If you're getting trapped a lot and need to cut down on your losses when you get to the river to reveal a losing hand, the main thing you need to do is realize that if you're going to just keep betting, the opponent is going to let you. But how do you resist the urge to continue to bet your top pair or better? Well, let's set the stage. Let's say you flop top pair with a great kicker. You make a large flop bet, maybe pot-sized or even better and they call without re-raising. Stop and ask yourself this, why would they be calling such a large flop bet? Obviously they have something, but what? Well, there are 3 types of hands to always consider your opponent having.
- An over-pair is always very possible. Everyone plays pairs and there's a good chance someone has one larger than yous in many situations.
- Two pair is also extremely possible. Someone who snuck into the hand with a suited 8J and hitting two pair would be very dangerous for you.
- And finally, going along with the everyone plays pairs mentality, someone could have played a pair and hit trips.
All three of those things are very common in poker and could easily cause you to be dominated. If someone calls a large flop bet, even if there are no draw possibilities, always consider the three things above as legitimate hands that could be trapping you.
The second aspect is the amount you are betting. If you are betting for value and not to push them off the hand then bet lower, maybe even as low as 1/4 of the pot. It won't push anyone off the hand, but it could do a couple of things.
- It could cause them to bet large and expose their hand. This may help you get away from the hand without losing many chips.
- If they do call and you bet similarly down to the river, then you're losing a lot less chips while still building a decent stack in case you do win. If the initial pot is 1000 and you bet 250 and get called the pot is 1500. Then 350 and a call builds it to 2200. Then 450 and a call builds it to over 3000 which is triple the starting stack and not a bad hand if you do win it.
So, I'd say if you're falling into traps too often, limit your flop betting and hope to expose the trap before you put in a ton of chips, and keep in mind the 3 very common hands that could have you beat.
It's a hard thing to do and I still have problems with getting trapped. But when I've been able to stick to the above concepts I find myself leaking a lot fewer chips to traps.