Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
I would much rather check-raise with J-10 on 8-7-3
I would much rather check-raise with J-10 on 8-7-3 because I now have a semi-bluff with six outs to make top pair plus four outs to make the nuts. I am fine with most forms of semi-bluffing, including this one. The extra equity when you make a disguised strong hand is more than enough to turn a marginal bluff into an easy semi-bluff. That does not mean floating, the topic of the next chapter, is not a much better play in position.
Check-raising strong draws
Check-raising strong draws has a lot of merit when you are out of position. You generally don’t want to check-call out of position because it will be tough to get all the chips in when you hit your hand. Check-raising the flop with the intention of betting most turns, whether or not you hit, is usually a solid plan.