Live 40/80. Fun with a maniac...

[Garland]

Location: Bay 101 in San Jose, CA
Stakes: $40/$80
Players: 9-handed loose aggressive. A pretty good game, now that maniac Benny is in “the zone” with lots of run good chips. He’s driving the action raising any two when it’s folded to him (and sometimes when it’s limped to him). I love him for he is good for the game. He’s causing people to make loose pre-flop errors. Without him the game would probably be pretty meh. **** of 5.

Principal players:

MP – Benny. Maniac. He’s running over the table. He’s raising ATC, and continuing with them. He’s not blindly aggressive, just 90% of the time.

BB – Me. I’m tight aggressive. I’m pretty sure MP could care less.

Preflop action: (1.5 small bets, 9 players) Folds to MP who predictably raises. Folds to me in BB, and I opt to just call with 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (Is re-raising clearly correct?)

Flop action: (4.5 big bets, 2 players) T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Giving me an underpair, gutshot and a flush draw. I check and call.

Turn action: (3.25 big bets, 2 players) : 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. I bet with the prediction that he will call any hand that has showdown value or a draw, but induce a raise from a monster or a bluff. Perhaps he will actually fold his cheese, which is perfectly fine by me. No such luck. MP raises. I judge he’s probably bluffing and call. And I plan to check/call most rivers (given I don't counterfeit), but reserve the right to check-raise or actually check/fold if I get bad vibes. But in most cases he's getting looked up.

River action: (7.25 big bets, 2 players) :9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] I check, MP bets, I call.

How was this?

Results to follow.

Garland

[cgrohman]

Why not c/r the river for value?

[jba]

this looks fine but the river should be a c/r/call or a bet/call depending on how maniacal he is postflop.

[J.A.Sucker]

Garland,

Something to think about with maniacs is that you should keep the pots smaller until you're ready to go all the way, at which time you should play a much bigger pot than normal.

Preflop, I think it's neutral whether to call or reraise - if you can lay down to a board with two or more big cards (which I think you should), then calling is more correct.

On the flop, you have a great hand to play a big pot, even if you don't know whether you're ahead or what your outs are if you aren't. Jam the pot. Maniacs love giving action in spots like this. Oblige them (I'd go 5-7 bets depending on how spunky I feel).

At that point, you can just play the hand out and not worry about getting cute.

After you kept the pot small on the flop, betting the turn is clearly correct. You should then 3-bet if he decides to raise you. Call if he 4-bets, but he usually won't.

Down the river your action is fine.

I think you let him off the hook easy here. Put it another way, you will have to let them win lots of small pots since you often won't have enough to push back with and bluffing/semibluffing will just about never work. So play value. And play it hard.

[HammerinHank]

Nice Post Sucker

[vmacosta]

[ QUOTE ]
Garland,

Something to think about with maniacs is that you should keep the pots smaller until you're ready to go all the way, at which time you should play a much bigger pot than normal.

Preflop, I think it's neutral whether to call or reraise - if you can lay down to a board with two or more big cards (which I think you should), then calling is more correct.

On the flop, you have a great hand to play a big pot, even if you don't know whether you're ahead or what your outs are if you aren't. Jam the pot. Maniacs love giving action in spots like this. Oblige them (I'd go 5-7 bets depending on how spunky I feel).

At that point, you can just play the hand out and not worry about getting cute.

After you kept the pot small on the flop, betting the turn is clearly correct. You should then 3-bet if he decides to raise you. Call if he 4-bets, but he usually won't.

Down the river your action is fine.

I think you let him off the hook easy here. Put it another way, you will have to let them win lots of small pots since you often won't have enough to push back with and bluffing/semibluffing will just about never work. So play value. And play it hard.

[/ QUOTE ]

In general this is a great post and I think we can all learn from your approach to these situations. However I wonder if you realize that on this flop we only have 63% equity vs. a random hand so I am not crazy about going 5-bets cuz even a maniac's 4-betting range on this flop is no longer any two.

[ship it pls]

did you consider b/3bet the turn, it looks like you have air here given your line imo, and i dont exactly like keeping villain in the hand with whatever he may have... river i like the check, but cant decide if i like to c/r or c/c better, i think c/r for value, but i think KsJc is well within the range and so i dont mind the c/c at all

[Garland]

[ QUOTE ]
Maniacs love giving action in spots like this. Oblige them (I'd go 5-7 bets depending on how spunky I feel).

[/ QUOTE ]

If I give him 5-7 bets of action on this flop, who's the real maniac of the story?

Garland

[Anacardo]

[ QUOTE ]
On the flop, you have a great hand to play a big pot, even if you don't know whether you're ahead or what your outs are if you aren't. Jam the pot. Maniacs love giving action in spots like this. Oblige them (I'd go 5-7 bets depending on how spunky I feel).

[/ QUOTE ]

WTF are you high.

[JacksonTens]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd go 5-7 bets depending on how spunky I feel

[/ QUOTE ]

What? Dude if ANYONE goes 6bets, we are in trouble...

I would c/c,c/c,b/c

JT