It doesn't sound like you're actually looking for advice so I'll refrain from giving any more. The two hands you posted were poorly played and showed a risk aversion that isn't conducive to profitable NL play. Sorry if that's what you weren't looking to hear but it's the truth.

Exactly....


And I know he'll play anything for any amount of $ because he's literally called 150bb raises without looking at his cards and turned over J4os and lost. But then a few hands later he'll check/check/fold. Then he'll bet $65 and call a shove with nothing. That's the point, how do you play against this? Because all of a sudden your in a seemingly standard spot except there's others to act and you've got a maniac in the hand that's capable of shoving the flop with air like it's nothing.

-Position to the left seems correct although some say you want to be on his right...I honestly don't know. I feel like being on the left is better in order to pot control a little easier.
-Tightening up just a little tighter than villains range seems good and 3betting lighter obviously when you don't have all the other players to worry about.

-Getting crazy and shoving AQos with 5 players left to act seems like the stupidest move you can make. What calls that you are ahead of?
-Saying, "oh you can't handle the variance...better not play" is moronic. It's not that I can't take the swings, it's that I don't want to without having a confident strategy, and I wasn't sure what it was.

Luckily I found a good thread in the sticky

I am looking for advice, Spike. Please tell me what you would do in my example situations?

I am not saying my OP hands were profitable at all, that's why I posted them. But you also have not convinced me that your strategy is profitable and my gut says your line with over-shove AQos is far more -EV than my line.

1) depends on rest of table, most likely fold. if table is going to 'play nice' and see 4-6 way flops for 25, then call. if someone is looking to squeeze pre fold. call for an open of 15, go either way if open to 20.

2) depending on who someone is. might 3b this sometimes. def never folding if its going to the flop 4 ways max (likely 3 ways)

3) fold or 3b

4) call

id snap jam AQ over a blind open to 45 for 100bb.
id also snap jam ATs+ 88+ and be pretty happy about it.

hell, if he sits down and im on his right and he proceeds to go 45 blind, i might even get it in with him 'lighter' for 100bb to ensure he gives me action the rest of the night. gambling degens always love other degens.

by lighter i mean A8+ KJ+ 66+.

some people seem to think that being on the direct left of a maniac is the most profitable. i think the seat that is 2 spots over is the best. this depends on how aggressive they are postflop, preflop maniacs who calm down postflop, direct left is best. preflop and postflop maniac, id rather have some dead money inbetween me and maniac.

its actually harder to play on the direct left of some maniacs due to poor relative position. there are some complete nutjobs i'd rather be one or two to their right.

i dont think these types of players are difficult to play against. if anything its boring having to wait and actually make a hand and hope it holds as opposed to beating up on other regs and passive fish.

You're not wanting someone else to call behind, you want the maniac that raised to $45 blind to call.

25,170,868,800 games 0.058 secs 433,980,496,551 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 64.432% 63.51% 00.92% 15985713540 232340214.00 { AQo }
Hand 1: 35.568% 34.65% 00.92% 8720474832 232340214.00 { random }

Doesn't matter at all. AQo about a 2:1 favorite against a random hand.

What hand is going to call the $130 preflop ? AA,KK ? maybe AK ? maybe QQ ?

You're at least 80 % the rest of the table folds.

Shove the $130.

[QUOTE=xxGreat1xx;41375125]

But here you go Spike, you're obviously an expert, so I'd love to hear your strategy...

Great1 - you need to learn some humility and not become so testy when a poster tries to help.

[QUOTE=stran;41376901] Stran, I apologize for coming off arrogant, I am not. I've been around here for a minute and am always very thankful and respectful when others try to help. In this guys case though, he is not a strategist and spews off with arrogant posts that a lot of the time with no reasoning. This forum used to be filled with intelligent posters talking real strategy, if there's any new posters it would be hard for them to differentiate between the BS and real strat.

His posts always act like everything is standard, black and white decisions. I disagree and have found most good players/posters are more than happy to back up their plays with reasoning. I posted the situations because I believe they are the type of hands that can come up a lot and would like to see how his blanket strategy would apply in these situations.

Thanks a lot Pikku! You've definitely given me stuff to think about

No point in waiting for premiums, just play top 50% of hands. Also, no point in worrying about variance, you can dial in whatever variance you want by adjusting your opening range.

I actually prefer to be on the direct right of a player like this. I tighten up a bit preflop, but am willing to get it in versus villain with any hand I Voluntarily play. I limp everything that I am considering playing, then I always have relative position preflop against his raise.

The problem with being on his left, is you always have to be wary of limpers before him planning a limp/re-raise, as tables tend to adjust to maniacs like this.


example, you get A8s. 2 limpers before you, you limp, maniac raises to $30. EP limper shoves for $150, you fold. Assuming EP limper has a premium hand, this hand is way tougher to play if you are on the left of Villain.

Say you get a8s, 2 limpers, you limp, Villain raises to $30, 2 folds, now you can safely re-raise him, as you have much more complete information.


Just understand that this becomes almost an entirely preflop game against this villain, unless he adjusts.

Sorry if you're offended by my posts. I'm just telling you what i see. If you take issue with the brevity of some of them it's because many of them come from my phone on breaks at work. Trust me, you don't want to see what a six paragraph post looks like from a two year old Iphone 4.

I believe you're giving way too much weight to the possibility of others at the table waking up with a monster. Sure, it'll happen occasionally, but most of the time they see you 3 betting and that's enough to fold AT. Your main objective is to isolate the idiot to your right. You can't do that by just calling. So, when you have a solid hand (AQ and 88 both qualify), the correct play is to raise and get it on on the flop. Especially when short stacked. All you need to do is tighten that range up some when you're in EP. You can widen it when in LP. The table will let you know when they have big hands, but as I said, your main concern is the maniac to your right. In this situation, it actually is better to be on his right, but that's only because you're short enough to get it all in preflop/post flop. Once you're deep enough where that's not as much of a possibility, the advantage switches back to being on his left.

The real point to take home here is that this guy brings the variance with him. You can't really reduce it if you intend to take his money. The better path is to embrace it. Make big bets with superior hands and ride it out. Sometimes you'll lose, but most of the time you'll win. Our natural tendency is to pucker up and wait to flop big and "get him" when the best adjustment is to open up our value range vs. him and tangle. The ones who take the fish's money aren't the nits. It's usually another fish who is gambling or a good player who recognizes an opportunity and isn't afraid to get the money in the middle without the nuts.