Game: No Limit Hold'em
Blinds: $2/$4
8-Handed

Hand #1:

Pre-flop:
I started the hand with $160 on small blind with Q10

UTG+1 (Stack Size: $100) limped. A really loose player (who plays almost 80% of his hands with $800) raised to $15. Button (an OK regular who is reasonably tight with $200) called.

I called, big blind called and UTG+1 called.

Flop:

Five players in the hand. Pot $75

Q 8 2

Hero, Big Blind & UTG+1 checked. Pre-flop raiser bet out $30 & button called.

Pot is now $135 and I have $145.

What should I do?
I definitely wasn't thinking of folding. Should I move in or just called?

Hand#2:

Pre-flop:
I started the hand with $170 with AJ offsuit on the small blind.

The really loose player (hijack with $1000) I mentioned above limped, cut off and button limped. I completed the blind and big blind checked. (I know that I made a mistake here for not raising) =(

Flop:

J 8 3

I bet $15 into a $20 pot. Two callers (hijack & cut off called).

Turn:

3

Board: J 8 3 3

Pot: $65

I was pretty confident I had the best hand so I bet $45. The really loose players who almost plays all of his hands raised to $100 total. Cut off and button folded.

What should I do?
I have around $110 left and the pot is around $210.

I am pretty new to the game so any suggestion or feedback is greatly appreciated.

Hand 1: If you are short stacked you can't call preflop with hands like QTs as you have limited implied odds and huge reverse implied odds as you are committed on top pair type flops as you are here.

Just call flop and evaluate on the turn. Shoving here folds out all worse hands and u get called by all better.

Hand 2: Against you are way to short stacked to fold here with less than 50BB. all in

Hi Leobzook,

Thanks for your reply. I do have a few questions if you don't mind answering.

Hand 1:
What about a hand like KQs? Is it a hand I can call with pre-flop with a short stack?

If calling with QTs was a bad play, considering how wide the player was raising with. Would all in be an +EV play?

Again, thanks for your time.

Cheers.

h1 fold pre
h2 all in

As previous said ^

Allin pre with QTs from SB isn't +EV. You have to just accept the best option is to fold. Especially preflop it is rarely going to be a big error to fold so, if in doubt, just fold.

Not raising AJo preflop in H2 <50bbs deep is the biggest leak in this thread. The shorter your stack and the further OOP you are, the more you should be forcing the issue with preflop equity.

H1 is okay, now flat. Calling 3bbs preflop against described raiser seems fine with this stack depth. Our position could not possibly be worse, but equity and flop playability are more important than position with a 2:1 SPR.

OTF: Just flat. It's not time to pull the trigger with so many players left to act in a spot (dry board, MW pot) where no one is going to put you in a tough spot with a raise, we want to see some more actions before we commit.

I would check any non-T turn. Our pair is high enough and the board is safe enough that it's not a problem to see all 5 cards before committing more money. We will also find a ton of folds based on the action and board run-out.

No. Notice that what kills your profits in this situation is not the guy playing 80% of hands. If the maniac calls you all the time then your QTs is marginally ahead of his range and if he doesn't then you will take down a lot of pots preflop. Still probably -EV but not hugely unprofitable. The reason this is big -EV is that the limpers will turn up with AK/big pairs trapping the maniac sometimes and that just kills any potential profit margin.

KQs is a tougher call. Is your villain really raising 80% of hands? If he is mixing limping and raising are the raises stronger hands? Does his raise size mean anything? Is he playing ATC from the button? Does he have a good sense of what hands to fold and which to call with? How does he play post flop? Are the other players trying to trap the LAG a lot? Are they folding to reraises? With the maniac to your right and a short stack you should be looking for hands to shove with. KQs is right around the bottom of the range you can think about it if you want to gamble. The LAG is going to force you to gamble or play like a nit, if you don't want to do either of those then change seats/tables.

Thanks wiffle.

Thanks Ragequit99 for your feedback. After reading all the replies in this thread, they made me realize how bad I am in poker. I definitely am going to commit myself to some serious studies.

Hi QuadJ,

That is spot on. Cheers for that. I actually did make a huge mistake by shoving on the flop with top pair mediocore kicker, the maniac folded and the button called with KQ and I ended up losing my whole short stack. Can't blame anyone. BAD PLAY on my side!!! =(

Thanks again QuadJ. He wasn't raising with all the hands he played but definitely played around 80% of his hands if not more. His play was really unpredictable. I have seen him raised to 5BBs with 68o and raised more around 7BBs with higher cards like JTo, JQo etc pre-flop. Once he hit middle pair on the flop, he tends to stick around until the river trying to see if he was good or calling flop & turn to see if his hand improves. Even when he misses, he is not afraid to put in a big bet.

The other players did tighten up but they were just playing their hand by calling when they hit and fold when they miss.

At a table with a maniac as described above, what would be the best strategy? Buy in for the max (100bbs) and play tight? Or have a shorter stack and shove (gamble) when I think my hand is ahead of his range?

Cheers.

Hi surviva316,

Thanks for your comments. I am such a FISH for not raising pre-flop with AJo. This is so embarrassing! I definitely will learn from this and will avoid this mistake in the future.

If his bet sizes are giving away his hand strength then just fold. $15 is the stronger end of his range and you don't want to be playing KQ OOP against the better hands so flatting or raising will both be bad. Against the weak end of his range KQ would be fine for raising and getting it in preflop.

There is no simple strategy for playing maniacs because it varies so much depending on exactly how they play. It will also vary over time because stack sizes change the optimal play even if the villain isn't changing his play. If effective stacks are short then a tight range and waiting for a hand that can move in preflop is best. When stacks are deep this is just too risky.

In the end though, there isn't much you will want to play against him when he has the button. Until you are deep enough to set mine you should probably have no calling range at all. Either your hands is good enough to raise and call a shove or fold.

Thanks once again for taking the time to answer my question. I have been reading Jonathan Little's Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Cash Game. A great book. Learned tons from it. He also explained strategies as to how to play against maniacs which is very helpful.

I am going to have another live poker session tonight. Wish me luck. Will post some hands I play to get some feedback. Cheers.

Hi Ragequit99,

I understand that one of the main reasons to fold in this spot is because of the reverse implied odds. Also I will be playing OOP after the flop.

But there is already $40 in the pot and it will cost me another $13 to see a flop with around $145 behind. Would calling be OK?

Another question is if I had the same stack size~40BBs on the button with the same hand against the same opponents. Would it be an easy call?


Thanks in advance.