3:45 AM Maniac

[UOPokerPlayer]

Villian is a push happy maniac. I limped on the button with 78s and he raise to 3, I reraise to 8 and he instapushes for about 70 more. He's 75/30 over 40 hands. Does anyone play this hand differently? Even if the guys a total maniac, maniacs get dealt aa also. Is there ever a time in cash game when you should "wait for a better spot?"

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (6 max, 6 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

MP ($52.1)
CO ($60.3)
Hero ($48.5)
SB ($19.36)
BB ($62.74)
UTG ($119.35)

Preflop: Hero is Button with J/images/graemlins/heart.gif, A/images/graemlins/spade.gif. SB posts a blind of $0.25.
UTG calls $0.50, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, CO calls $0.50, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $3</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, BB calls $2.50, UTG folds, CO folds.

Flop: ($7.25) 5/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 8/images/graemlins/spade.gif, T/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Villian pushes (59.74), Hero calls

Turn: (~120) T/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

River: (~120) 5/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: $~120















villain shows 87

[TreyOfLight]

You were a favorite every time the money went in. Perfectly played.

[Maulik]

[ QUOTE ]
You were a favorite every time the money went in. Perfectly played.

[/ QUOTE ]

classic time not to be results oriented?

[kurto]

I'm confused here...
the hero writes in the paragraph that he limped with 7-8suited. Then, in the hand printed, he has AJ.

Who is who?

[TreyOfLight]

It's two different hands. Preamble: hero 3-bets with 87, villain pushes (and hero presumably folds). Body of post: hero has AJ, villain has 87.

[PokeHer]

why raise the 78s when its likely he will push. are you really gonna call allin with 78s? I HOPE NOT, even if he is a maniac, he'd play any hand that way, and most hands are favorites over 78.

[PokeHer]

Also, with maniacs, I like to wait for a spot where I have a vrey good chance of winning. I do this b/c if I were to double him up, it's likely that someone else will bust him before I get a chance to do some damage to him. He may reload after that, but he may leave, and you're out a buyin.

With the AJ hand, I might have just limped, expecting psycho to raise, so that I could reraise him BIG

[ahnuld]

I hate the way this hand went down. If you want to raise him and hell call almost anything, raise bigger, or wait for a stronger holding. I also hate the call on the flop, where he probably has a pair, and you are only a small favorite. THis guy sucks! Wait till you have 75% chance, and youll get all his money. No need to gamble with this guy, just be patient.

[Pocket Trips]

calling a $60 bet to a $7 pot with only a draw (even the nut draw) doesn't make much sense to me.. be patient and wait for better spot... soon enough he will push when you already have a made hand and you will bust him.

[UOPokerPlayer]

I like the responses. Making a bigger pf raise was something i adjusted with earlier to much success. One poster said he'd like a stronger hand than aj to play against the maniac. Why? I consider hands that he's willing to see a flop for a lot of money with any two cards, and aj is way ahead of that range of hands. This kind of comes back to the original thought of 'waiting for a better spot.' It's true that I can be more of a favorite at times with better cards, but i'm not sure if that means i should be passing up +EV opportunities. My flop call with overs and flush draw i think is +EV, especially because this guy (as well as most extreme maniacs) would've pushed with just a spade. The poster who commented on the fact that once the maniac goes bust, sometimes he doesn't come back. "If you double him it's more likely for someone to bust him," I don't understand the logic there.

With the 78s hand. I was pretty sure he'd raise if I limped on the button, i didn't think he'd call my raise because he probably had garbage, and if he called at least i had a hand that could make something. A bad move on my part, but I hadn't at that time understood the entirety of his maniacness.

Back to my main thought which is really a question if you should ever find a better spot, if this means passing up +EV. I'm disregarding the hand I posted because even though I think it's +EV, it's not hugely, and some could see at as -EV. I used to play MTT's solely, and i knew there were some (rare) times when passing up a positive play was the correct play. I'm really thinking about taking coinflips pf for my 100bb stack, if I'm on the pair side, should I always make this play? My only argument against it is that I should be able find better spots in later hands, but also better spots later in the same hand. Basically, instead of taking my 3% EV with JJ vs AKs pf, I should be seeing flops and outplaying my opponents postflop, (like the 2/3rds of the time AK misses).

[TreyOfLight]

[ QUOTE ]
Back to my main thought which is really a question if you should ever find a better spot, if this means passing up +EV.

[/ QUOTE ]

The only time I'd consider it is if I was deep (like &gt;200BB) and there were other deep stacks at the table under donk control. In that case, the earning potential of my deep stack is a lot higher than the +6BB EV of this play, and I could pass.

With a single-buyin stack, I make this play against this player every time.

[raisethatmofo]

You got your money in with the best of it but I don't see much wrong with folding here either to be honest. You aren't a huge favorite here but this will definitely increase your variance.