M.B.E.
10-20-2002, 03:44 PM
Yesterday I was playing in a great game with the biggest maniac in Vancouver (probably Canada). [Note for skp and other local players: it's the maniac who doesn't understand English and plays poorly throughout, not the maniac who talks constantly trying to psyche out his opponents and actually plays pretty well postflop.]
This guy, who was sitting three seats to my right, has a raise-limp-fold ratio preflop of about 60-30-10.
My question is, what do I do when there's one or two EP limpers, the maniac raises, and I'm on the button with something like KJo or KTo. Obviously these are clear folds against run-of-the-mill loose bad players, but against this particular raiser those hands seem too good to fold on the button. Three-betting is a reasonable option, but because everyone knows this guy is a maniac the isolation play doesn't really work. (If the maniac had open-raised and no one else were in except the blinds, then I would three-bet KJo or KTo on the button automatically. But I'm talking about situations with one or two limpers before the maniac's raise.)
This situation arose a few times yesterday. The first time I cold-called with KJo and proceeded to win a sizeable pot when I turned a straight. Another time I cold-called with K9o and proceeded to lose a fair bit when the flop came king-high. Two of my opponents (one in the SB, one an EP limper) had KQ and split the pot. The K9o should have been folded preflop obviously -- I admit that I misplayed it. But I think my preflop coldcall on the KJo hand was the optimal play. Comments?
This guy, who was sitting three seats to my right, has a raise-limp-fold ratio preflop of about 60-30-10.
My question is, what do I do when there's one or two EP limpers, the maniac raises, and I'm on the button with something like KJo or KTo. Obviously these are clear folds against run-of-the-mill loose bad players, but against this particular raiser those hands seem too good to fold on the button. Three-betting is a reasonable option, but because everyone knows this guy is a maniac the isolation play doesn't really work. (If the maniac had open-raised and no one else were in except the blinds, then I would three-bet KJo or KTo on the button automatically. But I'm talking about situations with one or two limpers before the maniac's raise.)
This situation arose a few times yesterday. The first time I cold-called with KJo and proceeded to win a sizeable pot when I turned a straight. Another time I cold-called with K9o and proceeded to lose a fair bit when the flop came king-high. Two of my opponents (one in the SB, one an EP limper) had KQ and split the pot. The K9o should have been folded preflop obviously -- I admit that I misplayed it. But I think my preflop coldcall on the KJo hand was the optimal play. Comments?