When to believe a maniac?

TredWel · #1 10-04-2004, 04:53 PM

BB is a maniac of the highest order. Plays almost all pots, raises half of them, and his postflop aggression is off the charts.

Party Poker 0.5/1 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero raises, UTG+1 calls, 2 folds, MP2 calls, 3 folds, SB calls, BB 3-bets, Hero caps, UTG+1 calls, MP2 calls, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (20 SB) 4[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (5 players)
SB checks, BB bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 calls, MP2 calls, SB calls, BB 3-bets, Hero calls, UTG+1 calls, MP2 calls, SB calls.

Turn: (17.50 BB) 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (5 players)
SB checks, BB bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 calls, MP2 calls, SB folds, BB 3-bets, Hero calls, UTG+1 calls, MP2 calls.

River: (29.50 BB) 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (4 players)
BB bets, Hero calls, UTG+1 folds, MP2 calls.

Final Pot: 32.50 BB
Main Pot: 32.50 BB, between MP2, BB and Hero.

Yads · #2 10-04-2004, 06:40 PM

I'd think you are beat on the turn. With so many people staying in the pot.

Ray Of Light · #3 10-04-2004, 07:14 PM

The thing about maniacs is that by their over aggressive play, they get the whole tables attention focused completely on them. Everyones wondering 'what are they holding now?', or 'they are gonna sucker me out again!', or 'god damn it, why did they have to raise again! jerk!'.

You ask when you should believe the maniac, but the maniac is the least of your worries in this hand. The pot is huge, the board is co-ordinated (flush draw at the turn, straight draw and possible straight), you have no backdoor draws, even if you did catch a third queen it would probably be no use to you, AND (most worryingly) there are another THREE players in the hand besides the maniac, who are each cold calling your every reraise.

I would call the flop (if there was little action on there), and hope for a non-scary turn card, and check raise the turn. If the turn was scary, (as it was in this case), I would slow right down to a practical crawl in terms of aggression. The pot is too big for you to fold by the time you reach the turn, but the board is too co-ordinated for you to be creating all the action at this stage...

When there is a maniac at the table, forget trying to read them (it is impossible), simply tighten up and play a solid poker game.