live maniac isolation
 

Just got back from a dreadful live session, no cards, nobody cares, anyway...

1/2 NL Foxwoods, Villian has $114, I have him covered.

Villian is a maniac. If I were to estimate his "live" PT stats, he's probably 90/75/1. He's been raising preflop with anything, and calling all the way to the river with Ace high.

I've been waiting for an opportunity to punish him.

I am in MP, folds to Villian who raises to $15 (standard for him just about every hand.)

Hero is dealt A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and raises to $50.

I want to isolate him here, plus I can be reasonably sure my hand is better than his.

Folds to Villian who moves all in for another $64.

I call. I figure he could be pushing with any pocket pair, or any paint cards.

Yes he had AA, pretty obvious at this point, any way I'm getting away from this hand? Hate the re-raise?

As a side note, any advise on how to deal with this player? Since he was directly to my right, and always raising, he was CONSTANTLY making it unprofitable for me to call with speculative hands such as 67s or low pocket pairs. Normally I might limp or raise preflop with such hands.

iash

Re: live maniac isolation
 

Reraising preflop is a good play especially against this guy. If he is raising it a lot though (providing he has a good sized stack) isnt that when you want to be calling with speculative hands like low pocket pairs?

Re: live maniac isolation
 

If I call his preflop raises with low pocket pairs, I'm going to have to call at least two more decent sized bets to get to a showdown, having no way of knowing if he hit anything or is just calling me down with overcards.

Re: live maniac isolation
 

[ QUOTE ]
Reraising preflop is a good play especially against this guy. If he is raising it a lot though (providing he has a good sized stack) isnt that when you want to be calling with speculative hands like low pocket pairs?

[/ QUOTE ]

Based on the maniacs raise in the example hand which was 7.5x the BB, drawing hands become pretty worthless. Especially given his stack size. I'd prefer to play big pairs and AK HU just like the poster did. Also, having this guy to your left seems optimal since when you get a big pair or AK you can limp knowing he'll raise and then make a large re-raise when it gets back to you. Also, you can trap players between you and the maniac who call the initial raise with this play.

Re: live maniac isolation
 

nh.

Re: live maniac isolation
 

Oh yeah I didnt notice that his raises were that big.

Re: live maniac isolation
 

[ QUOTE ]
Also, having this guy to your left seems optimal since when you get a big pair or AK you can limp knowing he'll raise and then make a large re-raise when it gets back to you.

[/ QUOTE ]

After a few hours I just couldn't take it anymore so I moved to a different seat at the table and was able to deal with him much better.

Thanks for the comments.