If you asked 100 poker players what their favourite starting hand is, the majority will tell you Aces or Kings (mostly Aces). Big Slick (AK) would probably be one of the worst, it's the kind of hand you want to get, and you want action, but not too much - and invariably you end up getting it all-in against an underpair and bust out.
Now, ocassionally you will bust out to a complete rag hand, like 4-7 suited, played by someone who is hoping to connect in a big way, against a monster hand. I've often limped with 4-6 or 5-7 suited, prepared to lay it down to a raise, or if I don't connect.
Today I was playing in a $3 SNG, and it was the 3rd hand of the game. I picked up 4h-7h from the button and, when there was no pre-flop action, I limped. The SB immediately trebled the bet and this was min-raised by the BB. It was folded round to me and just about every fibre was telling me to push - get it all in the middle, you can't lose.
It was insane. Perhaps it was somewhat due to the fact that I was a little bit on tilt from a hand that had busted me out of a MTT 5 minutes before, but the gambler in me wanted to go to war with this hand. I convinced myself it was the 'tilt' talking and laid it down.
The SB makes the call and the flop comes down Kc-5c-8h. I smirked that I would have picked up a gut-shot, and with the flop action I most probably would have folded if I had just flat-called the pre-flop bets.
I was convinced that a 6 was going to hit the turn, and sure enough out pops the 6h. This completes my straight and gives me not only a flush draw, but a bellybuster straight flush draw.
I was now literally praying that a heart came down on the river and that one of the other players would have out-flushed me; I absolutely hate watching hands that I would have won if I'd stayed in, especially when there's lots of action.
This turned to complete disbelief when the river came down; 5h. Incredible, I would have rivered a straight-flush. I was speechless and hanging my head in dismay. How could my gut feeling have been so right.
Now, people will say that they get these feelings all the time and you have to learn to ignore them and play percentage poker. That's what I've been trying to do for the past year, with limited success. And the amount of times I've busted to someone playing this type of hand (see some of my previous blog entries), means it is sometimes a good percentage play to call big pre-flop raises with these hands, as if you connect you are going to get paid - big time.
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