KK against a maniac with a scary flop.

[Gronk]

I was playing in a home game last night. 10 players with an even mix of good and bad. The player immediately to my left is a bit of a maniac but he's not stupid post-flop. He's extremely loose and aggressive preflop. If they're suited or connected he's raising from EP. Or if he has an ace or a king he'll raise from EP. Also, every time it is raised preflop and he is going to play that hand, he reraises to "get more money in there before the blinds go up"(we were playing a tournament style-game.)

I'm dealt 2 black kings on the button. One solid player in EP open-limps. It's folded to me and I raise. Maniac re-raises and I cap.

The flop was something along the lines of 5 6 8 with 2 hearts and a diamond. Maniac bets, EP calls and I raise. Maniac three-bets, I cap. 3 of us to the turn with a decent sized pot.

The turn was a 9 of hearts. Maniac bets out. EP calls(EP wouldn't be calling the maniac without a good draw or a made hand. He's a good player.) At this point, since the maniac bet out, I convince myself that I'm beat with no redraws and I muck. River is an X. Maniac checks and EP(who missed his flush draw/gutshot straight draw) checks behind him. Maniac shows 2 black queens to take it down.

That was a significantly large pot when I folded and, barring a raise from EP, I would have only had to call 2 more big bets to take it down but I still think the fold was the right thing to do given the board despite what the odds may have been telling me to do. Later on the maniac started to play much more sensibly. I can't decide if he was just trying to establish a loose image at the table or if losing big limit hands knocked some sense into him. Comments on my play?

[Bob T.]

When you mucked, there were 14 big bets in the pot, if you call 1 bet, here, and on the river, the pot is laying you 15 to 2 to call. I think that given your description of your opponent, you should probably call it down. On the river, if it is bet, and raised to you, you can let it go, but again, I don't like folding overpairs for one bet on the river. It doesn't have to be right very often, for calling to be correct.

[Ulysses]

Call. Here's why.

Maniac - In general, I think it's better to just call down vs. players like this in situations like this rather than spend much thought trying to put them on a hand. Sometimes they'll have a big hand, other times they'll have nothing. I like your chances. So, that covers him.

EP - OK, you've described him as solid. That means it's unlikely he's limping in w/ a seven in his hand. And if he has two hearts, isn't he likely to raise the turn? If he's a solid player, his calling standards vs. a maniac will be lowered quite a bit. Definitely much lower than Kings. That covers him.

Easy call, I think.

[Louie Landale]

First of all, you MUST get your mind set to show down your hand against the maniac. That may seem real obvious, but realistically its often hard to do. In practice it will mean the MANIAC will get the last bet in MOST of the time. That's OK. Really.

Its usually a mistake to assert raises so often that you are "almost definately beat" when the maniac keeps betting; that plays VERY MUCH into his strengths (he keeps betting in spite of the fact that he's beat). Stop raising sooner figuring to call him down. In this case, YOU should not have capped the flop.

- Louie