The Maniac, FROI, and being the 'other guy'. A story. (long)

[Bob T.]

There are several poker related topics here, but they were all related and they all came together in one session, so I am going to post the whole thing as a story, rather than as a bunch of seperate hands. Actually there won't even be an individual hand in this post, so if that is what you are looking for, you had best look elsewhere.

A couple of months ago, I played a 6-12 session with vehn, and he ran up a little over a 50 big bet win in 3 hours or so. I went and looked at my records, and I saw that it had been almost two years since I had won 50 big bets in a session. I know that that is due to my own makeup, because when I have a good win in hand, sometimes I start to play to protect that win, instead of trying to get more. If I find that I have a hand that I think under ordinary circumstances, I would have raised, and because I am ahead, I decide to call or muck, then I rack, stack, and head for the door. I know that I won't win much more playing that way.

So anyways, I am flipping through online sites, looking for a game, and there is 10 seated 5-10 game with 6 players in it, that has 40% seeing the flop, and an average pot of about $120. That is a little odd, actually a lot odd, so I decide to investigate. I go to the table, and watch the first two hands, and the same player open raises on both, and wins both without a showdown, so I suspect that he might be the reason that the statistics are out of line, and I grab the seat to his left. If he is the reason the table has unusual statistics, I will get the First Right Of Isolation, (FROI), so I can play a lot of hands headsup, with the maniac, if the whole table doesn't get out of line (which sometimes happens when their is a maniac on the loose)

As I sit down, he has about $500, and while I wait for the blinds to come around, he raises and reraises preflop every hand. After the flop, he puts in a lot of action, and nearly always makes the last bet on each round, unless someone else caps the betting. I get buckled in for a wild ride.

The first thing that I notice, is that even though this player seems to be seeing every flop, and playing them all the same way, he is still winning a lot of pots with a bet on the river. My experience is that when players play this way, for the most part, you have to enter pots with hands that if you had to, you might win unimproved on the river, or at least have a very good chance of improving.

My plan here, is to play hands with Aces, Pairs, and at least two big cards. Because most of these hands are going to be played headsup, I don't really care for suited or connected cards, because if I don't improve, it will be expensive, and I won't have much to showdown. Whenever I enter the pot, it will be with a three bet to isolate, and I plan on showing down as long as I am not playing the board at the end.

I play for about a half an hour, and I have won some nice pots, and also lost some nice pots, but I am ahead a little over $200. I play a hand in my ahead/passive mode, and then instead of logging out, I decide that this is really too good of an opportunity to leave, and make a resolution to keep playing, and to PLAY, damnit, not to protect my stack of chips.

Every time you get involved in a hand, you will pretty much win or lose 50-100 dollars, depending on how many raises you put in. The maniac shows down some truly awful stuff at the river (like 7 high unimproved), but it seems like the other players still aren't really adjusting, he still wins a lot of pots at the river without a showdown.

This game goes on for a while, it fills up, and it emptys out, and gets full again.

The player to the maniacs right, is getting killed, he has gone through about $300 and is begging to be allowed to win at least one hand. This player I think has the worst seat in the house, if they raise, the maniac raises, and then someone else fourbets, they have to decide whether or not to invest a lot to see the river, because anyone with a fourbet hand is going to make the flop expensive also. The player also is going to have to act before the maniac every time, and the maniac can make adjustments based on their action, although I am not sure if he did.

After about two hours, the maniac is down to about $100, and he starts to slow down. A couple of times, he even checks the flop to me, and folds for one flop bet. I think, Wow, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, but because he was so far out of line before, I think that the game was better when he was betting and raising all the time. Anyway, even though he is folding on the flop sometimes now, and the game has gotten a little more normal, nobody seems to be adjusting to this either, and entering more pots, because each pot isn't going to be as dangerous. I get to be the maniac for a while, and run over the game a little and win several small pots. Then the maniac gets on a run, and rebuilds his bankroll, so it is game on again.

After about another half hour, the maniac is down to about $100 again, and this time he logs off. Game over. You know how some days, some maniac or idiot, wins a bunch of your money, and then before you have a chance to win it back, blows it all off to some other guy? I played for two and a half hours here, and the maniac lost about $400. But, during that same period, I won a little over $800, for one day, I got to be the other guy, and I finally posted a 50BB win. Hope you all get to experience this day someday.