[fishyak]

4/8 @ Commerce = live & multiway & close to no fold'em with one or multiple maniacs turning the game into 8/8. Here is some food for thought that helped me to a 50BB+ session last night:

1) Be careful of lowering your standards PF.
2) Remember you are there to WIN. You ARE NOT there to beat the maniac.

1) I was re-reading SSHE and was reflecting on the cautionary advice about offsuit Broadway hands like QTo, QJo and KTo that have been the subject of much discussion. Multi-way, with a maniac leading the way, it is easy to talk yourself into making that cold call, because you now "have the odds" and you "know" you have the maniac beat. And yes, you are right. Odds are you have the maniac beat. But it is the guy on your left who doesn't raise AKs who comes along and kicks your butt.

I resolve to a) stay off of those offsuit Broadways and b) sometimes even small pairs in those situations. Where do you "draw the line?"

2) Forget the maniac. In fact, make him an ally. Over the course of 4 hours, I became the only bettor he respected. He was SO predictable, he was perfect to set up C/R's when he was on my left. On my right, I could lower my 3 bet standards and really pressure the maniac and the table.

I worked at IGNORING the maniac and watching everyone else. It was my attention to their responses that made good adjustments possible. The people that got killed at the table were the LAPs that got sucked along and believed they were better then the maniac. The maniac was down a couple of racks, and I was actually happy to see him win chips. There were lots of times that I was tempted to play on when I "knew" the maniac was full of it. But most times I wasn't h/u or if I was it was in a very small pot. No edge = no chase. Let the maniac take that small pot.

So the first issue is easier to open to general discussion. What multi-way offsuit hands to you play and under what conditions, position, other players, etc.? I've been playing too many of these hands. Have you?

The second issue is harder to debate. I just found it useful to keep my attention completely OFF the maniac. BTW, that is exactly the opposite of what the maniac wants.