A hand my roomate played while I sweated vs a maniac.

[bobbyi]

How in this whole thread did no one say that we should have bet the flop?

Bet the flop.

[Tranvisor]

My 2 cents on the flop action.
I think a c/r here is pure FPS. What you are doing is thinning the field with a ok drawing hand. You may have the maniac beat with J high but most of the time one of the limpers is going to have you beat badly enough to call the c/r. After you check raise they are getting squeezed by the maniac, but how do most weak players react to a maniac? Oh I got top pair, time to check call and let him bluff off his money, I don't want him to raise me because I don't like confrontation so yup check and call with my KQ/TT/T8/JJ/QJ/flush draw/middle pair. Don't let the good results of this particular hand (Yeah I won a big pot!). Usually somebody is going to have enough of a piece of a Q97 (two flush to boot!)flop to merit continuing.

Look at the negatives to the c/r-
1.You thin the field when you have a straight draw with Jack high
2.You are going to end up isolated with a maniac paying 3 bets heads up to see the turn.
3.You do not have a hand that is likely to win in a showdown unimproved.
4.You are isolating when the maniac has position on you.
5. Since when do we worry about runner runner draws? If they get there, they get there. They are going to miss the turn most of the time and end up being just dead money.

I wish everytime I had a draw I could bet and raise with impunity but sometimes its best to just call, especially when you don't have overs, don't have a showdown worthy hand, are isolating the field, and have only a 6-outer to the nuts.