Trapping the pwner

[Sam T.]

Hi all,

This situation came up during the second hour of last night's $3 rebuy to the Stars $700k. The villain is a big-stack, and makes a habit of shoving in all his chips if the pot is limped to him. Not raising a decent amount, but shoving in 100BB. When it's folded, he then shows complete trash: 85, 93o, etc.

What kind of hand would you want before you tried to trap a player like this? (I decided AJs was good enough.)

Best,

Sam

AJs is probably my minimum hand, although that makes me nervous. I'm really only comfortable doing it with AK, AA, KK, QQ, JJ sometimes (depending on how I feel about his play). During the rebuy, I'm probably calling with any pair down to 88, AT or better, KQ, and maybe KJ, QJs, or KTs.

One thing that is important to consider is that this guy might not be a donk. A strategy that some employ is to play super aggressively during the rebuy, and then continue to make ridiculous raises after the rebuy when they have premium hands, because they get paid off due to their LAGgy image. I'm guessing he/she beat you. Oh, and remember, if you got beat by T8o, then you made a good call.

Will

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What kind of hand would you want before you tried to trap a player like this?

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IMHO, the decision involves more than just the hand. It involves position, your perception of the player prior to and during the hand, the player's perception of you prior to and during the hand, etc. These kinds of players are all over the place online. You just have to be patient and pick your spots. They don't always show down garbage. Sometimes you don't even need a hand and a well-placed bluff or semi-bluff will do the trick.

[Sam T.]

[ QUOTE ]

One thing that is important to consider is that this guy might not be a donk. A strategy that some employ is to play super aggressively during the rebuy, and then continue to make ridiculous raises after the rebuy when they have premium hands, because they get paid off due to their LAGgy image. I'm guessing he/she beat you. Oh, and remember, if you got beat by T8o, then you made a good call.

Will

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't come to the table until after the re-buy ended, so I have no idea how he played then. As I said, he did this with cheese several times, so it seemed entirely possible I was ye olde 2:1 favorite against his random two.

Turns out he had KK. Happily I rivered the Ace. /images/graemlins/grin.gif Didn't bust him, but he donked off the rest of his chips over the course of the next hour.

Thanks,

Sam