I hear a lot of "poker babble" at the tables. Some players talk about tells and bluffs like they are the same thing. And then it may sound like everything is a trap. You will here that word mentioned like it's a bluff. Not all tells are bluffs and not all bluffs are traps. So, let's do some defining to see how to distinguish tells from bluffs from traps.
First of all, a "tell" is defined as something that a person does outside of their awareness. It's an unconscious behavior, like splashing the pot or placing bets in softly. Ordinarily, such actions would reveal (tell) something about the player. If he or she is not doing this on purpose, it's usually a "tell." If they are purposely splashing the pot to get your attention, then that stops being a "tell" and becomes a bluff. Bluffs are conscious actions and "tells" are things people unconsciously do. You can be sure that a lot of veteran players know that you are trying to read their actions. So, they will give you false tells. In other words, they will throw you a bone and hope that you are hungry. They know all the "tells" that have ever been discussed and they know that you are looking for them. They will do things like talk as though they have nothing when they actually have nothing. They will represent nothing because they are on a bluff and want you to read their "false tell" as if they have a strong hand. If acting strong represents weak and acting weak represents strong, it can become difficult to know whether the strength or weakness is a bluff or a trap. Both bluffs and traps are conscious moves to manipulate other players. When an action is conscious, then, it is a bluff and as opposed to a "tell." If you mistake it for a "tell" you may have stepped into a trap.
Not all bluffs are traps. Sometimes a person is bluffing to see what others might have. For example, if there is a possible straight or flush on the board and a player has trips, he or she may just check. You can say that the check is a bluff to raise if someone bets. It may just mean that the trips player is taking the "table temperature" to see if anyone has a straight/flush or a draw for one. Now here's where it is sometimes hard to tell the trappers from the bluffers. Suppose you check your trips into someone who has the nut flush and the nut flush bets into your trips that you checked. Who's the trapper? That's right. The original trapper became the trapped. So, regardless of who's doing what (trapping, bluffing, or telling), that's just good poker-anyway you look at it.
Trapping is usually a conscious move. When you get trapped by a poor player, who stayed too long and drew out on you, it's not really a trap. As opposed to a conscious move, the player's failure to lay down a bad hand becomes your bad beat. Most other traps are conscious moves. Check/ raise moves are planned and they are aggressive. That's why most players moan when the trap is sprung. Another trapping move is to let others do your betting when you have the nut hand. It's just a matter of when you are going to spring it. This is close to players whose normal style is to just call and trap you in the end with the best hand. Finally, the players that are referred to as "call stations" are usually trapping you accidentally. Their unaware play is what trapped you.
So, you are not likely to hear a lot of "psychobabble" at the tables-unless you are playing with me at the table. You are more apt to hear a lot of "poker babble" from players who confuse bluffs, "tells," and traps.
