Do you still overplay with medium hands? How to avoid this technical tilt?

I recently lost a big pot when playing too aggressive with top pair and medium kicker. After reviewing my hand, I realized that I forced a situation where the villain only had better hands — overplay classic . 😓

I wanted to know how you train discipline to avoid this type of mistake.

• What goes through your mind when deciding whether to slow down or keep pushing?
• Are there any clear criteria that you use to identify when you are exaggerating your hand strength?

If you have examples or tips on how to tame ego and play in a more balanced way, it will help a lot!

I make the same mistake

I think, a key concept is hand planning, and the CC 30 day course use the idea of "how many bets". Meaning that on the flop we make up our mind, how many bets our hand is good for. Of course this only apply, if we have a hand, that can sometimes win at showdown, and it will change, if the situation change.
But if we have a marginal top pair hand like on then typically this would be a 2 bets hand. Meaning that if more than 2 gets go in, they we will usually be overplaying the hand, but if less than 2 bets go in, we will be to conservative. So if we are the preflop aggressor, then our plan for the hand must usually be to check back either flop or turn, so that no more than 2 bets go in. And if we defended our blinds, then we should be prepared to fold, if the opponent goes bet, bet, bet. Of course there are a lot of variables here.
If the turncard is , now we have a 3 bets hand or even a play for all the chips hand. But if the board runs out , then we check back the river and we fold to a bet, even if only one bet has gone in. Now there is a 1-liner to a straight and 3 cards to a flush, so our relative hand strength has been significantly degraded, and we no longer have a 2 bets hand.

It also matter, who the opponent is, and what bet sizing they use. In general we go after more thin value against weak players and pot control more against strong players. And if the opponent overbet the turn, then we might fold, even though we have a 2-bet hand. Or if they min-bet every single street, then we call them down.