I think I misplayed my hand against a maniac. I did win, but didn't felt him. Results included intentionally.

The maniac had been betting just about anything on all streets, but sometimes checking the river through.

1/3 NL
Maniac $650
Hero covers.

Hero in BB with QQ

Maniac UTG+2 with [mod edit] (he showed after folding)

Action: fold, Maniac raises to $35, two calls, hero calls.
Flop: KQ5r ($139)
Hero checks, Maniac bets $100, folds to Hero.
Turn 5r ($339)
Hero checks, maniac bets $125

Pot, including my call amount: $589.
Maniac has $390 behind.

Hero shoved.

Maniac tanks and folds his [mod edit]

It's rare to play against a maniac and I just felt like I lost $390.
I'm thinking I should have raised the turn to $250 and shoved the river.

Not thrilled w the call pre from this particular spot not bc it's QQ but bc there is a lot of value in locking the others out of the reason's stack. You likely would have forced him to stack off over 4 streets if you 3b to a reasonable amount.

AP, seems a bit unlucky he folded, actually tilting. I would have felt good taking a ckc line ott considering the action, and then played rivers as you saw fit depending on the card - I mean, you kept him wide and betting calling QQ pre, so, keep him wide and betting ckc turn. Once you ship turn, you're forcing him to have a hand which you know by definition means he has more folds.

Again, the fact [mod edit] went into the muck sucks, but it goes to show how important it is not to rely too heavily on an image, particularly once pots get big.

Pre seems like the biggest mistake in the hand. Why did you just call? Mandatory raise to 140+.

I don’t have a problem with the rest of the hand. It sucks that he folded. I guess he isn’t as much of a maniac as you thought. He did some hand reading and determined you didn’t have any bluffs in that spot. Oh well.

Raise pre for fat value. No brainer.

Min raise (maybe 2.3x or something silly) on the flop

Turn feels like a pretty scared bet from him, so we don't want to push him out, make a smaller raise. $275 - $325

Also, please don't include the results of your hand until there has been some discussion or a reasonable amount of time has passed (24 - 48 at least typically).

Once the maniac gets 2 calls the raise preflop is necessary. If this was heads up I would flat occasionally and ride out the variance with the maniac. Once there are two other people in this hand you need to get them out because they will play more reasonably.

Generally it's a bad idea to raise a maniac on the turn on a dry board. Far too often you are just forcing them to stop and consider how strong their hand really is. If you have decided to ride things out then go the whole way. If you want to play back then do it on the flop.

It's also a bad board for raising the maniac. The king high board means the maniac is going to put a lot of AK in your range and only continue if he can beat that.

I think you didn't understand the difference between a LAG and a maniac. A LAG will bet into a pot until someone shows strength. A maniac disregards all signals that he is beat. Even in your opening, you mention that he checks rivers. That isn't a sign of a maniac. When you x/rai the turn, that shows strength.

I'll also point out that it is against our rules to post a hand to question even indirectly "what was this villain thinking?" ITRM handled this thread well. He would have been justified to just lock it.

One things for certain is you absolutely cannot play this hand multiway. Idk what these dudes flat calling ranges to a 12x raise are but it's certainly not better than QQ. What was your plan on a JT8 2 flush flop? A 3 bet needs to be at least 200. However, if dude jams over your 3 bet you have to call given pot odds. Therefore your only move is to jam preflop. Whatever. It doesnt matter

Yeah you played this horribly if getting it all was the plan. You got dealt a top 2% hand, flopped middle set and you never made one move as the aggressor until the last street. Why? You don't get it all often enough by trying to trap people. I see that in this forum all the time. PSA to all of you: If you want it all put ****ing money in the pot! Raise, 3bet, 4bet pre with top 2% hands. Raise flops and turns with sets. Like c'mon guys this is live rec stakes NLH. Pick up/ make hands and relentlessly bet if you wanna get it all! FPS is an epidemic in this forum. Make it stop already

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Doesn't really need to be over PS. 170-180 is fine. 200 is a little big but not a mistake. Just calling is LOL!

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I won’t belabor preflop.

Since most of his range is weak raising postflop is not really going to help you. You might as well check call flop and turn and by river hope he either a) has a good hand and will bet again so you can get all in or b) fire one more time with random stuff and you’ll win the max possible from that range too. All you get from raising the turn is the money from scenario A. If you just call you get max from
Both.

There's $100 / 1/6 of stacks worth of dead money in the pot and a maniac is the opener with 2 callers and we're not 3betting? I make it $110ish.

How often is the maniac going to cbet into 3 opponents? If he's always going to barrel this flop, I'm ok with a check. But I think I mostly just donk this myself to make sure money goes in. SPR is 4.5 so we can get in stacks with 3 easy peasy bets of like 2/3 PSBs. As played, I think I'm ok with just calling the flop bet.

How often is maniac going to continue barrelling now that we've called the flop? If turn checks thru it is a disaster, so if there is any chance of a check back I think I prefer a donk again. A check/raise is just so damn strong.

Overall, I think I just donk/donk/donk small bets for stacks (which is the weakest looking way to do things) unless this guy is just always barrel/barrel/barrelling his whole range into the world.


ETA: Against a true manaic, preflop is just a disaster. We should really be raising any amount that he would consider calling off, including considering a lol shove. I had a hand against a maniac in a 1/3 NL game in Pittsburgh once where I limped QQ with a $400 stack, he goes lol $10, gets one call, and I.... ship for $400. He calls. Ace in the window, King in the door. My hand is good, poker is ez.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Grunch - you checked flop and turn. Thats why you didn't get stacks in. Tell V he needs to bet larger and admonish him for being a fish. No, seriously though, bet you're freaking hand. That's how you're going to get stacks in. check/check/shove river is fish code for I flopped the nuts.

Oh, and also not every time V has a hand that he can stack off with.