Live No Limit $300 AC Hands against Ubermaniac.

[jman220]

Playing $1/$2 No Limit at Caesar's. Villain is ubermaniac. Reads are as follows (they are all relevant):

1. I got to Caesar's at around 11 A.M. Saturday. All tables were full and there was a waiting list, and no dealers to open a new table. Ubermaniac shows up, speaks with the floor, and they open a new $1/$2 table, with a pit boss dealing (I have never seen this and I've been to AC casinos frequently).

2. Ubermaniac attempts to sit down with $1,000 (pulling money out of a stack of $100's that I can only assume was around 5-10k) until pit boss tells him table maximum is $300. Ubermaniac is wearing diamond ring with diamond the size of a nickel (couldn't tell if it was real). Ubermaniac claims to have won $100,000 playing 10k a hand roulette the night before and is now "just messing around."

3. I am sitting two positions to the right of ubermaniac.

4. Ubermaniac raises every hand (EVERY HAND) preflop to either $12 or $17. Usually $17. The nice thing is, ubermaniac is considerate enough to stack his pf raise before the hand is even dealt, in either a pile of $12 or $17 so entire table knows how much he plans to raise.

5. Ubermaniac does not have even the rudimentary understanding of poker that one gets from watching it on TV, asking questions during play such as "I guess AK is a pretty good hand?," and "What are the best hands?"

6. Ubermaniac is incredibly aggressive and plays nearly every hand to showdown. Sample hands include an ubermaniac EP pf raise to $17, a reraise by MP to $75, a reraise by Uber to $200, an all in by MP to $400, a call by Uber who show's 10/4 suited against MP's pocket queens, numerous other hands like this. Ubermaniac plays most hands to showdown, frequently calling down with as little as King or Queen High. During the course of the session Ubermaniac dumps around 3 or 4 grand into the table.

So I'm sitting two to the right of this guy. Nobody else at the table is very good (or aggressive), and when he raises to $17 generally call to see if they can outflop him if they have a halfway decent starting hand. My first question is, I've adopted a strategy (since I'm in the unique position of seeing how many people are going to call his $17 raise before acting myself) of pushing back with a strong reraise on any premium starting hand, figuring I'll push out all the middle callers, and be facing a random hand with lots of money in the pot with a premium hand. Thoughts on this line?

Anyway, here are some hands that came up using this strategy:

Hero is one off button with stack ~$500, Uber is Big Blind. Uber has conveniently stacked $17 in chips before this hand started. Hero is dealt 10s10c. EP1 folds, EP2 folds, MP1 calls $2, MP2 calls $2 one of the LP's calls for $2, and I call for $2, Button Folds, Small Blind Folds, Uber predictably raises to $17, all the players that called $2 call the $17, and I raise $65 on top. Uber calls, rest fold. Flop 2/7/9 rainbow. Uber Checks, I bet $200, Uber Calls. Turn is an offsuit Ace. Hero?


Next Hand:

Hero has ~$1100, UberManiac has ~$600.

Hero is EP w/ A/J spades. Uber is MP and showing another raise of $17. Hero Calls. Uber raises 2 callers in LP including the button. Hero raises $60. (Thoughts on this? Am I doing this with holdings that are too nominal considering the other two callers? Should I only be doing this with top ten hands?)

Next Hand: Hero has ~$1300 is in LP, dealt 9s/9c. Uber ~$400 is SB I think, has stacked only $12 this time before the hand. 3 Callers in between Uber and myself. Hero Raises $50, Uber calls, all others fold. Flop: 7s/2s/Qc rainbow. Uber Checks, Hero bets $100, Uber Calls. Turn: Js Hero?

Edit: I guess this post is as much about general strategies, calling/raising ranges against a player like this as it is about the particular hands I've posted. There are lot more hands like it, and I was in a lot of situations that I don't often find myself in live where I have no idea whatsoever what I'm up against in a hand, and how to play against it.