Trapping...

[BroncoKid8]

You know, I see many many players building the perfect trap in their opinion whenever those players hit the flop hard. For example: AK might try and trap on an A x x board. Let me first define what I mean by trapping. Trapping in my opinion is defined by deceivingly or irregularly betting or checking when one thinks he has the best hand so that the opponent plays into him/her.

Recently what I realized is that not only is trapping very dangerous because you don't exactly know where you stand, but also it is unnecessary.

Dangers in trapping:

The biggest danger is of course being outdrawn without even knowing it. If you check and let the other guy bluff into you, his bluff might actually get there, and then you're mad because he stayed in with 10 2 vs your Q Q and hit running 10s.

The next biggest danger is that you are in fact trapping yourself if your opponents hand really does get there! If you check, or bet low enough to make your opponent think you are weak, he will play back at you, yes. But he may have had a flush draw or a straight draw, and you may not even realize it. Now a days it's really easy to tell if someone is calling you down to hit the flush especially online. But trickery leads to nothing good.

The last and final straw that may break your habit of trapping is the fact that once you trap someone and do it successfully and show down your hand, the table will recognize your play and realize that you like to trap people to hopefully stack them at some point in the hand, and they won't give you any action.

I know that trapping happens very instinctual like, "oh my god, I have the nuts... I can't let the opponent know that, so I'm gonna start building a trap!" But breaking that habit may be the one most important quality of a good poker player. Let "He who shalt not trap, shall win!" be the first commandment of poker.

I would like to hear other's opinions on this, so feel free to message me or reply to this post. Thanks for listening.

[HeyKidMove]

I agree with you on this. IMO it's better to bet/raise with your strong hands because if you don't you do run the risk of allowing your opponent to get there. I think instead of trying to check raise with monsters, like a set especially, it's better to just bet out and see where your opponent is at, and you might get a raise.

[frob23]

You're not trapping when you check top-pair... you're giving a free card for someone to beat you. You trap with monster hands... flopped boats and up. And maybe top set on a very uncoordinated board. You trap when your hand is so strong that being out-drawn is extremely unlikely and you have so much of the flop that they can't have much of anything. I almost never slow-play... I think flopping quads is when I begin to think I might need to slow down.

Still, in general, trapping is not a value play except against very specific opponents in very specific hands. Most weak players will call anyway, so you just need to bet your hand for value.

[Fictive]

I agree. Trapping isn't much of a play unless you got a monster like already mentioned, and you actually need an aggressive player against you. A lot of players won't give you a dime, even if you check, check, and finally try to get some money on the river.

One thing that works pretty well, especially if you are OOP, and have bet pre-flop: just make your standard c-bet, and hope you get a call. Then check the turn (against aggressive players/bluffers), a lot of people, rightfully so, will bet in hopes of winning the pot, so you can often squeeze a little extra there with check-raise.

[iceveins0901]

I very rarely ever trap, it seems like the one time i do try to slow play a set or something, the hand goes wrong and I end up losing to a straight or flush.

If I do have the deck killed, I will sometimes check the flop, to hopefully allow some to catch up before I bet the turn.

[rakmupagain]

Trapping isn't a profitable play unless your playing a very aggressive opponent who ALWAYS bets BIG when he smells a pot that might be taken. I played a hand tonight that im still laughing about, when a guy tried to trap me with top set in NL both of us had more than double max buy in.
I opened the pot with standard pot raise in SH NL game with 66, a hyper aggressive bluffer reraises me with position so i call, his range being ak or big pair (10's thru A's) , because he was very passive preflop. Great situation to get his stack, when I have a great idea what he has and he has little idea of my holdings.
Flop comes 3c 6h 10d rainbow. I check, he bets min!! ( which was about 5% of pot,lol), I raise him, about 7 bb's, rather small for pot size). He just calls, I actually put him on ak at this point, I wasnt ruling out set of 10's or aces either, because he was very aggresive when he had nothing, playing so passively gave me suspicions, but i would never fold the set there no matter what. turn comes 7d putting possible straight on board and a flush draw.
I lead out on turn hoping he pushes all in with adkd or overpair. He just calls! River is another diamond, the 9d, putting a one card straight out there and possibel flush.... I check the scary board, already planning to call anything he bets, remotely worried about adkd, but he would have likely pushed that hand the way i had seen him play other hands.

The donkey checks behind me and shows a set of 10's takes down the small pot. OOOOps, could of had it all buddy. instead of losing 400+ i lost around 50. Im still laughing. I bet he tries it again next time, too.

[AnArkhos]

I use trapping every almost every time I hit a nuthand that is not easily outdrawn and not easily spotted.

Last trap I set was with a flopped quads. The other player had FH and he slowplayed it too. A third party played into me, I called and the FH went over the top with his stack.

I wouldnt have made nearly as much with raising into the FH as he would've gotten the third hand out by reraising me.

So I think there is a time and a place for setting a trap and it usually consists of something better than one pair. Mostly at least a set.