Villain sat down 30 minutes earlier and immediately asserted himself (or attempted to assert himself) as table captain. Has been absurdly aggressive. When a pot is limped to him, he will raise to $60. He open raises most hands to $35 or $40 (table average had been $20) and will cbet every flop.

About 2 minutes prior to the hand in question, I got in the following hand with him:

Villain limped in MP (he had been raising every hand, so I ranged him on two paper napkins), I raised in the SB with AJo, only villain called. Flop A62. I cbet and he min-raises me. I call. Turn is a 5, I check, he bets big, I call. Turn is a 10. I check, he pot-sized jams, I call. Villain says he has a 5 and MHIG.

Hero: I don't think I had played a hand over the past 30 minutes, but I doubt Villain noticed.

The hand: villain rebuys for $500 (this game is $500 cap) and seems a bit steamed. UTG limps, I raise in UTG+1 to $25 with AJ, fish ($400) calls in MP, nitty ABC player ($500) calls in the hijack, villain 3bets to $85 on the button. Folds back to me (I cover).

Hero should...?

Although we are OOP, our hand plays quite well post flop. I would call and see a flop and just give up OOP if we totally miss and villain shows more aggression.

Our hand is too strong to fold and a 4bet essentially commits us to calling off when we get 5bet jammed on. We will get the right odds to call but hard to be happy GII 100bb with AJs.

If he's that much of a maniac and tilted as you described, it wouldn't be terrible to just 4b jam if you think he'd call wide enough. You have 57% against a range of 22+, A2s+, A7o+, and all broadway combos. Flatting is fine too and lower variance, given his absurdly small sizing and the fact that the field callers are likely calling as well, you have good pot odds to see 3 cards. Probably have good implied odds as well if you flop TP+ and maniac jams with his entire range.

I prefer flatting pf and playing post vs this guy.

i would flat as well. his sizing is small which kind of worries me. but i dont see why we would 4b/gii here. flat and see a flop imo.

dead money. picking it up is huge. he´s not deep at all for this game, but against a guy described as so erratic we have to 4bet and call it off.

don´t understand the logic for shoving at all though, we don´t have any FE against better, and the guy suggesting he calls it off with A7 is trippin imo.
he might shove those hands over a small 4bet though as well as stuff like QJs, KQs, KJs, and maybe even tilt shove like T9s etc

Would not be a disaster to play this pot multiway with a tiny spr as well, but prefer gii here.

he might be sLAG but hes not dumb where he's just stacking off vs our UTG open. i dont think 4bet/gii is ideal with AJ even vs described player unless OP says villain is awful/maniac.

i just dont think 30 minutes of super aggressive play is enough to make us believe he is 5bet shoving with QJs/KQs/KJs lol.

i just flat and see a flop with the some dead money in there and some implied odds vs this guy.

Obviously your average 1/3 player isn't getting in 160bb with A7o, but OP describes V is maniacal and tilting - I've seen these types of players call/jam way more $ with way worse hands (calling a 200bb 4b jam with T5s). Even if you don't give him any unsuited aces lower than AJo, you probably still have the equity to jam and get called. Only need 39% with the dead money.

There's no point in 4betting to a size where you're going to call off your entire 4b range to a 5b jam, because we aren't deep enough. There's no hand that villain will be 5betting that he's not going to call to a jam. He's not dumb, he knows there's zero FE against a 4b that's 40-50% of Hero's entire stack.

To be clear I think flatting the 3b is still the better option.

When the action comes back to me, there is $165 in the pot. If we think villain is light, isn't 4bet or just stuffing the best option here? There is a sizeable amount of dead money in the pot and if everyone folds, that's a great outcome. Of course, if I get snap called I'm likely in serious trouble - even slags are allowed to wake up with hands sometimes - but if our read is that I'm ahead of his range, isn't re-raising better than flatting OOP?

If I flat, the pot is $250 and villain's stack is $415. If either of the two other players also call, which seems reasonably likely given the odds, the pot will become even more inflated. In this case, we are obviously committed if we get a piece. But assuming the flop bricks out for us - which will happen more often than not - are we just check/folding here? Or are we check/calling it off with ace high?

Has villain been seen 3betting at all yet? Is there any reason to believe he's light (besides being on tilt and aggressive).

I don't like calling OOP, so yes raising (or folding) is always better than calling and I would rather fold than call but the question is what is his 3bet range? He 3bet over 3 other players... I would also hate to flat and then someone else jams.

4 betting is the best option. Taking this down pre is the most profit this hand is able to make given its equity edge vs the field. I don't mind calling it off vs a tilted maniac, once you 4 bet you cannot fold, 225 & call a shove.

I think villain had 3bet once prior to this hand without showdown. I agree his 3bet range - and whether AJs is ahead of much of it - is the real question here. Given his near-reckless aggression and chip spewage, coupled with potential tilt, my guess at the time was he could be pretty wide (i.e. 108s, 66 type hands). But for sure he will have some hands that crush me, and he could easily have AQ or 99 type hands which I'm not sure are ever folding.

I agree that folding is an option. To be honest, in real time I never considered flatting. Only raise/jam or fold.

That's one key reason I posted this hand, to see if that thought process was correct.