Villain in this hand is a maniac donkey who since the time he sat down has raised or called big bets pf every hand and c-bet pot sized or bigger bets 100% of the time. Has shown 4-5 bluffs. Doubled his original stack of 200 then donked it all away in one hand and rebought for 200. Villain has been at table for about 30 mins. He has $140.

Hero ($200) has not been involved in any of the hands with V, mostly folding pf, until this hand:

Utg+2 calls
V raises to 12 in lojack
Hijack calls
Folds to Hero in SB who has AQdd

What's the right bet amount here because I already have my mind set that I'm going to repop his raise? Is a shove a good move here?

Sucks you're oop and eff stacks are only 140. 3bet to 40 and let him hang himself.

$55. Shove all flops.

What's HJ like?

I'm probably popping this to 55-60... Sometimes just calling this since AQ sooted plays well multiway. Seeing as how we don't need to balance our range much and this douchebag is spewy, I'm raising

check/shove prob better on flops we miss that arent Kxx since villain likes to bluff

HJ was kinda spewy and I could see him call a raise to 60. He called a raise pf, with no other callers yet, of $13 with j5s and ended up flopping a flush to beat my AK later on in the night.

As far as the aggro-donk who just kept giving away his money, I ended up shoving with AQdd because I didn't want him to hit a lucky flop oop, and he's not that big of a dog if he has 2 cards that aren't an ace or a queen. I also didn't want hj donk to call either. After I shoved, aggro-donk started to ask me if I wanted a call, I just sat stoic blank-faced and didn't say anything like I normally do (I don't really engage in dialogue during hands). He eventually folded and hijack folded showing AJo. If I had QQ+ or AKs I wouldv'e repopped to 50-60.

I like raising to 60 to try to get heads up with maniac. Then I'm never folding the hand post flop vs him.

this.

3-bet to 55. (or whatever large amount he'd call pre (starting at $50 and working your way up).

55-60 everyone agrees and stack on any flop. Are there any benefits to just calling? what if we are 400 effective? I think anyone who plays 1/2 runs into these situations

I don't mind a call here. Why not wait to see if your hand hits to stack off to a maniac who is going to give it up post flop? We can easily find a more +ev way to play for stacks vs. this sort of player than raise AQ / shove all flops. Almost seems like we are auto bluffing a decent hand. Play poker. Make a hand and take the $.

For those urging call, I'd almost rather have KQ here. All but the worst maniacs are going to slow down when an A hits the board when they raised pre with J7. That's their game, isn't it? They raise with garbage, know all kinds of broadway are coming along, then when the board hits J-high, they bomb it with confidence.

For this reason, I'd prefer the raise/shove approach with AQs.

option 1) reraise to around 65, to make the pot 145 post and he would have 75 behind for you to shove into on the flop. Would be really hard for a bad aggro to fold anything at this point

option 2) reraise to around 55 to isolate you and the bad aggro, makes pot 125 and him with 85 behind. can then shove flops(i like this less than option 1 because you get more value pre and collect more dead money post w option 1)

option 3) reraise to 40ish+, keeps pot small and still isolates you with the bad aggro fish, only c-betting with a lot of equity or a pair, planning to never fold(if made hand/good equity). only have to C-bet around half as well. He will probably fold a percentage of the time on the flop and if not, you still have equity to bink on.

I don't think flatting here is an option as you want to be heads up with this guy post flop. I like option 1 and option 3 the best. If I was in this situation I would probably opt for the small 3-bet just to increase skill advantage and keeping the pot to stack ratio a little better. Although if he is really bad and stacking off w anything, I'd just go with a big 3-bet and stick it in on the flop.

I agree that raise/shove can't be -ev against this player with these stacks. I usually wait until I have a huge edge vs. these guys b/c his stack is constantly available and losing a big pot b/c he hit bottom pair puts me on monkey tilt.

This kind of maniac calls pre flop light, meaning he will call raises pre flop with basically any two cards he picks up. We want to get money into the pot BEFORE he shuts down. We have a premium hand... I don't know what other hands we wouldn't mind playing stacks for against this particular type of player.


How is this auto bluffing? We have a hand where you want to have money in the pot. Sure, it's not AK or AA/KK... But against this player, it's the same thing. What are we waiting for?

Bluffing? Seems like we are putting it in pretty good against Vs range when raised to 60.

What part of the OP's description leads you to believe V will shut down post flop? He's C-betting pot sized or over 100% and has shown down 4-5 bluffs in 1/2 hour.