[Matt Ruff]

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On the real good post. In all honestly we are here to learn the game. Playing short stacked stunts our growth because we are never forced to play poker (its bad enough we spend our time at SSNL playing NLHE against players who think the game is "go fish"). You can't learn the game short stacked. You don't need reads (beyond pf stats) and you don't need to think if you know you never have to make a decision beyond the flop.

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I agree are there are important things about NL you can only learn playing deepstacked. But it seems to me the lesson offered by this hand -- "Don't overvalue bottom two pair" -- isn't one of them. If anything, a thinking but novice player is more likely to learn that lesson cheaply while playing shortstacked.

If I'm short at this table, I'm folding 9Ts to Pokey's raise. Then I get to watch UTG go broke, and hopefully the 9 on the river doesn't stop me from doing the math and realizing how much trouble I would have been in on the flop and the turn.

If I'm deep enough to call the preflop raise, on the other hand, I end up in first position with a third-best hand that, to my novice eyes, probably looks pretty decent. And whether I manage to get away from it on the flop or go all-in, the 9 on the river is probably more likely to color my conclusions than if I were a bystander.