Trap or raise? The eternal problem.

You know when you flop the nuts or a massive hand and your opponent bets big into you? Does your opponent have a big enough hand to get it all in or is he just being aggressive with top pair/draw?

Should you raise or call is one of the most perplexing decisions one has to make and they are extremely important. We are pretty sure that our opponent has an over pair on a wet board and we have a set, what to do? Is he a good enough player to lay down an over pair? Does he give us enough respect to do that? If the answer is yes then perhaps one can try to trap. But if the draws get complete on the board then he might be able to get away with it more easily. However if they don't then we might get paid off on the river as he might suspect a missed draw bluff.

We hit the nut straight on a rainbow board with AK and there was no 3 betting so our opponent cant really know. So best time to trap? Well you would't had you knew your opponent was betting a K9 and the turn card came a K effectively shutting him down. But of course some other day you would want your opponent to make 2 pair or the lower straight and get paid off.

Ultimately for me it comes down to the player. If I flop the nuts and a fish bets big into me I am making a big re raise cuz I know he isn't getting away with the hand. However there are many regs who are too good a player to just bet big and get paid off. I try to mix up my play against them, a huge check raise on the flop just looks too strong. Generally a massive raise on the turn doesn't nearly get as much respect from what I have experienced.

Please share your thoughts regarding this I would really like to improve my game in this regard.

Well you have pretty much said it - totally dependent on your opponent and what you think you can get him to do.

My default position is to raise, but it totally depends on if I think I can get him to come along. If he's a bluff monkey then I am more than happy to let him hang himself and keep calling until the river.

I have another question. When you want to flat out bet big do you bet the pot or lower? If lower how much? I am mostly hesitant about betting 100% pot as it just looks super strong. I shave off a few BB from it to make it look less, a purely psychological thing.

Thinker_145 said:

I have another question. When you want to flat out bet big do you bet the pot or lower? If lower how much? I am mostly hesitant about betting 100% pot as it just looks super strong. I shave off a few BB from it to make it look less, a purely psychological thing.

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Yeah, pot bets are pretty polarizing - it's either strong or a bluff - no middle ground. 3/4 pot is usually good for me. Sometimes I'll get cute and go pot if I think he'll read it as a bluff.

Gotta factor a lot more into it than just "is it better?"

Has the player been stepping into a lot of big bets? If so he might feel he's getting pushed around and make loose calls. Has the player been playing "face up" where a big bet represents a strong hand? If he's strong enough he might stack off. Is the board wet enough where the opponent might put you on a semi-bluff or call with something like a pair + straight/flush redraw?

Conversely - having you been peeling a lot of flops? Maybe you can smooth call to trap here - especially if you're in position. Have you generally been calling with middle and bottom pair to see show down? Again, calling might make for a good trap. Are there draws on the board? Sometimes I like to smooth call my way to the river in hopes that other apparent draws don't show. If I'm OOP I might donk-shove the river in hopes it will be interpreted as a missed draw bluff.


And there's maybe about thirty other considerations one could factor in. Simple tendencies like "is this guy a call station"? Or conversely, if the guy folds under pressure maybe you can hammer him with big bets. If you show that you are firing with real ammo you may be able to run him over in future hands. It just depends on the player.

I have been having trouble with this when I flop a set I never raise flop on a dry board but if its wet I'll raise it because it adds more semi bluffs to your range. Can't say I have flopped enough straights to give decent input on them but I am almost always playing them big and aggressive unless I have a read and can exploit a villain.

The other day I made a very loose call to a 3 bet IP with 67s. I flopped a straight and was facing a 50% bet and now I am thinking maybe he has AK so I don't raise. Unfortunately the turn card was horrible, it paired the board and was a third heart. It goes check check, the river is a blank and he fires a very weak bet. I make a big raise and he calls with AA. I was regretting not having raised the flop then, no way he is getting away. And because he had the Ace of hearts I was going to get all his stack on the turn. I still won 50 BB so its not too bad I guess.

Thinker_145 said:

The other day I made a very loose call to a 3 bet IP with 67s. I flopped a straight and was facing a 50% bet and now I am thinking maybe he has AK so I don't raise. Unfortunately the turn card was horrible, it paired the board and was a third heart. It goes check check, the river is a blank and he fires a very weak bet. I make a big raise and he calls with AA. I was regretting not having raised the flop then, no way he is getting away.

