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In poker it is very important to analyze a player’s betting pattern and tendency. Based off player behavior you can maximize the amount of money you can gain from a pot by manipulating your play to trap them. I don’t mean a basic trap such as turning a
flush and checking to the player, but a trap that starts from the very beginning of the hand before the flop comes. I’ll use an example from a tournament I played in at Showboat in Atlantic City.

(As a side note: the blind structure in this tournament was awful. No antes and it skipped many levels. I’d recommend playing at Tropicana  or another casino that has at least antes included in the blind structure. Antes allow for a lot more action in many hands because of the extra money in the pot.)

In this tournament, there were 4 guys to my left who were all hyper aggressive. They would bet about 4-7 times the big blind with hands like A-J or A-Q off suit in early position. These raises were occuring roughly every other hand. Also, at this point of the tournament, 4-7 times the big blind was roughly half an average persons stack. So by betting that much, the players basically commit themselves to the pot with an ok hand such as A-J off suit.

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