KJo out of position against a maniac

[FeelGoodAboutHood]

4 Handed 2-5 game on PokerRoom.

Villian is totally insane, not a bad player, just insane. About ten hands ago he fired two barrels with jack-high, caught runner-runner flush and cracked my two pair, taking my stack with him. I rebought and have about 1,000, (thanks to the villain, who had doubled me up with his bottom two against my top two) when this hand comes up.

Hero is in BB with K /images/graemlins/heart.gif, J /images/graemlins/spade.gif.

Villain ($982) makes it $15 on the button, SB folds, Hero calls.

Flop: K /images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 3 /images/graemlins/spade.gif, T /images/graemlins/club.gif.

Hero checks, Villain bets $31, Hero calls.

At this point I'm almost sure to be ahead, I want to let him fire another barrell on the turn and then make my move.

Turn: J /images/graemlins/diamond.gif.

Hero checks, Villain bets $90, Hero raises to $180, Villain calls.

For some reason I got really worried about him having AQ, hence the min-raise, if he pushes here against that kind of show of strength, I probably fold. If he calls, I'm feeling good.

River: 9 /images/graemlins/spade.gif.

Damn.

Hero checks, Villain pushes for $756, Hero ....

Comments throughout appreciated.

[Rococo]

Just out of curiosity, what was the screen name of the maniac?

[Yeti]

Lets see. On the river you don't want to see an ace, queen, ten, nine or diamond.

Please don't minraise.

[FeelGoodAboutHood]

How much on the turn then? I can't just flat call.

[Yeti]

Somewhere around $280 - $300. Maybe.

[Plusch]

You are not sitting on a lock here on the flop. Why just check call the flop and give him another look. Check raise here and take control of the hand. If you are going to give a free card by check-calling you cannot become scared he has AQ. If you are a scared player you need to clarify your hand on the flop with a sizeable check raise or lead bet. Furthermore check raising the turn requires a big raise not a minraise (minraise accomplishes nothing except guarantee at least a call vs a maniac). In this case I would like check raise flop (2 to 3x), lead turn. Your hand is just way too vulnerable to mess around with passive play.

[betgo]

I don't like miniraising with the idea of folding to a raise against a maniac. Against a maniac, you are better off doing a lot of calling. Bet to pick up a pot or getting money in with a big hand.

[FeelGoodAboutHood]

I agree about the turn, even though I want a call, a lot of cards can come on the river that I'm not going to like. But I disagree about your suggestion of a flop check-raise, one pair isn't a monster, but against his likely holdings, it definitely is a prohibitve favorite, I wanted him to fire again on the turn. I think check-calling is the best way of going about this, against this opponent.

[Boris]

You are a total sissy if you fold.

[FeelGoodAboutHood]

I didn't. I thought about it for a second, decided that KQ or QJ were possible but not anywhere near as likely as him having one pair, a worse two pair or nothing, and called.

He showed T /images/graemlins/heart.gif, 3 /images/graemlins/heart.gif and I take it down.

[mgsimpleton]

Also, this hand SCREAMS blocking bet!!! If you are scared enough to lay it down if he moves all in (and good thing you didn't), then you should be throwing out a blocking bet there of maybe like 300 and then fold to an all in. It's hard for him to raise there since you might have a queen and be value betting.

Or you could do that and call his all in anyway which some people like to do after making blocking bets. But it sort of defeats the purpose =)

[creedofhubris]

[ QUOTE ]
I didn't. I thought about it for a second, decided that KQ or QJ were possible but not anywhere near as likely as him having one pair, a worse two pair or nothing, and called.

He showed T /images/graemlins/heart.gif, 3 /images/graemlins/heart.gif and I take it down.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ha.

This wasn't ol' TFOMoose, was it?

[FeelGoodAboutHood]

No, not TFO, although it definitely looks like his work.