Avoiding Traps with an Aggressive Style - Live Games

Howdy,

I've been playing a weekly home game for about 5 months, and I've had some trouble getting trapped. The player base is usually about 6 regulars, with 3-4 new players around to "fund the game". I usually do quite well, however, recently, I've had some trouble getting trapped. Here's a representative example:

Its the end of the night, 3 hours of poker under our belts, and there are 6 players left. I have 15$ in my stack (we buy in for 10$). I'm 1 off the button. One of the regular players limps in (20 cents) before me.

I play a highly aggressive & semi-loose style. I raise to 80 cents with A8os. It folds around to the villan, who calls. The flop comes, A73, with 2 spades. The villan leads out with 0.80$ into a pot of $1.90. I immediately (and probably wrongly) put the villan on a spade draw. So, I raise to 3$. The villan calls. The turn comes Qc. The villan checks to me, and I sense weakness again, so I fire in 5$, and the villan calls. The river comes out a non-spade deuce, and the villan checks to me, and I check.

Villan shows AKos, and runs off with a large portion of my stack. I've had similar situations happen like this before.

Am I just playing too loose? I figure a weak ace in late position now & then in a 6 player game isn't so bad, or am I wrong? Or is this just a case of me playing too aggressively, and players realizing that they can induce me to bet by showing weakness.

Additionally, by being so aggressive with hands that are just top pair, 2 pair, I usually get myself into situations where I'm pot committed, and drawing to 4 outs.

Thoughts?

yes, yes, and yes!!

Similar has happen with me, if I tried my opponent push out from pot with strong hand (unfortunately not with strongest hand). Maybe you just need better reading your opponent. Just raise a little in flop and turn, and if he/she pays be careful, don't rise more, just check or let him act. Because if your opponent (assuming that he/she is a good and tight player) pays or reraises your raisings or pays your reraisings with top pair, is possible, that you are trapped. Normally most players will fold (or check) if they are not wery sure. I did similar at last night in final table of online poker Tournament, using my opponent psychology. In flop (A, K and something else) I has only pair, but not top pair, in turn I has 2 pairs. I moved all in, with knowledge, that agressive opponent who has reraised me in preflop and raised in flop will go with me with his top pair (A). And thanks for using my opponent agressiveness I won this tourney.

The guy you're playing isn't the villan, the weak ace is! Well, it's okay to play a weak ace in late position, just be sure to know when to get away from it.

But to answer your questions, I would have to go with daxter and say yes, yes, and yes.

Several points here.
-You are playing a hand against a regular to your home game. You should have a read on how he plays and he should have a read on you so he knows how you play. That said, he knows you play loose and aggressive. How does he play? You made the read of a flush draw. You made an incorrect read, so that is why you paid him off. It was not him trapping you.

-You raise preflop and he calls. A sign of decent strength. You reraise him on the flop and he calls. This is a neon sign saying he is not going away. You now know you are beat. Hope you can check it down to the river and get luck. You wasted the $5 bet on the turn, he is just letting you bet it out.

-Loose and agressive is a good way to play a home game but he did not trap you here. You just did not read the signs fast enough to save yourself some money. You have to learn to hit the breaks when you get resistance.

I would say switch gears so they can't put you on hands or a style and look for betting patterns if you look closely enough there should be some tells as well.