The Trap Hands

Trap hands are hands that seem very good but can easily make you a second-best hand. These are the types of hands that can cause you to lose your whole stack.

There are three types of trap hands in Pot-Limit Omaha:

1. The Small-Pair Hands
2. The Low-Wrap Hands
3. The Small-Flush Hands

The Small-Pair Hands

Hands with pairs below nines are dangerous to play. When you flop a set it is very hard to escape the hand and, if you are up against a bigger set, you are drawing to one out.

When you hold a hand like 6♠ 6♥ 5♠ 4♥ and the flop comes Q♣ J♣ 6♦, you may find yourself in big trouble. The moment to play small pairs is when you do not have a lot of money in front of you because at this stage it is not as bad to commit your whole stack if you flop a small set.

Another good time to play small players is when you have something like A-A-2-2 or K-K-3-3. With these hands you should play in the hopes of flopping the big set. However, you must always think twice before you commit a lot of money with bottom set on the flop.

The Low-Wrap Hands

The types of hands that are very deceptive and dangerous to play are the lower four connected hands, such as 5♠ 4♣ 3♠ 2♣. These hands are dangerous because it is too simple to flop or draw to the low end of a straight. When the flop comes 8-7-6 with this type of hand, you can easily find yourself up against a bigger straight, drawing dead.

The Small-Flush Hands

Hands that can only make small flushes are risky hands. For example, let us again look at the 5♠ 4♣ 3♠ 2♣ on a flop of K♠ J♠ 8♠. This will give you a small flush. You cannot commit a lot of money with this hand and, if you were to get any action at all, you would most likely be beaten.