Majestic Star--Gary, IN
Hero thinks Saturday will be great because the day before the boat closed due to snow. Hero thought the degens would be out. They're out!
Hero folds first 10 hands. Villain is a 50 yo BG who's playing every hand and raising/opening for $15. He's also calling all in re-raises with trash. He's at $400 and on his third buy-in. Villain complains about Hero, calls him "a professional" and that "he's still young so can make more money what's your problem? Get it in!"
I walked past the morning rock table and they waved me over. I ran to this table as there were only 2 regs. After a rotation I figure out that basically everybody at this table was trying to isolate Villain.
Hero loses first buy-in on 2 hands. A10 on a 103A board after going all-in and Villain's 74 flush draw gets there.
Villain also beat Hero's 910 on a 10 high board with 2 diamonds when an Ace hit the turn. No diamonds followed he turned over A4 offsuit.
Hero's VPIP is probably 15 as I know that every hand is fifteen bucks.
Is this the right strategy in one of these games?
Over the summer I was too weak tight and feared these games. Now I know that if I'm going to improve as a player I have to handle the crazy stuff too. Before this hand Hero hasn't won a single hand and has a loser image.
Maniac loses to quads and announces "it's 42 every time from now on."
Hero on the Button: 88 with $170
Maniac raises to 42 UTG+1. This is the third hand in a row he did this.
MP 50 yo Serb who I don't know who pushes all in for 90.
It gets to Hero on the Button with 88..........Hero????

All-in. Even if you are losing the main you should have solid equity in the side. You should be ahead in the main too, though, unless the Serb is not adjusting to the maniac at all.

That was my thinking. I'm not a gambler at heart which makes a lot of these games very challenging for me. A few hands before I had KQ off and Villain raised to 42. My friend shoved all in for 130. I folded the KQ. Turned out my friend won with AJ off.

Allin is fine in this spot with 88+/AQs+ and only 170 behind.

It's reasonable to assume MP 50yo Serb could be shoving the 90 reasonably wide (66/ATs+)? In any case, we get a chance to race against the main villain with good equity vs his range or he may just fold leaving behind $42 in dead money. I don't think we should worry about SB/BB waking up with JJ+.

Small correction:

I don't think we should worry too much about SB/BB waking up with JJ+.

Obviously sometimes we'll be up against an overpair and crushed but a lot of the time, everybody else folds and we're heads up in a race with MP for $180 + $42 in dead money overlay.

Its worth keeping in mind that there are 12 combos each of AK, AQ, AJ (for a total of 36 combos) and only 6 combos each of AA,KK,QQ,JJ,TT, 99 (also for a total of 36 combos). There are also 12 combos of 77/66. And we still have 18% equity against higher overpairs. In other words we're probably in reasonable shape against MP's range here.

Against the maniac heads up I would jam it in , but ifnotheads up just let it go and pick a better spot, 8's three handed can't stand up to too much and your basically coin flip or huge dog , If everyone is deeper you can try to get it to heads up versus the maniac, this is cash and you'll have ample opportunity to try for a better spot, especially if he's moving the action often

I hadn't been there long enough to feel desperate over being card dead. I think the hands villain was showing down was making me tiltish about getting it all in.