How do you handle an All-in all the time player

[Gonso]

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Then later on at about 5 a.m. he's been doing his all in with top pair on like 3 shown flops. I get pocket 10s. Guy with AK hearts raises to $15, Mr. all-in raises all in, and gets insta called by the original raiser. Dealer kept saying here's your chance to get him. By then he had a $600 stack to match mine, and the other guy only had $174. Is it worth it here to risk losing $154 to the other guy, to have the possibility to get all-in's stack?

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First off, this dealer needs to STFU.

Second, you're tens are probably ahead of enough of the AI Guy's range, so yes, this is a respectable call. But, if you're not sitting on a huge roll, you might look for a better spot - and I only say that because of the shortstack is in the hand and you have a decent hand for the situation, not a great one. HU vs Maniac I'd instacall no doubt about it.

The thing about maniacs is that a lot fo the time, you're not going to be the one to get them. It's that simple. Sometimes the flop will come AK5 and he'll be pushing anything and you're stuck trying to figure out what to do with 99.

You sound like you were cluing into his range pretty well, which in turn will help you figure out what you're calling range should be. The difficulty is that sometimes there are other players to act behind you, and you don't want to make yourself too vulnerable to them as you adjust to the maniac.

You're looking for spots -and there are some decent spots if he's pushing as often as that, no doubt about it- to make big calls. Sometimes that might mean calling with T9 on a KT4 board if he's that out of line - any time you think you're most likely a favorite. Just mind the other people behind you.

Extreme cases like this, I like to be to their immediate RIGHT, no left. That way, when he pushes and gets the rest of the table to fold, it's an evaluation if my hand vs. his range - no need to worry about someone waking up with KK when I've just called his push with 88 or something.

Sure, he's going to put some beats on you, or some other player is going to get to him first.

[ImsaKidd]

Sounds like you're playing scared money/underrolled.

[Grunch]

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you definitely should have risked losing $174 to beat Mr. All-in with TT

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Definitely not. This shows that your goals in poker -- or at least in situations likt this -- is completely wrong. Your goal isn't to beat "mr all-in." At least it shouldn't be.

If your goal is to punish this opponent, you need to refocus.

Incidentally (and this truly is incedental) I fold the TT in this spot if the insta-caller is tight. If he's loose the decision is more difficult. If we were heads up against the maniac, I'd call with TT, but not with 88.

[Grunch]

Actually, to be honest it sounds like he was outplaying you most of the night. You were off your game, and had to make constant hard decisions. A good indication of this is:

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Then he will cool down for 20 minutes and start it his all in routine all over again. Flop comes 7-8-10. He goes all in. I've got k-10. I think he's doing his usual top pair, or monster draw bs. I really debate and wonder what the odds are that he's got 2 pair, or that he has a 10 with a better kicker than mine.

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You got involved in a pot with this guy with KT and flopped top pair 2nd kicker. What were you looking to hit? You couldn't have gotten a much better flop, aside from the miracle TT2 type flops. I suspect you called with KT because you were looking to bust him with one of those miracle flops.

The solution to this problem is to take some time away from the table and come up with a strategy to beat these guys, and then play that strategy according to the situation. Not to try the half-court jumpers for the miracle wins.

If your strategy is to make him lose, and maybe to make it hurt a little, then he has already beaten you.

[gmcarroll33]

"First, you definitely should have risked losing $174 to beat Mr. All-in with TT."

Just to clarify, since I'm not sure if I made it clear in my post, the AK guy was the one who had $174. I called his preflop raise, but Mr. All-in had $600 and delcared he was all in as well. So I wasn't just risking $174, I was risking my whole stack on a vulnerable hand against a maniac. I appreciate all the responses by the way.

[gmcarroll33]

To be honest with you, if you say this guy was outplaying me most of the night, then he was outplaying the whole table. He's the only person I've seen willing to bet his whole stack constantly to win a $20-30 pot, but with his stack being so large I felt I needed to be especially careful on my calls or raises(which didn't exist because if you reraised him with say A-J on a A-8-10 flop, he was all in to your raise every time he had an Ace, and several times his A-8 hands busted hands like A-Q by having 2 pair, which is just so hard to put him on, because he would put it in with 2 pair, 1 pair, 2nd best pair, or anything basically. His attitude was my balls are bigger than yours.

As far as the K-10 hand, I honestly didn't think I needed to hit anything to improve unless he had a set, which he hadn't shown a single one all night. Like I said he pushed any top pair all night long, and I feel he would've raised A-10 suited or offsuit for that matter from any position preflop, and he didn't. He definitely did not consider position or pot odds or anything like that. Q-8, K-8, J-10, Q-10, K-10, K or Q-9 and of course J-9 are all in his range to have pushed on that flop. I said he would push any top pair, but I should reiterate that he would just about push any pair. It was pretty hard to put him on a preflop hand, but on the flop I was able to narrow it a little, but not enough to where I could make some tough calls for some huge amounts of money.

The only strategy I thought I could use was to wait for a set or top pair with a pretty sure kicker against this guy. Like if I had AQ suited and it came A-7-9, well he'd have to show me 2 pair or a set, but often times he'd have A-7 or 9, so it was tough to make his all in calls after I'd seen him sucking out on people left and right.

For instance, several times he had KJ and the board would be Q-J-6 somebody would bet their queens, he'd go all in, and seem to always hit trip jacks. I guess I just chose the wrong game to sit down in.

[Grunch]

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The only strategy I thought I could use was to wait for a set or top pair with a pretty sure kicker against this guy.

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If you were playing this strategy, you wouldnn't have questioned whether or not to felt TPGK with KT on a T-high board. You either would have felted it instantly, or you would have folded it preflop. It is with respect to the fact that you played KT without knowing how that he was outplaying you. I guess that's not really accurate. More accurate would be to say that you outplayed yourself. You didn't bring your A game.

I also think you may have issues with tilt:

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The only strategy I thought I could use was to wait for a set or top pair with a pretty sure kicker against this guy. [...] several times he had KJ and the board would be Q-J-6 somebody would bet their queens, he'd go all in, and seem to always hit trip jacks. I guess I just chose the wrong game to sit down in.

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The italicized part is the tilt part. There's a lot of this in your OP, too.

[gmcarroll33]

I guess now that I think about it a little more you are right. That was the whole reason I stuck around when I was up to $950 was to stack him again on a bluff, but when my kings got busted, I realized that my $400 loss from Saturday was no longer covered, and I guess I really wanted money back that I felt I deserved from our preflop moves, so in a sense I was on tilt even though I was up money.

After 4 more hours of no chances to stack him except for this one, I guess I had changed my thinking and strategy a little more than I realized. Like I said, I started off wanting sets or the nuts on this guy but by 4 hours later, I had settled for top pair, believing he was bluffing willing to get my chips in. I fully understand that I was manipulated, even though this guy wasn't even attempting to manipulate anybody, but instead just being drunk and playing risky crazy poker because he liked to gamble, but he has my money now and I don't. I guess I'm pissed at myself for like you said, "not bringing my A game", and letting a maniac punish me for it.

[gmcarroll33]

By the way I'm not sure what you mean when you say "There's a lot of this in your OP." Does OP mean out of position?

[Grunch]

OP = Original Post in this context.