Playing against a maniac (long)

[Ulysses]

15-30 game w/ a certified maniac. Badbeetz refers to this guy as "crazy chip-shuffling man." He has this freaky, manic way of constantly shuffling his chips in a dervish-like manner. Very weird. And when he raises, he jumps out of his seat, slams down 800 chips and yells "RAISE!"

Two hands against me to set the stage.

Hand one: I open-raise w/ AQ. He cold-calls. Flop is Q47. I bet, he raises. We're heads-up. I finally just call when he 6-bets me. Turn is a Ten. Check/Check. River is a 2. I bet. He maniacally shuffles his chips for two or three minutes then finally folds. Weird.

Hand two: He raises. I 3-bet w/ 99. Flop comes Q92 w/ two clubs. He checks, I bet, he calls. He checks dark. Turn is a Ten. I bet, he raises, I 3-bet, he 4-bets, I call. He bets dark. River is a Jack of clubs. I call and he shows TT for the winner.

He's also been catching against the third player in this hand. He 3-bet the flop w/ 24 on an A3x board (his opponent had AK) and caught the 5 on the river. He also 3-bet the flop w/ T3 on a KT7 board (his opponent had K7) and caught a Ten on the turn.

So, on to the hand.

I have A7o in the small blind. Only maniac calls. I call, BB (pretty solid player, slightly on tilt after the two beats by maniac) checks.

Flop AT2 - two spades

I bet. BB calls. Maniac raises. I 3-bet. BB considers and then says "what the hell, let's build a pot" and 4-bets. I'm 90+% sure he's on spades. Maniac caps it at 5-bets and we both call.

Turn (AT2) offsuit J

I check. BB checks. Maniac checks. WTF?

River (AT2J) offsuit 7 - BINGO!

I bet. BB folds. Maniac now RAISES? WTF? I think maybe he spiked his second pair w/ T7? Maybe he had a set or AT all along? Maybe he turned the straight? I think I should 3-bet, but I know he'll 4-bet w/ anything and I'll have to call. I'm so confused that I just call.

Who thinks I should 3-bet here?

[Ulysses]

I think this hand happened a little while before the posted hand, but I'm not sure.

I have 5c6c in BB. A few players involved, no raise.

Flop 4d7dJh

I bet. Maniac raises. Others fold. I call.

Turn (4d7dJh)Th

I check. Maniac checks.

River (4d7dJhTh)2c

I bet. Maniac thinks for a while and folds.

I stupidly flash my cards to the 2+2er next to me. As I muck them, another player says "I want to see that hand" and the dealer turns them over. I didn't bluff for a while after that...

[mikelow]

Reraise. The maniac has T7, and if he made a set of sevens,
c'est la vie.

[bernie]

"I have A7o in the small blind. Only maniac calls. I call, BB (pretty solid player, slightly on tilt after the two beats by maniac) checks. "

i think id be raising here. i want the solid player out, if possible. even if he is tilting a little. i prefer HU with the maniac. if the solid player worked it right, he could use the maniac to push you off a hand.

just a thought...

b

[elysium]

hi ulysses
the question is will you five bet him if he reraises? if you are not willing to 5 bet, then call.

he has a hand of some sort. the flop betting should have gotten his attention. i can't understand the turn fully, but sometimes these maniacs ulysses like to SP strong hands. it looks like TT to me, but he could also have, believe it or not, AA. i know.....maniacs ulysses.

the bells should have sounded on the turn. he is making the ol' maniac SP. i think he has you beat ulysses, nevertheless, if you will 5 bet him if he reraises, then reraise him, but make sure you do 5 bet him and don't simply call. otherwise, calling is best. either or. but never, ever, call his reraise. never, ever do that. have it planned out that you will 5 bet or you will call. if youre going to call his reraise, then do not 3 bet.

[SoBeDude]

...these maniacs ulysses like to SP strong hands...

What in the name of the poker gods is a freakin SP?

you keep using that in your posts and I have no idea what it is.

-Scott

[Bama Boy]

Slow Play is my guess.

[elysium]

hi sobe
SP means slow-played. and yes, it also means south pacific, but in vegas sobe? and in the middle of a card game? i've never south pacific'd anyone in my life. not in a card game. do you have a problem with that sobe? is there problem? NP....i'll assume that means no problem.

[J.A.Sucker]

These maniac hands are very player dependent, so let me know who this guy is... I'm thinking that he's a large Asian man who goes by the initials DOG... am I right? If so, your guess is as good as mine as to what he has. He truly plays in a manner as inexplicable as how he has any assets left in this world, since he is a true degenerate. My general rule against him is to do whatever I can to get the pot headsup if I have any pair and then just call him down. This seems to work well. If it's another maniac, then the strategy may be a little different, but this is a good stock rule to follow. You have enough knowledge of the other players who are involved in any given hand to manipulate them into betting for you, allowing a strategic check-raise 3 bet or something. Of course, lately, I've been getting killed by this guy, but he's just an M.O.T. player (1), so I figure I'll get mine.

This is just my opinion, but I'm Just Another Sucker.


(1) An M.O.T. player is one where it's just a Matter Of Time before he goes completely broke, for those wondering.

[Pot-A]

Do you see that double sized key next to "z" and its twin on the other side of your keyboard?

try try oh try elysium holding down that key sometime while you push one of the small ones because elysium, elysium the rest of us would really appreciate you using that key so we can tell where your long rambling sentences start.

[Ulysses]

Yeah, that's the guy, Sucker.

Elysium, I didn't want to 5-bet him, so I just called his raise instead of 3-betting.

He said "Two pair!" As he turns over he says "Ace-ten!" and laughs, but when I look at his cards they are actually a Jack and a Ten. So I turn my cards over and take it down.

[Vehn]

Most players are MOT players though especially at the middle limits.

[JTG51]

I think they usually start right after the period or question mark ending the previous sentence.

I personally don't want elysium to change anything about his posting style. Some posters usually make me laugh, some usually teach me something. elysium usually does both. What more can you ask for?

[J.A.Sucker]

I disagree. Most players are losers, but many have good enough jobs to finance their habit, and can stay in action for a good while at a level like 15/30. Maybe they won't play as often, but they'll still play. A true MOT player will completely bust out of everything. The guy in this hand is one of the most desperate people I've ever seen. Sad, really.

[Ulysses]

A true MOT player will completely bust out of everything. The guy in this hand is one of the most desperate people I've ever seen. Sad, really.

Come on, man. I told you I was going to get a real job soon.

[elindauer]

Could you go into more detail here? Why would you have to be prepared to five-bet before you would put in bet #3? Why is calling the second raise so bad in this case?