Trump Indiana Trip: Attack of the Lucky Maniac. Long.

[tacoshooter]

Two of my buddies and I -- all of us internet players with little or no B&M experience -- jumped in the car and headed three hours up I-55 to Trump Indiana yesterday. Got into the cardroom about 1:15 and found that we were about 20th on the list for the 3/6 FK hold 'em game. Cardroom manager came over and talked to us and was very friendly; said that as soon as the big tourney was down a table, he was going to open up another 3/6 game.

So we walked over to the deli and I shelled out part of my bankroll for a polish sausage. My buddy looked at me in trepidation as he saw onions and jalepenos as my only garnish. His comment: "I'm not sitting next to you, dude." The sausage was not good.

After about an hour, they opened a new table and called our names. I bought in for $140 as did buddy #1; buddy #2 opted to go light with $100. (Side note: The chips at Trump are EVERY BIT AS FILTHY as has been reported in this forum. Half of them were stuck together with grime and/or some other unidentifiable substances. I am still in the middle of an OCD-related washing fit from touching the disgusting things.)

I will spare you all the details of the game leading up to the really interesting part, because it was basically a Party .50/1 game. Lots of people limping, calling raises with trash, hoping to hit. My AQ in the SB on the first hand got slaughtered by A9 that caught a boat on the river. A couple hands later I got an K4 in the BB that flopped two pair and I was off to the races only to be run down by 57o that caught his inside straight on the river. Good times.

So here's the weird part. Cocky dude in a Mark Prior jersey sits down with about $100 or so. Limps about half his hands. About 30 minutes after he sits, he wins back-to-back and the kill button comes out. This is where things get strange -- he runs off 15 straight hands as a winner in the kill pot, and it wasn't like people were folding to him. He's just flopping boats with his crap or getting crap two pair and raising the whole way.

After this first run, he's sitting there with about $700 in front of him and starting to give the table lessons. I just sit back and keep my mouth shut because I figure that money is coming back in my direction.

With his big stack, he starts to flip into full maniac mode and raise/re-raise every pot no matter what cards he holds. Literally no one has been able to beat him because the game gets heads-up and he's running incredibly lucky.

I sit and fold crap, waiting for my shot at him. Finally I look down to see AQs. Maniac is UTG and makes it $12 to go as always. Three folds to me and I re-raise to $18. Folded so it's heads-up. Maniac of course makes it $24. Flop comes Q26, rainbow. Maniac bets out, I raise, he calls.

Turn is a blank. Maniac checks, I bet $12, he checkraises me to $24. At this point, I decide to just go into mainac defense mode and call down.

River is a 4. Mainiac bets and I call. He flips over Q4o for the rivered two-pair and I'm buying more chips.

Shortly after that, he broke my buddy on a similar hand where he drew out on him and by this time, they're coloring the maniac up. He's sitting with well over a grand in front of him and still raising and re-raising every pot and getting lucky.

The only other hand against him that really sticks out in my mind was a kill pot where he again made it $12 to go UTG. Folded to me and I make it $18 with A7s and he just calls for once. I figured this was really a random hand situation so getting heads-up with A7s was a good play.

Flop comes out low cards, no flush draw. He bets out quickly, talking up a storm about how I'm going to regret playing in this hand. I call. Turn comes out a 7. He bets immediately. I think about raising but call, mainly because of the way he's acting. River is a blank and he bets again. I call and he flips over 22 for a flopped set. Nice hand.

I'd pretty much shot my roll by that point and was really getting tired of battling the maniac. Picked up a small pot with QQ when he was sitting out and made my exit to watch friend #2 play in the $200 NL game. There was one guy in that game who was the biggest angle shooting butthole I've ever seen, but that's another story entirely.

By the way, Lucky Maniac had over $1,500 sitting in front of him by the time I left the cardroom. I sincerely hope he dumped all of that back. Too bad it just wasn't to me.

Now, here's my question. Did I screw up by not getting up and leaving the table when he started going psycho? The reason I ask is I didn't really have enough cash on me to be playing a game that was essentially a 12/24 structure due to his presence. Obviously it was a good situation with respect to being able to take advantage of his terrible play, but should the inherent variance have led me to move tables since I didn't have another $500 or so to add to my stack?

Sincerely,
Tacoshooter the Maniac Hater

[warlockjd]

[ QUOTE ]
Did I screw up by not getting up and leaving the table when he started going psycho?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. This is a very profitable situation, unless you are not
properly bankrolled or you are on tilt.

Also, I would cap the turn with TPTK against maniac(your AQs hand) and call the river (bet if checked to and call if checkraised)