Do you ever out-level yourself? Like the line you should take seems so obvious to you, you think the villain knows it too? And since our villain knows it, he should take it to the the next level, right? So you begin to second think yourself while checking the villains pop-ups, knowing he's a reg and probably checking your personal stats and pop-ups too? So there you are, both of you simultaneously rifling through each others numbers looking for a clue as to what action to take with each other - while some drooler is typing "HURRY UP" in the chat window. Before you know it, you're shipping mpethybridge an agreed upon number of BI's to look even
deeper into your private numbers and financials - to make you a winner.
This happens to me mostly with monotone flops OOP where I consider leading, then think he'll jack it up on me and cost me more money, so I decide to c/r and put the pressure on him. But he knows the c/r line too. So how does that actually work, right? Or when I'm in position and villain checks to me, most likely the villain knows I know he's going to c/r. So if he knows I know it, why not just lead out so I can fold my freaking hand in peace? But since he should know I'm privy to the c/r line and wouldn't succumb to it, would he possibly take a different line or even c/f as some sort of meta-game bluff? Therefore, I become torn between betting my hand to take down the pot, or betting and then getting c/r'd off my hand.... nevermind... With all this self uncertainty, I'm amazed my redline ended up where it did.
The new winning 'Skilled Online Poker Specialist' or a maybe just a version of mpethy at work digging thru stats, your call.