Trapping Opponents in Poker There’s nothing more satisfying than tricking someone into thinking they have the best hand, and see them put all their chips on the line only to lose them to you! This article will explore the pros and cons of trapping and suggest the best approaches to get the most money out of someone. Trapping Pre Flop Let’s pretend where playing Texas Hold’em and just picked up the 2 aces. How should you play this pre flop? The first thing you want to consider is your position. If you are in early position and simply call the minimum bet, there is a risk that you’ll have a couple of callers and too many players involved in the hand after the flop. Facing five opponents isn’t a good thing, even when you picked up aces. On the other hand, you could risk calling the minimum bet and hope someone else will raise after you. The best indication is to look at who’s currently on the button and in the blinds, as these are positions players tend to steal from the most. If you have aggressive players in those spots, it’s likely that they will raise when everyone else show weakness. If you have passive players in those positions, then you should open the bet with a small raise. If you’re in late position, it’s a little easier because you know how many players are in the hand by the time it gets to you, and you know if anyone raised before you or not. If there are just a few players in the hand, you simply want to check or call the bet (2 opponents or less). By doing so you’re acting weak and no one will suspect you have aces at this point. If 4 opponents or more have called before you go, it would be wise to raise, but not by a lot. You don’t want to scare everyone away, but you want to get one or two to fold. Consider your own table image. If you are perceived to be someone who bluffs a lot, take advantage of that and play that role. Pretend to bluff so that others will call or raise you. If you’re perceived as a tight player, raising might chase everyone away. But to help you speculate on the likely outcome, also consider the table image of those you are facing. Trapping Post flop How you will act post flop will greatly be influenced by the flop itself. The first thing you want to do is identify danger flops – look for a pair on the board, a flush draw or a straight draw. When these situations occur, you need to bet to make sure that those who are on draws back off and don’t knock you out. So bet at least half the pot in those cases. If you’re not facing a danger flop, consider who your opponents are and if someone is aggressive, let them bet into you, hesitate, then call. If they check to you, check as well. Let them make the first move and play weak until you get to the last betting round. By that time, you will hopefully have the opponent pot committed and can move all in. If not, then think about going for a value bet, where you bet a really small amount in relation to the pot. The idea is to force the opponent to at least call you, because it would be silly not to. You won’t get all their chips, but at least you’ll get a bit more. When you have a lot of players just checking, don’t be afraid to throw money at the pot. It’s very dangerous to let opponents catch free cards when there’s too many of them. The worst case scenario is that they will all fold, but at least you’ll win whatever was in the pot. Sometimes, it’s just not possible to trap players when they are too weak. It sucks to get no action on a huge hand, but it happens to all of us. Try this strategy today on Carbon Poker!

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