AK early in tourney vs. Maniac

[Pitcher]

Hi Guys,

This was a PP $30 Sit N Go This hand took place on the 1st level. One of the players (UTG + 1) was a complete call station / maniac. He had already gone all in 4 times in the 1st 7 hands. Anyway I was in the SB with AK and decided to go all in with only 2 15 chip bets in the pot. Based on the 1st. 7 hands I figured I would be called by the maniac with any A or K. Things didn't work out so well. Here is the hand below.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold 'Em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (9 handed) converter (http://www.stompandcrush.com/cgi-bin/hhparser.cgi)

Hero (t785)
BB (t785)
UTG (t985)
UTG+1 (t1835)
MP1 (t1005)
MP2 (t1865)
CO-1 (t975)
CO (t940)
Button (t825)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, K/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls t15, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, CO-1 folds, CO folds, Button calls t15, Hero raises to t785 (All-In), BB folds, UTG+1 folds, Button calls t785.

Flop: (t1600) Q/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 2/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 1 all-in)</font>

Turn: (t1600) T/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 1 all-in)</font>

River: (t1600) 9/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 1 all-in)</font>

Final Pot: t1600

The maniac was UTG + 1 and had already called 15. He easily had me covered. Much to my shock, the maniac folded, but the button calls. I did not anticipate this at all!

The button turned over a 33 and I am toast. Any thoughts about this. Was this way too aggressive? Of course, the knucklehead with 33 made a poor play, but was a 55/45% favorite HU. I made this play to isolate (and hopefully double up) the maniac and ended up busted!

[sammiK7os]

All i would say is why go all in so early and with the blinds so small? Why not make a good sized raise preflop and try to define their hands? If it was just you and the maniac then i would think this play was reasonable but their is the real danger of being called by both of them or being a slight underdog with all your chips in play. You did not need to do this now so early in the tournament and with the blinds so small, you could easily of waited for a better oppertunity as you have really no idea what their hands are.

[CrisBrown]

Hiya Pitcher,

The sense I get -- and I could be wrong -- is that this was a frustration play on your part. He was steamrolling along with all-in bets willy-nilly, and you'd finally picked up a hand with which to spank him, and dammit, you were gonna do just that.

I've been there. Heck, William and I were both there in a $215 two-table on Stars, where one player was pushing chips on literally every hand, and getting one lucky catch after another. At one point, he had 18,000 of the 27,000 chips in play. He finished 3rd. I finished 2nd, but it was the most MADDENING 2nd I've ever had. At one point, I turned to my partner and said "Y'know, having paid $215 to play in this damn thing, I'd like to actually PLAY."

So I know the kind of frustration you were feeling, and I might have made the same move on AKo vs. a maniac. But I think it was a mistake, simply because it was SO early in the SNG. Let him play his silly ego games, picking up the tiny lil pots with his absurd risks. Sooner or later, he's going to run into AA or KK, and his hijinks will end. You would like to be around to catch that AA or KK, or to play on once he's gone.

Cris