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

[Joe Tall]

3/6 online on Friday night.

We have a stone cold Maniac that is raising 100% of his hands preflop if opening, 50% 3-betting and cold calling every hand regardless of the action ahead of him. He is also auto-capping/raising if played back at, preflop and on the flop.

He only slows down on the turn if he does not have a piece.

Two loose weak players open limp, the maniac raises, LP cold calls and we call in the 1/3-SB w/J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

BB calls, 2 limprers call. 6 to the flop for 12SBs.

Flop: Q [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]9 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]7 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Checked to the mainiac who bets, LP folds, action on to us.

What is your action?

More to come.

Peace,
Joe Tall

[thejameser]

um, call?

[krimson]

Just call. Our draw isn't that big, 6 clean outs (non club OESD cards), plus some partial outs for the J or T. We want to keep people in the pot to keep equity on our bets, so I wouldn't raise this. Last thing we want is to raise, lose some customers and then get 3-bet by the maniac.

[private joker]

It depends on how the rest of the table has been reacting to the maniac. Are they stubbornly calling his raises, or meekly getting out of his way? If they're going to stick around with any pair because they don't respect him, then it's in our interest to raise so they pad the pot for when we hit our straight. With 8 mostly clean outs (discount to 7 for the possible flush), we have pretty good equity in a pot that has 5 players when the action is on us.

[BWebb]

I'm leaning towards a raise. I was going to say call or raise depending on opponents, but now I just say raise. Two things can happen, both I think are good for us. A raise knocks out the limpers and cleans up our J and 10 outs, both of which will be good against this opponent. Also, you could get lone clubs to fold, which is good given we have a straight draw. If the the turn is a club, that kills 4 of our outs against 4 opponents, but not against the maniac. However, if the limpers call, we are gaining because we have good equity in this pot. (Greater than 25% if two call, IMO). The only downside is you are going to get 3-bet here. However, if the limpers know a 3-bet is coming they are even more likely to fold hands that we would like them to. My question is if we do get it headsup, are we going to showdown with an unimproved jack high against this opponent?

[colgin]

I would go for the check-raise here. There are hands such as KT that you would like to see the limpers fold and you might well have the best hand HU against the maniac. Even if you don't, when if you are HU against him then your Jack and Ten outs look pretty good. Against the entire field spiking a J or T may not be good enough. Plus, if you raise and the limpers come along you still (I believe) have enough pot equity for this to a raise for value notwithstanding the two-flush. Of course, the maniac wil three-bet but that is not so awful here if others fold or if they both come along.

[PokerBob]

raise out the weak limpers to clean up your J and T outs.

[shant]

[ QUOTE ]
Last thing we want is to raise, lose some customers and then get 3-bet by the maniac.

[/ QUOTE ]
This would be a good thing. There is a great chance that a J or T would win us the pot if we get people out of the way. If the other players are not respecting him either, and are coldcalling raises, it's still not a big deal if they call and pad the pot.

[Master5hake]

I'd say call -

reraising here could cause him to slow down on the expensive streets if you hit you straight, on the turn you can probably get the betting capped with him and then another 2 bets on on the river -

by playing slow then speeding up once you make your hand, most maniacs will be thinking that you are trying to run them over, as thats how they play, and they aren't really 'thinking' players for the most part - they derive their poker enjoyment by intimidating people, and by not letting people intimidate them

[Lurker4]

does anyone else bet the flop? Since hero checked, I'd raise here, if the other players have been paying attention, they likely won't give your c/r much respect, which is fine since we'll likely get at least a caller or two when our equity is likely around or better than 30% or so. If the other players arent paying attention to the LAG, then the c/r gets to isolate the LAG, cleaning up outs and increasing our equity in a decent sized pot, where we likely have 14 outs and could even be ahead.