Today I was in the mood for poker and I have a game coming up at WinStar this Thursday that has me very nervous. Joanna and I are going on a trip to Broken Bow in Oklahoma and on the way we are staying at WinStar. I plan on playing once Thursday night and again Friday morning if things go well the night before, but with my history at WinStar, it isn't going to go well. I suspect the trip without gambling is going to cost about $400 and I am attempting to break even with my poker winnings, but I have a great fear of turning this $400 trip into $700.
Since I have won a few home game tournaments lately, I have been wanting to hear poker discussion more among my friends, and luckily I found a website that my server at work allows me to access (because it is poker related) that has podcasts. I listened to two posts today and took a few notes from them that I thought were worthy of talking about here.
The first is this tidbit of knowledge: when semi-bluffing a hand, you want to be the last one betting. I probably instinctively knew that, but I don't actively make sure I am the last bet when involved in a semi-bluff. I feel like I am, but when the podcast speaker mentioned that, a little light bulb in my head went off that made me think that was so obvious.
Because of my track record at WinStar, I am going to be playing a timid game (which I know is a bad strategy), so I'm not sure how many semi-bluffs I am going to be making. However, when I find myself in a situation that I am making a semi-bluff bet, I am going to be sure to be the final aggressor.
The second thing I heard I don't think I necessarily agree with. The host said when short-stacked (which means about 15 big blinds remaining) late in a tournament, it is better to have A-5 suited than a hand like 7-4 suited on an all-in shove. Before I get too deep into my thinking on this I will stipulate that if the all-in hands were A-5 suited against 7-4 suited, I would obviously rather have the A-5.
So what do I mean when I say I'd rather have 7-4 suited (besides it being my favorite non-premium hand)? The reason I would rather push all-in with 7-4 suited than A-5 suited is if you get called, 7-4 has a better chance of being live. If you get called with A-5, odds are your only live card is the five since your opponent called with a higher ace. Obviously getting called by a pocket pair higher than seven but lower than an ace is going to stink when holding a seven and a four, but I just feel more comfortable hearing "call" when I move all-in with 7-4 than I do A-5. Probably not that much more comfortable, but I have to at least feel like my cards stand a better chance than the ace-high hand would.
I don't know, maybe I am alone in this thinking, but like the podcast host said, "if your opponent has Ace-big, you are getting called no matter what." Wouldn't you rather have two live cards at that point?
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