DO TRAPS WORK? The best poker traps do work but it’s a good idea to stick with the tried and tested. My favourite poker trap is simply to wait for a really big hand and then give my opponent the opportunity to catch up. If you don’t bet too hard into your premium hand he or she may stick with you and hopefully improve their hand on the turn. If they catch a good card they’ll start building the pot for you and think they’ve taken the initiative. That’s the trap! But you need to be sure you really do have a premium hand because otherwise you will have built the pot for the enemy if they’ve caught cards to an outright winning hand of their own. Usually, if you’ve played it cool at the flop when you’re secretly holding the goods, opponents will feel secure enough to go for the turn. If they’re not very experienced they’ll be judging the value of your hand based on the weak flop bet you placed. If the turn has been kind to them they may figure they can bully you out of the pot with a big bet and just a reasonable hand. I see it happen all the time. More experienced players may get a “read” on you, smell a rat and fold, leaving you with next to no reward for your premium hand. That’s your risk. This simply means a good poker trap only works if you’ve made a good read.
THE TOOLKIT When new players ask me about how to approach their first dozen or so games of poker I first recommend they spend some time on the free poker school at dailystarpoker.com or one of the other big sites. Once they’ve understood the basic rules of the game the next thing is to consider the tools of the game. Foldng should be considered as your bog standard screwdriver. You’re going to be using that a lot more regularly than any other piece of kit. In fact if you’re not folding at least two thirds of the hands you’re dealt you won’t become a poker craftsman or woman. Folding is not the sign of weakness you might think it is. Poker is about magnifying your opportunity to win and reducing as dramatically as possible your capacity to lose. The fold mechanism is the tool for that job. Use it often and wisely. Betting and raising can be thought of as your power tools! If your hand is good and you’re considering calling, you should power up and bet. If someone has already bet ahead of you, you should consider raising. That’s why they’re power tools. Practice until you know how and when to switch them on. The tools I like least are checking and calling. There are times when they’re appropriate but they should never be your focus. Then of course there is bluffing. This is the most difficult tool of all to know how to use. Here’s the instruction manual for first time user: Don’t try to bluff new, inexperienced or downright bad players. Paradoxically, bluffs work better when sparingly used against good players. You’ll discover why if you use the bluff in that manner for a while.
