1/2/5 9-handed with average players (bad on the whole; one guy knows what he’s doing, but he’s irrelevant)

V is a MAWG LAG / verging on maniac who loves to gamble. He is straddling every pot for $10 and making it $40 to $60 almost every hand. He is to my immediate left, which I like in this case. I stacked him earlier and he bought back in for my stack and now covers. I stacked him with AAXX when he called all-in pre for ~$600 w/ K765 one suit. I’ve seen him raise to $60 pre and show A235, KJT8, etc. Very loose and will gamble with almost any hand he is willing to play.

H is MAWW. Has won most of the pots I’ve played. Playing fairly tight. I have only shown the goods. (I lost one $500 pot to V very early where I had the second nut flush draw with the open-ended straight flush draw and three flush cards in my hand. All-in on flop and he hit the nut flush with no redraws. Something like Ad6d5x3x.) ~$2,200

H: AsAh8s6d

V on button straddles $10; two short stackers in EP call, I call knowing V will raise. V makes it $60. Now, EP goes all in and next player goes all in. For me to pot, it would be around $725 on top.

Question is, this deep, do I just call with that much in there already and see a flop or do I pot knowing V will probably call and might shove (unlikely)? Seemed obvious to me, but I’ve met a few players who disagree. Does it just depend on your roll and how much you are willing to gamble? There is no doubt we are ahead, but it’s deep PLO...

you have 2200 total right?

so you make it 725 and have less than pot size bet left on the flop making this an easy blind shove on any board.

If your roll is not big enough, you have to leave the game or let someone else have a piece of you.

if villains range is so wide we want to get this in here as really what flops are you going to be comfortable playing bar an A or potentially a low paired board . by allowing him to play he can take you off a lot of equity a lot of the time

It also entices him to stack off lighter. Its Unlikely you'll win the pot 4 ways often so building a side pot against a Lag is profitable

Btw, no idea why you like maniac on your left.Calling here is out of question. You re not deep at all, after all this raises, as said you can make spr1 on flop. Let's say you call and now you have you and villain playing for dead pot with 2 players already all in! Doesn't make sense for him to bluff then.

Having the maniac on your left so you have ultimate position and can check-call him to death is a standard anti-maniac strategy. I love limp-reraising to squeeze people.

You can get enough of your effective stack with villain in the middle so I like just piling it in here. I mean that when you pot and he calls you can make a profitable auto ship on any flop

Raise the max. Based on the hands you described, he doesn't seem to be all that OOL but obviously that depends on positions where he played the mentioned hands.

All in

This is why I like it. Usually, I like to be to the left of maniacs (especially in Hold 'Em), but having this guy to my left works much better and seems to be more profitable.

Well, I agree with most of you. The only thing I don't agree on is shoving any flop.

I did pot it and he called, as expected.

Flop was 9hThQc. I checked and he shoved. I did fold, but mainly because he went into speech mode, which is a giveaway with this player, thank goodness. (Also, I basically can't improve and this hits his range perfectly.) Turn was Qh and river was a blank. Another all-in got the main pot w/ QT, but V's neighbor told me he saw V's KJ, so I was almost toast.

Well-played. 100% pot pre. Should shove almost any flop but you're right this is a terrible flop for you. We have no redraws, and you have a read that V is strong. On this flop, even if we're ahead, it's hard to imagine V doesn't have at least a pair and some sort of draw, so we're never doing great.

Thanks MIB211. I was ready to ship pretty much any flop, but I hit almost the nut worst for my hand. C'est la vie.

Nice fold