The art of trapping

[Nakamura]

Trapping is an art-form. It's about putting your opponent on a range and finding the best way to get all your money in when you are likely ahead in the hand. This means you have to be prepared to go bust since you will be taking flops when there is a slim, not not zero, chance the villain will out-flop you.

Nevertheless trapping is extremely profitable against a range of opponents. It seems to cut right across the spectrum and often it's possible to trap tight-aggressive players for most of their stacks. Bad players will obviously stack off light as well, making trapping very profitable against them too.

Here is the article that got me thinking http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...bb-184651.html. I had been making the same mistake for years without even realising it. I was failing to understand how my actions would influence my opponents based on the range I could put them on. I ended up 3-betting like a monkey and losing a lot of value!

To break this down more simply, one should consider that UTG raises generally indicate more strength, so we can 3-bet them more with our top hands like AA or KK, since it's fairly likely that they will stack off. Raises in later position tend to be with wider ranges that we don't mind taking a flop against with our top hands, so we should be more likely to trap against late position raisers. Take this example.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,500)
UTG+1 (1,430)
MP1 (1,470)
MP2 (1,765)
MP3 (1,530)
CO (1,200)
BTN (1,625)
Hero (1,480)
BB (1,500)

Blinds: 15/30

Pre-Flop: (45, 9 players) Hero is SB A A
5 folds, CO raises to 90, 1 fold, Hero calls 75, 1 fold

Flop: 7 2 4 (210, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets 210, Hero goes all-in 1,390, CO goes all-in 900

Turn: 9 (2,710, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River: 6 (2,710, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 2,710
CO shows a pair of Tens
10 10
Hero shows a pair of Aces
A A

Hero wins 2,710 (net +1,230)

CO lost 1,200

The villain goes bust here because he is thinking we would have re-raised all our strong hands PF and he isn't putting us on a range that includes strong hands. Now a strong player wouldn't go broke in this spot, but we would at the very least probably win at least one c-bet when he would have folded to a re-raise PF. Some taggs will even spazz out on these flops and donate their chips to you. This is usually an indication of player who doesn't think on a very high level.

Here is a classic case of trapping a typical tagg player who doesn't think on a very high level. Villain is a well known tagg player to myself. He is generally too aggressive post-flop and is probably unaware of this leak in his game.


I decide to just call and trap this opponent because I feel he is probably opening a wide range and this is the best way to get all the chips into the middle. My hand, although vulnerable to an A or K flopping, will be well disguised and perfect to extract plenty of value from this player. I'm confident in my ability to release the hand if I feel I have been out-flopped.

Once the villain checks, the hand pretty much plays itself as the villain spazzes out on the flop. Note that if I had been OOP in the hand I probably would have donk-led for 1/3 - 1/2 pot based on this players aggression.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
8 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com
$15+$1

Stacks:
UTG (1,395)
UTG+1 (1,470)
MP1 (1,470)
Hero (3,000)
CO (1,370)
BTN (1,360)
SB (1,945)
BB (1,490)

Blinds: 25/50

Pre-Flop: (75, 8 players) Hero is MP2 Q Q
2 folds, MP1 raises to 150, Hero calls 150, 4 folds

Flop: 9 10 4 (375, 2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets 225, MP1 goes all-in 1,320, Hero calls 1,095

Turn: A (3,015, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: 3 (3,015, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: 3,015
MP1 shows high card Ace
J K
Hero shows a pair of Queens
Q Q

Hero wins 3,015 (net +1,545)

MP1 lost 1,470

I could show you a great many hands where I have trapped opponents for all their chips, but I think you get the point. Of course you shouldn't go ape-shit and trap every time you get AA or KK. That's just a recipe for losing value. For example, a tagg raises to 250 chips off a 14BB stack from UTG. He likes his hand now and might not like it very much after the flop. It far better to PF than trap in these spots. A good player will read your smooth call like a book and will not stack with a good proportion of his range that he would have been happy to call a shove with PF.

Happy trapping campers!