Early Tournament Stage Pocket Pair Trap Strategy
So I’ve been playing around with early tournament strategy as of late since its usually a time to play very tight, I tried altering my starting hands around a little bit to see what gave me higher levels of success. I was playing around with this strategy on Full Tilt and found a pretty high level of success with it.
First off, I played this strategy for the first hour to hour and a half of the tournament, when blinds started at 10-20 and got up to about 200-400 before I switched up. I only played pocket pairs, A-K, A-Q and A-Js during this early stage period. What I did with all pocket pairs besides AA, KK, QQ, JJ was I would limp in and basically “set or die” meaning if I didn’t flop a set I’d most likely check/fold. If I did set I would usually trap the other players in the pot unless the flop was ugly for my set, such as a straight draw, flush draw or a combination of the two. This strategy requires some luck because you’re not always going to flop a set, I believe flopping a set is one every seven to eight times so you’re going to need to catch a few cards for this to work.
If there is a raise and I hold a lower pair like 7s and below I’ll usually call them if they’re 3x the bb or lower because in most cases if you can check the original bettor will continuation bet and you will be able to either call and further your trap or check-raise… In most cases, especially online this could end up in you winning all of your opponents chips. Be smart with this strategy and analyze the flops so you can alter your play… I’ll provide two quick examples of a great flop for your hand and a bad one and how the player in the example played.
Example 1: You hold 5-5 in middle position and the player who is acting right before you raises 2.5x the big blind. You elect to call and everyone folds except the big blind who also calls. The flop comes 5d-As-9c. This is a beautiful flop, no obvious straight draws.. An ace came out which is a likely holding for a raiser meaning that the chances of your bet, check-raise or inducing a bet from that player is very high. So the original bettor makes a continuation bet of half the pot and since the flop was sexy for your hand you just call and the big blind also calls. The turn comes Jc and there are now two straight draw possibilities but they are a long shot. The bettor bets half the pot again and you call, the big blind also calls. The river comes 10s giving K-Q a straight and 7-8 a straight. These hands are possible holdings, K-Q more likely than 7-8 but you believe both players are holding some sort of ace. The original bettor bets the pot, you reraise to 3x the pot and both players call. You show down trip 5s, the original raiser shows A-K and the big blind shows A-5, you collect a massive pot with your set.
Example 2: You hold 10-10 on the button… The player under the gun, who is an aggressive player, raises 3x the big blind and it folds around to you, you call and the small blind calls. The flop comes Qd-Jd-10s. Bad flop for your hand even though you made bottom set and are probably ahead right now. The problem is there are two diamonds out there and an open-ended straight draw is on on the board. 9-8 has a straight, K-9 has a straight and A-K has a straight, A-K the most possible holding here. The original raiser bets 2/3 of the pot and you have to decide if he’s on a draw, has it already or hit a pair. The problem here is that if your opponent has a draw your fast play, reraising will probably get called anyway, especially by this aggressive player. You decide to move all in and get called by Q-Js… The turn and river come As-2d and your set barely holds up dodging a myriad of outs….
You’re not going to win every time with this strategy, but when you do its usually for huge pots, this is long ball poker and it works very well early… Once it gets near the money however switch it up and loosen up your game a little bit.
-The M
