Live 2/5 preflop quandary

[Jim C]

Hello, please comment on my reasoning:

I am in a fired up live 2/5 game. Several players are quite laggy and one is a drunk semi-maniac. I have played with the drunk before. A week prior, I re-raised him in position to $120 and he 4-bet shoved another $600 with KJo. He doesn't need the money, and is there to drink and play wide open. There is quite a lot of laughing and yelling going on. Pretty much poker nirvana if you don't mind a roller-coaster ride.

Folded to me (odd for this game) in the CO where I have AJs.

I have about $1400. Button is new to the game with approximately $420.

SB has me covered and is a laggy player who is a decent hand reader postflop, but plays waaay too many hands and gets off on being tricky. He is always either a big winner or big loser, but perhaps a slight long-term winner because the game is very weak. BB is the wild drunk, and also has me covered.

I raise to $40. Button calls, SB (LAG) calls, BB (drunk) raises to $140. ($260 in the pot)

I believe the drunk could have any 2 cards, and I almost certainly have a better hand than him. He will fire the flop whether he hits or not. I am in position, with a hand that is crushing his range. I *call* ($360 in the pot), because: <ul type="square">[*]I want to win more from him than his preflop raise. He will fold trash to a preflop 4 bet, but will fire the flop with nothing if I just call.[*]We are deep.[*]I am in position.[*]I don't mind the other players calling also, though I would prefer if the button folded.[/list]Button shoves ($740 pot). Both blinds fold. It is $240 to call.

Since I'm only in rough shape here against AA, and this could even be 99 or TT. I feel this is a rather easy call taking over 3:1. I called.

Obviously, I'm not folding AJs to the drunk's 3-bet. Should I have 4-bet rather than called? Does anyone disagree with the call after the BTN shoves (I can't imagine anyone thinking this is a mistake)? My big question is how to act after the drunk's raise...

Changing the action, what if everyone folds, and I take the flop HU with the drunk and miss (no FD, just 2 overs). He fires out $200, leaving the effective stack 1100 behind. How do you play the rest of the hand? Does this situation change how you play the preflop? Since this is a likely scenario, are you happy to just win preflop and not get greedy going for his flop c-bet? Yes, this guy will fire the turn again with air; I've seen him do it repeatedly.

Comments?

Jim

[cero_z]

Hi Jim,

What was the reason for the $40 open? I mean, obv it's the looseness of the game, but what was your objective there--just the drunk calling? Just the LAG calling, so you could play deep? 3 callers? 1 caller? I generally prefer to make it about 20 to go with a hand like this, if that'll often lead to a multi-way pot with lots of money left to bet all-around, since my hand plays great in a spot like that. I'd be more inclined to make the bigger raise with AKo or JJ, hoping to get exactly one caller.

I don't know about your assessment of the LAG's hand strength. It's your post, so we have to go with it, but it seems a little presumptuous to say "I know I'm ahead of the LAG [with AJs]." Does he really think this is a good spot to resteal? If he's paying any attention, he knows you're not making this oversized raise with garbage, first in from LP (you're not, right?).

If you had 500, this would be a good spot for a shove, given your read that you're *always* ahead. With 1400, shoving is risking too much for too little. Calling would be great if it's HU, but you have a problem. What are you going to do if you miss the flop? If you call, the drunk will almost always call, and then the pfr will lead, and you'll have A-hi vs. an unpredictable bettor and a player behind you. I don't like the prospects of trying to take it away when you miss, which is what it sounds like you're planning on doing--you need both of these players to miss for that to work (which will happen 25%-40% of the time, and you'll be risking about the size of the pot (say he leads 300 and you make it 750).

What it boils down to here is how much they will lose when you hit and it's good, vs. how much you'll lose when you hit but they outflop you. Obv the drunk will pay you off if he flops a pair+ and you have him beat. The LAG will likely bluff off plenty of chips when he misses. But, if you flop an ace and one player has you outkicked (or otherwise beaten), you'll lose your stack if necessary, right?

All in all, I like calling and playing on when you hit. You're the favorite pre-flop (slightly), and the post-flop action favors you a little bit. But, I don't like trying to steal from bad, overloose players, especially in this spot, where raising the flop will put the drunk all-in before he even has to act (other than his initial check).

After the actual action, you must call the 240 for sure. The drunk is way more likely to have a pocket pair that doesn't dominate you than any hand that does.