I feel like I completely butchered this hand, not sure I played a single street correctly, comments are most welcome.

Hero (~$550) has been running pretty good, check raised someone holding top set earlier in the session with a gutter+FD and hit, then check raised a maniac's overpair with a pair+FD and also hit, both were shown down, although my long-term image is probably TAG it may look I'm up for a little more gambool tonight because of this.

Maniac (~$400) is an awful player and this is literally his first hand in. He comes over on some Fridays and proceeds to spew money at an astonishing rate. I have probably made 2k+ from this guy in the last year and everyone at the table wants to get in when he starts playing. He will raise ATC preflop, but will usually go into call-mode after the flop with any piece only to fold on 90% of rivers. The important note is that I've never seen him raise after the flop before and he hasn't had a chance to get drunk yet (which is when it all really falls apart for him).

SB (~$400) never seen him before, in a table full of regulars + Maniac he's the only unknown. He called someone down with AK high a few orbits back and was right, but besides that I don't have a whole lot of information on the guy. Looks like a hick farmer, wearing dirty overalls and a trucker hat.

Maniac (MP) raises to $12 - not even convinced he looked at his cards yet - Hero with QT calls from CO, SB calls. This is probably the only street I am okay with, although iso'ing would not be bad either. I am never folding to his open in position with QTs.

Flop: (~$35) QJ9

SB leads for $30, Maniac calls, Hero calls. (I hate this street in retrospect, but I wanted to keep them all in as I loved my hand)

Turn: (~$125) 5 SB leads for $30 again, Maniac min-raises to $60, Hero's alarm bells go off but calls, SB calls.

River: (~$305) 5 SB checks, Maniac goes all in for ~$300, Hero?

Looks like a fold. He can easily have the A-hi or K-high flush the way this hand played out, and we also lose to full houses. It'd be very difficult for him to have a 5x hand here for naked trips, and any flush would have to be 8-hi or lower for us to be good. You also have the slight chance behind you that SB has a huge hand.

Maniac might be terrible, but that doesn't mean he can't wake up with a big hand sometimes, and he's aggressively sending it in here against two players when someone else can easily have a flush draw. He's not worried about what anyone else has, and that means something.

i know you know this but not raising this flop is pretty terrible really. we can fold out higher FD's and can get it heads up against either villain with >50% equity and some dead money.

raise flop to $150.

As played, fold.

how maniacal is he? is it just pf or post flop too? Does he like to bluff scare cards?

I think I might call here... i think he's raising all sets on the flop plus probably AKcc a good amount of the time. So on the river what do we lose to here? Axcc thats not AQ, AJ, AT... and Kxcc thats not KQ, KJ, KT.. i just think you are good here 33% of the time minimum, especially if he likes to bluff scare cards.

Gross. The flop is the only street that is really bad. You see why raising here is a must.

I don't mind the smooth call OTT. His minraise prices you in esp knowing SB likely sticks around. Always be aware of RIO though when you are drawing. Obv 2 outs are money but otherwise you can easily be drawing to the second best hand.

As played you have to fold river. "Maniac" is a calling station as described and has shown aggression on 2 streets with a super-wet board. Sucks.

Unfortunately it had actually been a while since I had seen this guy so I couldn't remember the specifics of his tendencies other than he was a huge mark. My recollection of him was that he was very aggressive PF but I couldn't really remember him following that up post-flop once he met resistance (which the donk bet by the SB would qualify as). I don't think it is unreasonable to be good 33% of the time here, but that is why I'm posting here after all.

re-raise that flop, you should be all-in on the turn.

Grunch


Lay it down. There are some hands you can beat but is it really worth $300 to see if he misplayed pocket kings. By the sounds of it if you fold you'll still have over $400 in your stack and 2 terrible players at your table to exploit for the rest of the night.

Ok that is as played, now lets re-eval the actual hand from Pre to the end.

The thing that gets me is that he's enough of an idiot to play KT, T8 this way, even QJ. When I describe him as a Maniac I guess I don't emphasize enough that he's not applying pressure with any sort of purpose he just does not have any relative hand strength meter in head and turns medium-strength hands into essential bluffs without realizing it. I had just never seen him do it for 150bbs before.

First, puke all over the table.

We can account for the Q, J, T, 9, and 5. Villain would need to have Ax or Kx of clubs to beat us. Most villains don't play Kx of clubs and would probably be scared of someone else having the NFD, so I discount that a bit. Ax of course is quite possible, but wouldn't Axs raise the flop? Why wait until the turn, then only min-raise with two more people in the hand, including the SB that doesn't look likely to fold at all?

Actually the SB is interesting - he led out two straight streets and even called the maniac's turn raise...but then checked when the flush came in.

I can't put either villain on a set here: if Maniac had a set he'd probably raise the flop, and if SB had a set surely he'd re-raise the Maniac's min-raise.

Would the nut flush bomb away and try not to get called? Obviously he's only getting called by a full house, so shoving doesn't make much sense since better's never folding. Wouldn't a boat or nut flush usually bet a bit -less- to try and get calls from worse?

This whole hand makes my head hurt. SB's turn bet is stupid small. Maniac's min-raise is also lolbad, since it's betting 60 into a pot of $155 or less than half pot, giving everybody and his brother decent odds to call. Hero says that he's 'never seen villain raise after the flop', which is why his spidey sense starts tingling at the turn min-raise. Thing is....why would villain choose this spot to play aggressively with a flush draw?? (And why wouldn't he raise on the flop?). I usually think 'TPTK' type of hands when facing a min-raise, not a draw, since draws usually want to try and see cards for cheap.

Could villain be doing this with a hand like AK/AQ with the A and he's trying to rep the NF? I have seen villains do this (granted, villains in my case were both very good, thinking players).

I don't see many people bluff-shoving on the river into two people, especially after showing solid aggression the entire hand, without the nuts....so I guess this is probably a sigh fold, but I'd really really hate myself for it.


EDIT:
Based on this:
...how can we ever fold???

Well, if you bold the last sentence "I had just never seen him do it for 150bbs before" it becomes an issue. Whenever I've tangled with him he's more of a $200 BI, 5x buy-ins kind of guy. I had never seen him go all in for $300 in a big pot, he just kind of loses a lot of small ones and reloads. He's the kind of player that will bet $30 every street regardless of the size of the pot (kind of like SB in this hand), so a PSB shove was just out of left field from him.

Likely flopped a set and river boat. He calls the flop to make sure the flush doesn't hit the turn. He then min raises to keep people in but build the pot. Then he hits his perfect card and goes all-in.

I don't think any of these plays are close to optimal, but there is a logic to it. He figures one of the people has to have a flush and will call. Don't let it be you.