2 hands with a maniac

[lunchmeat]

10/20 Foxwoods

A maniac at the table is raising 95% of pre-flop hands. In addition, there are 5 loose/passive players playing hands like Kx and 97 for 2 bets.

Hand 1: I limp UTG with Jd Td, Maniac to my immediate left raises, MP, MP2, Button & BB call (all are loose/passive). I call.

Flop: Ad, Kc Qd

I check, maniac bets, MP2 and BB call, I call

Turn: 4d (Ad Kc Qd)

I check, maniac bets, MP2 and BB fold, I raise, maniac reraises, I reraise, (maniac incorrectly calls a string bet on me and the raise stands), maniac calls

River 8h (4d Ad Kc Qd)

I bet, maniac calls


Hand 2: I have since moved to the maniac’s left.

EP, MP, MP2 (all loose/passive) limp. Maniac raises from CO, button folds, I reraise Ac Jd from sb. EP, MP, MP2 call. Maniac caps, all call.

Flop: 7d, 5s, 2c

Checked to maniac who bets, I check/raise, EP & MP fold, MP2 cold calls, Maniac reraises, I call, MP2 calls.

Turn: Jh (7d, 5s, 2c)

Checked around.

River: 3h (Jh, 7d, 5s, 2c)

I bet, MP2 raises, Maniac folds, I call.

[lunchmeat]

Hand 1: Obviously I won this one. The dilemma for me was pre-flop. My options were: A) Raise and probably get the pot heads-up after the maniac reraised. B) Call, and probably see a multi-way pot for 2 bets. C) Fold and pick a better spot to risk a lot of chips… I decided to call, but I think a fold would have been in order if I wasn’t very likely to get a multi-way pot. I don’t think there are any other hands I would limp with in this spot besides QJs or limp/raising a big pair.

Hand 2: MP2 takes down the pot with a set of treys.

My motivation here was to get the pot heads up with the maniac and hope my ace high holds up. At the time I liked the flop 3 bet a lot because I felt the other players were certain to fold facing at least 2 (and almost certainly 3) more bets on the flop. In retrospect, I think I may have had a better chance of getting it heads-up if I kept the pot smaller and waited until the flop to get my raise in. On the other hand, it’s possible there wasn’t anything I could do short of severing MP2’s hand to keep him from throwing his chips in the pot with his pocket pair.

[Nightwish]

Hand 1: Why would you limp UTG with JTs when you have a maniac on your immediate left? You know he's going to raise, so your implied odds go down the toilet. After the flop, the hand plays itself.

Hand 2: I like the preflop 3-bet, but only if you think there's some chance the early limpers will fold. Same goes for the flop check-raise. The only thing I might do differently is bet the turn because you then have a chance of trapping MP2 for at least one bet (I'm assuming the maniac will raise the turn again). The river is fine.

[Gabe]

[ QUOTE ]
Hand 1: Obviously I won this one. The dilemma for me was pre-flop. My options were: A) Raise and probably get the pot heads-up after the maniac reraised. B) Call, and probably see a multi-way pot for 2 bets. C) Fold and pick a better spot to risk a lot of chips… I decided to call, but I think a fold would have been in order if I wasn’t very likely to get a multi-way pot. I don’t think there are any other hands I would limp with in this spot besides QJs or limp/raising a big pair.


[/ QUOTE ]

I would have limp/reraised, after getting all of those callers.

[mmcd]

1st hand looks good although the limp reraise is a possibility. 2nd hand is bad. I think you have very little chance of isolating the maniac. You said people were playing trash for 2 bets cold, and the limpers here fully suspect the maniac is going to raise, so 90+% of the time you wind up in large 4 handed pot out of position with a dubious holding. Given the situation, I'd just call out of the sb and take a flop. Whether you flop good or not, your in a great position to get heads up with the maniac and what is likely the best hand postflop. So call preflop and checkraise any flop (assuming the bet comes from the maniac) If either/both of the limpers call 2 cold, you can be pretty sure you're beat unless theres reasonable draws out there.

[Ulysses]

I would bet the turn in the second hand.