Trapping in No Limit Hold'em

The basic definition of trapping in poker is playing a strong hand as if it’s weak and letting an aggressive opponent do all the betting to hang himself.  It’s basically the same thing as slow playing.  One of the most satisfying feelings in poker comes from executing a perfect trap and snatching someone’s entire stack.

There are many ways to set up and execute a trap but here are two basic, effective traps:

1.      The Slow Play

2.      The Turn Check

The Slow Play

Let’s say you’ve been playing a pretty straight-forward game all afternoon, betting when you have the goods and checking or folding when weak.  You finally catch a good hand in late position and an aggressive player up front starts betting into you.

You act weak and just call on the flop and turn, hoping he puts you on something weak like a draw.  On the river he bets 80% of his remaining stack, you finally raise and he instantly folds his bluff.

That was the perfect time to trap the opponent because he didn’t have anything that would have called a bet with because he was bluffing.  Your only hope to get his money was to let him continue bluffing, bloating the pot and getting desperate to win it all back with a huge river bluff.

The Turn Check

The idea behind the turn check is to take it to the second level given that your opponents are aware of slow plays.

Let’s say you’re dealt 78s on the button and decide to attack the blinds after it folds around to you.  You raise and one of the blinds calls; you can tell he’s getting tired of you stealing his blinds.  The flop comes 377 and the blind checks to you.

Now you’ve hit a very nice hand in a heads up pot so it may be tempting to slow play but a better trap just might be to play the hand as if you have a couple of missed over cards and are hoping for a fold.

If he has something you’re going to get action anyways but if he doesn’t you’ve just inflated the pot and given him the perfect chance to re-steal the pot.  It’s a harmless looking board and you’ve played the hand the same as you would’ve played a whiffed AK or something.

His next move will then partially dictate how you should proceed with this trap.  If he folds the trap is over, sorry about your luck.  That’s OK though because he didn’t see your cards and it keeps you looking like a blind thief.  If you’re lucky enough to catch another strong hand soon, you may get action.

If the opponent only calls your bet and then checks to you on the turn you have two options and must choose based upon your read of the situation.  The sneakiest option is to check behind on the turn (if you’re reasonably sure the opponent isn’t drawing).

Checking on the turn after raising preflop in early position and betting the flop makes your hand look so full of shit to other players.  It looks like you tried to steal but called and gave up.  If you follow up with a river bet after checking behind on the turn, there is a high chance it will be called.

The turn check is also useful for medium strength hands like top pair top kicker (AK on a 2K7 board, for example).  This keeps the pot of a manageable size while still allowing you to make an easy couple of bets.

That wraps up this article on trapping your opponents.  If you play poker online, you should think of checking out CakePoker.com.  They have a great player rewards program, and have even sent their players real cakes in the mail.  To learn more about the site, read our full Cake Poker Review.

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