Suited connectors, a lunatic, and the button

[jesse8888]

Fairly general question for a situation that came up 4 times last night. Here's the set up.

I'm in late position (CO or Button) and have a lunatic on my right. He plays every hand and has gone to cap (5 bets) with 43s. Most hands he limps, but he goes on "raising streaks" where he will raise 4 or 5 hands in a row. He limp /raises with big pocket pairs a lot. Post flop he will bet with any pair and call down to the river with almost ATC. He is a human ATM already stuck 2 racks with no signs of slowing down.

The rest of the players at the table are playing fairly LP. Postflop, nobody really has a clue what's going on. My image is definitely TAG, but it's unlikely that anyone but the old Asian lady cares.

Several players (2,3 or 4) limp in, and the lunatic makes it two bets. I hold something like 89s, TQs, T9s and T8s. What do I do with these hands? Isolation raise is very unlikely to actually fold out the other hands (some may fold, but heads-up with lunatic is a pipe dream). Are these hands just calls then, or should I try the raise anyway? It pains me to throw them into the muck from such good position in what's going to be a 5 to 7 way pot. Thoughts?

[Fnord]

I might call some of the bigger connectors, although your position relative to the action isn't ideal. Certainly QTs is getting a call.

[chesspain]

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It pains me to throw them into the muck from such good position

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Actually, your position relative to the raiser sucks.

[HoneyBadger]

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Actually, your position relative to the raiser sucks.

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Yep. Good point. Consider that folks: if a maniac is to your right, all the others will check to him by default, effectively leaving you first to act behind him.

[Ricks]

The maniac is your friend. Do not play weak hands with him in the game but choose to play your better hands and play them straightforwardly.

You want a maniac on your right because you want to know what he will do before you act. He is the most likely raiser or re-raiser. Would you like to decide what to do with your 98s before he acts or after he acts? There are exceptions to this but I am not sure they apply at this table.



There must be a million good posts about playing against maniacs.

[mrcunningham]

Were you at table 3 last nite? I suggest you read the chapter on 'wild games' in HE for Adv Players, which continues to be helpful for me when there is a maniac and the people on the table think that playing equally as loose is the proper adjustment. This seems generally to be the case in 6/12 in the Bay Area. A single maniac or even live straddler sets everyone off. In these situations it makes sense to stick to premium cards, higher pairs and suited broadway. It gets boring, but all you need is to win one $200 pot per several orbits to make it worthwhile.

The one instance where I will play looser is when I am to the left of the maniac AND the table has not become looser, in which case I 3-bet the maniac like crazy to isolate him, then do a lot of calling down.

[Gap23Razor]

with suited connectors i'd probably call...the maniac's raising action is probably being anticipated by one or two of the limpers, and perhaps discounted by the rest of the table as well if its as frequent as you say...so play the hand as if the maniac did not raise preflop, although if you raise or it gets raised the maniac will probably make it 2 more back to you...raising with suited connectors with 4 or 5 players ahead has some + pot equity i believe -- you can stove it and i think you will see that is true...so you could raise i think but i prefer to play lowprofile and if i flop a strong hand jam it post flop...

[jdog_ramone]

I agree with mrcunningham

reraise only with premium suited high cards (say ATs, KQs or better) and fold the low suited connectors. If you know the rest of the table will call two more bets cold, you can't be sticking your money in with mediocre hands. If you think you can isolate the raiser, and he really is that maniacal, only then raise away.

[Xhad]

If your opponents do almost no c/ring you can call all the hands you mentioned.

[Bob T.]

Fold them, wait for hands with showdown value, try and isolate, but after that fails, flop good, and punish the hell out of them.