[StellarWind]

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I knock QTo in the BB.

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I commented on this the other day. You are making moves and you don't even know what color your cards are. Now maybe you actually did know, but your write up suggests that you are attaching no importance to it.

I've just gone through a horrible session where a 70/20 complete idiot ran up over 100 BB doing exactly this nonsense and a huge piece of that came off of me [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]. I feel your pain. I don't know what to say except it is going to happen and it totally sucks and you must keep your cool.

If you are really sure he doesn't have an ace you can call the flop, especially if you have a diamond. This is a marginal showdown hand in context and the ideas are:

1) Try to make a pair out of your de facto overcards. You have really good implied odds on making a hand versus this opponent. Stretch preflop and on the flop to make a few extra hands.

2) If you pick up a straight or flush draw you can use it as a bridge across the turn. Now it only costs you 1 BB to show down Q-high after you miss. If the turn totally fails you give up. This technique helps you cheaply show down enough hands to prevent his constant bluffing from being profitable.

3) Keeping yourself in the game. You can't make it too easy for the maniac to read when you hit a hand. Calling zero EV flops is an investment in getting paid when you flop something good. It also sends a message to the bystanders that you cannot be swept out of the way everytime they want to go heads up with the idiot. If you fold too much in this spot the SB can start calling more loose flops secure in the knowledge that you will probably disappear.

As for checkraising this flop with junk, never do that. This player is not only almost unbluffable, he often bluff reraises. That's a devastating answer to your bluff and it comes naturally to him.

With a reasonable king in this situation you should just call him down. You have a bluff catcher and you should let him bluff.

With a pair in this situation you should checkraise the flop. No reason to ever bet when he will always do it for you. Some might say that they would prefer to be raised so that SB faces two, but this overlooks that SB has eyes and a brain. Once he sees what you are doing he will realize that he calls the flop at his peril. Fear of being checkraised will help you with a lot of hands where you don't even want to raise. He can never call the flop without risking it coming back 3-bets.