A Better Mouse Trap

Filed Under: Poker

Last night was a 10K Freeroll sponsored by PokerSourceOnline at PokerRoom. As long as you had setup your PokerRoom account through PokerSourceOnline you were eligible to play. Fortunately for me, I had done so.

I had the opportunity during this event to play what I considered to be an excellent trapping opportunity. I wanted to share it with you, and hopefully get some feedback.

Before we get to the hand I want to give some information about the table. During the first hour of this event I would have thought I was in a rebuy. The play was beyond bad and players were pushing with crap and hoping to hit. Granted this was a freeroll, but it was a big one. First place gave you more than 2,000 reasons to bring your "A" game and it seemed no one did.

I went into the first break with just slightly over 2,000 chips from my starting 1,500. As soon as the second hour began the table dynamic took an abrupt 180. Now everyone was tight and very tentative. Preflop raises were now taking down pots uncontested. I quickly adjusted to this and began to open up a little more. When I was called I played aggressively postflop and never had to show down a hand. I was looser, but not so much that I would have considered myself a loose player. If I was an opponent looking at my play I would have just thought that I was getting hit by cards a little more than during the first hour. I had taken my stack up to 6,650 when we hit the 90 minute mark. That is when this opportunity presented itself.

Seat 1: Fifth Sin ($5,485 in chips)
Seat 2: bmnelson1 ($1,630 in chips)
Seat 3: KyCrack ($3,810 in chips)
Seat 4: CesiumQ ($3,405 in chips)
Seat 5: cultofray ($270 in chips)
Seat 6: lifesagrind [4C,5C] ($6,650 in chips)
Seat 7: zianna ($3,470 in chips)
Seat 8: DieC23 ($3,045 in chips)
Seat 9: frednorris1 ($2,820 in chips)
Seat 10: syphos ($6,385 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDS
cultofray posts blind ($100), lifesagrind posts blind ($200).

PRE-FLOP
zianna folds, DieC23 folds, frednorris1 folds, syphos folds, Fifth Sin bets $500, bmnelson1 folds, KyCrack folds, CesiumQ folds, cultofray folds, lifesagrind calls $300.

When it's folded to me I took the following into consideration. The table has been very tight and no one has gotten out of line. I'm going to put every preflop raise on a big A or medium to large pair at this point. The raiser has been folding plenty of hands, even in his blinds so I'm not going to adjust my read. He also has a deep stack in comparison to the blinds. If I can hit my hand I can look to take a very large pot if things work out.

FLOP [board cards 7D,3C,5S ]
lifesagrind checks, Fifth Sin bets $600, lifesagrind calls $600.

This is a very good flop for me. I've got my gutshot straight draw, middle pair, and the backdoor flush draw. The problem is if I bet here and my opponent only has a big A he may be chased away. I opt instead to check and see what happens. The pot is $1,100 at this point and his bet of $600 is weak. I took this as a "go away" bet. I wasn't going anywhere but I didn't want him to either.

TURN [board cards 7D,3C,5S,4H ]
lifesagrind checks, Fifth Sin bets $900, lifesagrind bets $2,000, Fifth Sin calls $1,100.

Now I've made my two pair. I believed I had the best hand here but I decided to see what happens. His bet of $900 into what is now a $2,300 pot is extremely weak. I wanted to build the pot but make a bet that he could call if he wanted to chase the gutshot with his A. I'm only betting $200 over a min raise which I believed he would call, which he did.

RIVER [board cards 7D,3C,5S,4H,9S ]
lifesagrind bets $3,000

Now I wanted to make it look like I was taking the pot away from him by putting him all in. That is why I lead out. I truly believed that he would check behind me if check in this spot. I'm looking to give the appearance of bluffing as to induce the call.

I'm not going to post whether my opponent called or not just yet. I want to know what you think about how the hand progressed and whether your read is any different than mine. Is my bet on the river to large or should I have not bet at all?