Bluff calling revisted

[Vehn]

$15/$30 loose aggressive preflop passive post flop. There is a maniac to my right. He plays 90% of hands, goes to the river almost every hand, and bluffs whenever someone does not show maximum strength. He does not show his bluffs successful or not. An EP limps, MP raises, maniac coldcalls, I coldcall on the button with JcTc. Surprisingly both blinds fold.

Flop:

Qs 8h 8d

Its checked to me, I bet, to my surprise EP and MP both fold and only the maniac calls. This only means he does not have a queen.

Turn:

4h

We both check.

River:

3c

Maniac bets and I call.

[Barry]

I would a least like to have a pair (besides the 8's) to make that call.

I don't like the coldcall preflop very much either.

[gavrilo]

There's 18 cards that he needs just 1 of to beat you. Ace, king, Queen, 8, 4, 3 + any pp. Preflop I would fold, but since you are in the hand.

ON the flop, you have gutshot straight draw and maybe if you hit your J or T, you're good as well, so you bet and only get called by the maniac.

On the turn, I would much prefer betting the Turn here and checking behind on the river when you don't improve instead of checking and calling the river with J high as this is a tough call. I guess this way you would pay the same to showdown, but gain an extra bet when you do improve on the river assuming he will check again to you on the river.

[Eric P]

why not raise him? the only reasons i can think of is that he might call with A or K high then you lose two bets, but will he really call with K high, if it's ace high only that he would call with then i think you are better off rasing

[Paul Talbot]

Given your description I assume he'll throw away a K-high when you call rather than showing it? If so then it's a good call. If not it's still a good call if it prevents him from doing it on future hands.

Paul Talbot

[Vehn]

He of course threw his hand away after I called and I was in a bad mood and showed mine after his was mucked. I'm pretty sure he had ace or king high.

[skp]

I tried this exact same thing some time ago against a notorious bluffmucker once and the bastard picked that one time to show his busted queen high flush draw (no Ace or King on board). I happened to have called with something like a Ten high busted straight draw... He showed his bluff, I then sheepishly mucked and everyone at the table was wondering what kinda crack I was on.

[lockitup]

[ QUOTE ]
He of course threw his hand away after I called and I was in a bad mood and showed mine after his was mucked. I'm pretty sure he had ace or king high.

[/ QUOTE ]

Never show your hand...except in this spot, of course. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[mikelow]

Hmmm....

Though the bluff-raise would come to mind, against this habitual bluffer a call might just work. If you raise the maniac would have three-bet. At the table, though, I would have mucked without a thought.

[mikelow]

It's never over until it's over. I would always show or at least say "ace" if that's what I had.