player. Not sure if I would do it, but you can't assume that a small bet = non-nutted hands in this spot.

You could possibly call if you were SB, but otherwise I'd just muck this. I wouldn't even have a calling range in your spot.

You wouldn't even be deep enough to set mine against the SB 3bet, but if you were to call, it wouldn't be to set mine. You can't just fold every flop you don't spike a set on with TT. I think calling to set mine in 3bet/4bet pots is pretty bad in general, unless you're somewhat deep and targeting a bad player.

why would a small bet indicate AKo? That kind of sizing tell is used when regs go for thin value or passive fish get scared. Never ever try to guess how someone thinks. There is a difference between using tendencies correctly and trying to mind read. Also the spr is extremely low so a small bet works perfectly fine.

I think from the way you play and think that you do not focus on ranges enough. You say bb was tight but then you cold called his cold 4bet? What does a tight players cold 4b range look like? How profitable is TT in the best case scenario? That is what you should be thinking about and using equity calculators like equilab to get a feel for equities and ranges.