Finally understanding the drag of 50BB stacks & benefits of position

[mythrilfox]

Last night I was playing 1/2 heads up against a mega-LAG, borderline maniac. He would routinely overbet the pot for 2-4x the amount. On a number of occassions he would bet out like $25 into an unraised pot with just the blinds. I lost the hh, so here goes on this one:

First of all, I hate the blind structure on party, where button is second one in. But I'm SB / non-button this hand, and I raise to 6 with Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].

I don't routinely open out of position with somewhat marginal hands like this, but this is only the second time I had done it, and it was sort of a blocker for him to raise big after I flat-call. I also felt like I needed to start taking the initiative.

Flop comes 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Pot is 12, I bet 10, he calls very quickly. Too quickly. I know he doesn't have much, and even though he is mega-LAG and has me beat, I know he will lay whatever he has down to proper aggression.

Turn 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

But here's the problem. If I really had something, would I lead the flop and then lead the turn? I had already trapped him once that night (when I flopped two pair), and if I genuinely had a good hand here, I would most definitely try to trap him again. If he were at all aware of that fact, he could severely punish another pot-sized bet on the turn by raising all-in, and obviously I couldn't call with Queen high. Hell, if I were in his position, even I'd re-raise the turn all-in. But check/raising is hard, because he will tend to overbet the pot anyway, and I can't be guaranteed he will fold to a check/raise push since he will have committed himself.

I check. He bets $50 into a $30 pot, leaving me with 35 behind. I fold.

Of course, the fact that the 8 hit the turn severely diminishes the value of this play, since, given my read, he may have had an 8 or a 6 or a low pp. And he's not laying down trip 8s, but he might lay down a pair of 8s. But that's not important. Imagine the river blanked. This is a severe problem I had all night against this player. Even if you wait for your good hands, they have to coincide with the times that he mega-bluffes the pot. And sometimes I'd go like 20 minutes without hitting a pair, and he'd end up stealing every pot with his ridiculous 6x pot bets.

Of course, had we been deeper, I could genuinely execute some nice counter-bluffs. As it is, he almost commits himself with a single bet! I can't even be guaranteed he folds to a counter-bluff, since he'll have committed himself by that time. Solution: don't play heads up against a borderline maniac like this?

[amoeba]

why do you try to bluff a lag?

you only need to have a made hand once and play passive enough when you have it that he bluffs off his stack.

[tek]

I've said that before too...

[edpsu92]

I am getting the impression that no one hears you TEK [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] hahahah! Just kidding!!!!

[Tilt]

[ QUOTE ]
Solution: don't play heads up against a borderline maniac like this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Avoid shorthanded or heads up games with players more aggressive than you. The more players there are, the harder it is for maniacs to succeed. And the fewer, the better for maniacs. Also the smaller the ratio of stacks/BB the better the conditions are for maniacs.

The problem here is that if you calibrate your aggression against a player this aggressive the best you can do is to wind up even or slightly ahead of them in terms of EV, and minus the rake which is big in HU you end up down. To suceed at all under these conditions you end up pushing with marginal hands a lot (cause you have to fight back sometimes). That puts you in a lot of 60/40 showdowns at best. High variability, low expected return IMO.

I disagree with the earlier posts that you can just wait them out. Not with big blinds heads up. When you finally do get a hand its so obvious that even a maniac can stop for a hand.

[mythrilfox]

Yeah, that's my whole dilemma here. You have to fight back. The problem is knowing when and how. He doesn't have a hand he's willing to go to the river with everytime he bets 6x the pot.

I just felt like his play *had* to be so incorrect that I'd be able to profit in the long run.