WHAT IS TRAPPING? This is a question which new poker players ask a lot. The idea behind “trapping” is worth grasping. Let’s say you have flopped a premium hand. What you really want is for your opponent to stay in the hand as long as possible to pump value into the pot for your eventual benefit. By waiting until the turn or the river before you really lay down a heavy bet you are giving your opponent the chance to catch another card to give them a good enough hand to call a decent size bet. Obviously you don’t want them to land a hand that defeats yours, but by studying the composition of the community cards you should easily be able to tell what they are likely to have if everything goes their way. As long as you can see the potential opposing hand is less than you are holding you are in excellent shape to spring your trap.
LOOKING FOR “TELLS” Whenever you read about poker “tells” the general drift always seems to be about the way people stack their chips, the way their brow furrows, or whether or not they lean forward in their chair when they first study their hole cards etc. Apparently, rubbing your eyes can mean you don’t like what you’re seeing and tugging your earlobes means you don’t like what you’re hearing. All of this may have some truth in it but for me it’s the simple stuff that’s the most valuable and realistic. In almost every live social game I’ve played in I’d say that ninety percent of the time when a player shows any signs at all of semi-disguised dismay at his or her cards, they’re holding something good. Similarly whenever you see a half-concealed look of confidence most of the time it betrays a lousy hand. There’s something about the human condition that assumes opposite reactions fool people. Maybe these gestures do fool ordinary people but they don’t fool good poker players.
USE HAND HISTORIES Online “tells” as we’ve discussed before are a different animal altogether and I’ve become convinced over time that the most reliable way to figure out what an opposing player is up to is to follow their betting patterns and probe their hand histories. It’s altogether a more modern, almost forensic procedure when compared to the amateur psychology that most of us have to try and employ during social games. If you’ve never used the hand history software on your poker site of choice you should make a determined start. In most cases you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out who you’re up against and what to expect. When you’ve sifted through a few cases and seen what gives people away take a look at your own hand history. It can make disturbing reading. Ten to one you’ll want to change things and start mixing up your game.