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The old "I put him on AK" haha. I think even AK peels a flop raise in a 3 bet pot there.

When you have strong hand and your opponent bets big you dont need to raise. I always call in this situation. Other players always check the turn. Here I can make a bet to get the flop or wait to the river when he bets to get the pot and raise him. It`s if my hand is still good anyway. Aggression can only put you in trouble. Play smart and it`s all easier.

Slowplay when against a loose aggressive player....it pays way more...

IPlay said:

The old "I put him on AK" haha. I think even AK peels a flop raise in a 3 bet pot there.

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My theory about microstakers "hand reading" is shaping up to be true....

Then again, I also fall for putting people on AK in 3bet pots

RodneyC86 said:

My theory about microstakers "hand reading" is shaping up to be true....

Then again, I also fall for putting people on AK in 3bet pots

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Same here, to be fair when people are only 3 betting AA, KK and AK it does make up a large chunk of their range

IPlay said:

Same here, to be fair when people are only 3 betting AA, KK and AK it does make up a large chunk of their range

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Ya the player I was against in that hand had a 3 stat for 3 bet. Betting 50% on that flop seemed a little odd with AA and KK. But then again maybe he gives me respect and wanted to proceed cautiously.

Thinker_145 said:

Ya the player I was against in that hand had a 3 stat for 3 bet. Betting 50% on that flop seemed a little odd with AA and KK. But then again maybe he gives me respect and wanted to proceed cautiously.

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no, he knows you will put him on AK

So here's three hands that all revolve around this idea that all kind of relate to each other. All .25/.50 6max hold'em.


1. Hero dealt 6s 6d
UTG: Raises to $1.50
Hero: Calls.
UTG +2 (villain): Raises to $5
Folds around, UTG folds.
Hero: Calls for $3.50

*Bit of a loose call since I'm paying $3.50 for $8. But there's 16 AKs, 4 AQs, 20 hands I'm a bit ahead, and there's 30 TT+ hands. But we'll see.

Flop: 8s 6c Ad

*Yahtzee. If his hand is AK, AQ, I'm golden. Of course, if it's a TT+ hand I probably won't get much money, and if it's AA I'm screwed.

Hero: Checks.
Villain: Bets 7.50 (about 2/3 pot with some change).

Turn: 6h

*OK - now I really really hope villain has AA.

Hero: Check.
Villain: Bets $15
Hero: Raises $35.50 and is All-In.
Villain: Calls.

*Here's my logic. First of all, I'm so flabbergasted that I caught Quads I just check instinctually (fantastic right). He bets. Now I have two choices, flat call or raise. If I flat call I think anything other than AA is going to get suspicious and the river might kill my action. So I just shove and hope that my opponent thinks I'm bluffing or that I'm holding a lesser Ace. In retrospect this probably wasn't the best play, but it worked. But I guess because he only had to call $20 into a $65 pot and figured there weren't many combinations beating him he went for it.

Villain shows AQ of spades.




2. This hand is kind of important because it sets up #3.

Hero is BB. Dealt 8h 8d

UTG (villain) limps in.
Folds around
SB calls for .25.
Hero: Raises to $2.50
UTG: calls for $2.
SB: Folds.

Flop: 4d 5h 3h

*Not the greatest flop in the world for me, but not a bad one.

Hero: Checks
UTG: Checks

*This is a bit odd, but here's my line of thinking. My guy either limped in with a drawing hand, or small pocket pair. *Maybe* wanted to do something tricky with a good hand. So this is kind of an "information check" for me. I think any pocket pair would take the betting lead and everything else would take a free card. My feeling is if I lead out, I'm probably getting called by worse, but I'm not going to have any information because most holdings are going to peel whether they hit in any way or not. A more seasoned player might be able to correct my play here but I think it makes sense.

Turn: 5s

*Safe looking card.

Hero: Bets $2.75 (little more than half pot)
Villain: Calls.

*Call has me a touch nervous as I could be getting trapped, but there's so many draws on the board I feel like over cards and drawing hands might still call here.

River: 6h

*This is not such a good card for me. I take it in a weird direction and decide to rep a value hand. I don't know if the guy is drawing and to what but I figure I want to see a show down and I don't want it to be too expensive.

