fun hand with a maniac

[karlson]

For the first time the other day I met a fellow 2+2er at the table. He recognized me from some old tournament picture, which is pretty cool.

This was a hand that came up later in the session. The maniac in the story is an odd chap that throws a lot of chips in when he likes his hand (which is often), and when he decides he dislikes it, he mucks it, usually out of turn or when it's checked to him, and often face up. He also seems to like saying "cap" because when it's three bets to him, he will often make it four even if he hasn't been the aggressor (although usually only does it postflop).

Anyway, he open raises UTG, everyone folds to me on the button and I 3-bet with 8c8h. Toulouse calls in the SB and Lautrec in the BB. BB is actually a decent player. Maniac just calls.

Flop comes 7d 3d 2h. Check, check, maniac bets, I raise, Toulouse calls, Lautrec calls, and maniac 3-bets. Everyone calls.

Turn is the Ks. Check, check, maniac bets, I raise, call, BB mucks QQ face up, maniac calls.

River is the Kc. Check, maniac bets, I call, SB folds.

He shows 7sTs and 88 are good. The dealer proceeds to give Lautrec and his QQ a hard time (although I think they were buddies).

[Coilean]

Nice raise on the turn, although BB should have realized you can raise here with a lot less than a K, seeing as how noone besides the maniac has showed any postflop strength. BB pretty much dug his own grave by not giving you a reason to fear him with a preflop or flop reraise, which demonstrates why you have to be careful when slowplaying a vulnerable hand like that. And by mucking the QQ face up, he's really providing a lot of encouragement for guys to try pushing him around later too. If he's a decent player, he should really be kicking himself for this one.

I think the hand would be perfect if you raised on the river. Maniac liked the flop, and didn't like your turn raise, which should make him less likely to have a K than a flopped pair. It does sound like he might be capable of folding a crappy pair here though, which would lessen the value of your river raise, so it's a judgement call really. Maybe I just have a weakness for thin river raises, since they look so intimidating when they work.

[karlson]

I totally agree that a river raise is a good idea. I guess I was still high on the fact that BB folded his QQ and that SB looked like he had a missed draw that I forgot that I could raise again.