How do you avoid traps?

Lheticus

Lheticus

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I've noticed lately I'm having a very hard time avoiding falling into other player's traps, where they check their hand (most often a set) and I dig my own grave way too easily. The reason I dig my grave is I subscribe to the "you have to bet to win" philosophy of poker, and when a lot of boards that these sets etc catch me in come, I'm way more worried about my opponents catching something on the NEXT cards to beat me than already having me beat, especially if they're check calling.

Not to mention it's pretty hard to determine if a player is the type to use such a sneaky move, as the only way to get hard data to that effect is for someone to fall for the trap that completely. Anyone have any ideas on how I can avoid this kind of situation?
 
starting_at_the_bottom

starting_at_the_bottom

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- Make notes on villains and play accordingly
- Dont pay them off when they tell you they have it
- Know who will call down with TPTK and who will not (bet accordingly)
 
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joe777

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Unless you got any history on the villain,it is difficult to avoid trap as some players could be bluffing also.
 
Figaroo2

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You ask some good questions here.
A trap is called such because you can't see it right?
But what you can see are the circumstances of a hand when a trap might occur. There are all sorts of clues both in the villain's stats, the preflop and flop action and table position.
What you should be paying particular attention to is the texture of the flop.
The biggest pointers are a dry flop and the villain just called in late position or the blinds. Also lookout for passive players raising and aggressive players checking and calling postflop.
If we have AK in MP and the semi blind just calls then this is often set mining.
On an A82 rainbow flop we cbet and get called or raised. What's it going to be?
I would add that you are supposed to lose some money when you run into a set. The key is to put all the clues together and FIND THE FOLD button and don't get stacked with a 1 pair hand when lots of BB are being shipped in post flop.
 
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