Hero: Bets $5.50 (just over 1/2 pot)
Villain: Tanks and folds.

*I think my Villain may have folded something like AK, or possibly pocket 2s, Or A3, A4. More importantly I think my Villain felt like he was being pushed out of the pot a little bit. I expect him to play a little more aggressively in the future.



3. Hero is BB. Dealt 8c 8h

UTG (villain from #2) - limps in.
Folds to SB. SB raises $2.
Hero calls $1.50
UTG raises $5.
SB calls $3
Hero calls $3.

*So I am probably a dog to our Villain who basically played the most obvious AA hand ever, limp under the gun followed by a min raise 3 bet. If he doesn't have AA I'm shocked. Why am I in the hand? Because paying $3 to see $12 with implied odds out the ass.

Flop: 8d 4c 9c

*Perfect flop for me.

SB: Checks.
Hero: Checks.
Villain: Bets $10 (2/3 pot).
SB: Folds
Hero: Calls.

*So here I check to him because there's zero reason for him not to bet the pot. Likewise, if I call my hand isn't revealed as a set of 8s. There's a lot of drawing hands getting a good price to see the flop, and JJ, QQ, KK all would be sticking around as well. My trap depends on being able to conceivably have a smaller holding than AA (which is a very narrow range to put him on, but c'mon).

Turn: Qh

Hero: Checks.
UTG: Bets $12.50 (roughly 1/3 pot).
Hero: Calls.

*In this situation I have to figure out if I'm calling or raising. If he had bet bigger, as in example #1, I'd probably raise. But because he's min-raising it's fairly obvious he wants me on the river so he can bet more. The only other reason he'd do this is if he had a set of 9s or Qs, or TJ, which while possible, is fairly unlikely (especially TJ, I just can't see him playing that in this way). So here, I'm choosing to call because I feel I'll be able to check-raise him on the river provided a club doesn't show up.

River: 5s

*Great. A blank. He will almost assuredly bet here.

Hero: Checks.
UTG: Shoves $29.06.
Hero: Obviously calls.

*That went better than expected. My original plan was to check raise but I guess the pot was big enough my villain figured might as well try to make his shove look bluffy.

Villain shows Aces. I show him a set of 8s.

Thinker_145 said:

Ultimately for me it comes down to the player. If I flop the nuts and a fish bets big into me I am making a big re raise cuz I know he isn't getting away with the hand. However there are many regs who are too good a player to just bet big and get paid off. I try to mix up my play against them, a huge check raise on the flop just looks too strong. Generally a massive raise on the turn doesn't nearly get as much respect from what I have experienced.

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I agree with this point which you answered yourself. Not only this it also depends on what kind of hand you have and on what board. If you have the absolute nuts then decision making is easier to try and extract maximum value. However if the board is somewhat wet and you don't have the absolute nuts or still can be outdrawn then here you have to be more careful when a strong player bets into you.

Never trap, check nuts is penalty, raise raise raise.

I think it depends on the villians aggression and the spr

Depends on the type of player, if you have a good hand and your opponent is aggressive, you're probably better off just calling. If they are more passive, I will tend toward raising.

the more and more I experiment with trapping the more and more I realize that's it's just as read based as bluffing. An effective bluff only works out if you a) know the player is willing to fold what they have, and (b) will believe you AREN'T bluffing based on your line.

Trapping is kind of the opposite. It works out when (a) the player has something that's hard for them to lay down, and (b) will believe you are making your move with a worse hand or complete bluff.

So the ingredients are: Knowing what your opponent's tendencies are when it comes to folding. Having a decent idea of how strong your opponent is. Having a setup both in terms of the board and in terms of your betting that makes your move effective.

A common trap that's worked for me is when a flush draw shows up and I can reasonably place my opponent on a made hand that doesn't beat mine. So for example, flopping a set or a straight when my opponent has made top pair. Here, my goal is to rep the flush draw through my betting (and sometimes through how long it takes for me to call). This way I can make a bluffy-looking move on the river when the draw doesn't complete.

But there are other sorts of "traps". If I know the opponent is likely to bluff or bet his marginal range on the river I can check back the turn. But I also have to believe that my opponent will otherwise call the turn and fold to a river bet in that situation. Because ultimately if I don't think the player is going to fold to value-sized bets, I may as well get it across two streets.