Game is $2-$100 spread-limit, where the most you can raise is $100 over the previous bet. So if Villain bets $50, the most I can raise is to $150. Blinds are $1-$2.

Early Thursday morning. Villain has mentioned he's been playing all night and is into the game for over $2,000. Some Hand Histories in the last hour:

1. I open in CO to $10. Button 3-bets to $40. Villain cold-calls in BB. I fold. Flop 9d8d3s. Villain checks, Button bets $40, Villain calls. Turn 7d. Villain checks, Button bets $100, Villain calls. River 6c. Villain checks, Button checks. Villain tables AsQs and it is somehow the best hand.

2. I open on Button with KdKs to $10, Villain calls in SB, BB calls. Flop 9c8c3c. Villain donk bets $20, BB folds, I call. Turn 4x. Villain bets $50, I call. River 4c. Villain bets $50, I call, Villain tables Jd5h for absolutely nothing and my hand is good.

3. (The hand immediately before this): I limp with KhKs UTG. A tilting idiot next to me raises to $50. The Villain then reraises to $100. Everyone folds. I just call. The tilting idiot reraises (all-in) to $150. The Villain calls the $150. I reraise to $250. The Villain calls. Flop comes 345cc. I bet $100 he calls. Turn 4x. I bet $90 (all-in) and Villain calls with QQ.

Okay......

So the very next hand: there are a couple of folds, and then the Villain (whose stack is down to $500--I cover) opens for $37. He's done a lot of stupid opens before, but never for anything close to this much. It folds all the way around to me in the Big Blind, and I look at Pocket Jacks. I reraise MAX to $137. He tanks for a bit and calls.

FLOP: Kc 9h 3s (pot: $275, heads-up)

Action is on me, what should I do?

lol @ the ol' limp back-raise OOP in HH3 line. How anyone can call that is beyond me. For the hand I think you have a x/call-down light line depending on the sizing he goes. If he just keeps firing I could see giving up on brick turns for large sizing. My tree is something like:


check --> does he bet? ---> call ---> is turn a brick? ---> yes ----> does he bet? ----> yes ---> large? ---> yes ----> fold.
check --> does he bet? ---> call ---> is turn a brick? ---> yes ----> does he bet? ----> yes ---> large? ---> no ----> call/fold.
check --> does he bet? ---> call ---> is turn a brick? ---> yes ----> does he bet? ----> no ---> check/eval river
check --> does he bet? ---> call ---> is turn a brick? ---> no ----> does he bet? ----> yes ---> fold.

You have probably tilted somebody who is already a maniac. With an over card on the flop that hits the range he should be playing you shouldn't try to get the rest of his stack but also shouldn't give up. Villain could be on nearly anything so you can't tell when he hits two pair and the board is free of draws. I would mostly check/call the whole way. There are not many bad run outs and the pot is big enough your mostly committed to seeing it through. The bet cap helps you here as villain just can't bet enough to push you out if you don't raise. If he has bet $100 on the flop the pot will be $475 on the turn and it will cost you only $200 more to see it through, it is just hard to see folding against a maniac.
If villain checks flop and then bets turn on an ace then consider a fold. An ace should slow him down if he doesn't have one and if he didn't bet flop your odds are not that good. Only consider it though because a maniac may consider two checks on your part a reason to try and steal the pot.

Well he has about 360 behind so you are quite committed here with SPR 1.3 , I think check-calling is a good strategy given the dynamic, much better then cbet with this specific hand. If he bets the flop the SPR on the turn will be ~0.5 or less, so if he jams it will be only half pot to call, I don't see how you can ever fold even if the scary card comes, so if you call the flop you basically have to call any turn as well.

If he x-back I think u should probe turn for value on almost any runout as it will likely be a hand with showdown value that you beat, I would bet I think like half-pot on the turn and jam any river.

Villain sounds like an absolute whale. No need to bet here, you are either way ahead or way behind, given his image this is almost a mandatory x/call down on most runouts, and the spread limit format should allow you to do that.

I think both lines are good. Check call 100 x3 or bet 100 and stack off when he lets you. If he has a king he deserves all the money.

either bet 100 and c/c turn c/c river or just c/c all 3 looks good to me. i could even be convinced to size down a bit more otf to get him to do something stupid. i just cant imagine him not losing his mind if you bet 25 lol

i dont think theres a scenario that would lead to me not going to showdown based on what we've seen out of him so far

He has set odds to see the flop ($100 to win $550).

I would just check call all the way down. Checking is going to induce this guy to fire off all sorts of nonsense bluffs.

No such thing as a large bet on turn. It’s spread limit the most he can bet on turn is 100 into 475 assuming he max bets flop. Don’t see how you could ever fold versus this guy getting nearly 6:1. We have plenty of stuff like AQ-AT to consider folding on turn to a double barrel. Folding JJ on turn is just awful.

RESULT: I got greedy and stupid?

I bet $100 on flop, he calls.

Turn: Kc 9h 3s 2d

I bet $100 he calls.

River: Kc 9h 3s 2d 7h

I bet $100 again and he calls with KQo.

EASY COME EASY GO.

(I honestly thought he was calling me down with TT/88 the whole way. I just had that drilled into my head. But I mean. I was never folding to this guy anyway, so I guess betting $100 on every street is better than check-calling $100 on every street.)

why is betting 100 better than c/c 100 lol

I get value from tens and 8s that I don’t get by checking.

ok but u miss value from air and he might fold those / bet with them anyways. vs exactly 88/tt i guess u do better by betting but idk if that makes bet better than check lol. like idk this is a very clear check somewhere imo. most likely bet flop c/c turn c/c river and bet river if he checks turn

After some thought I think checking range to this guy might be best here. What if he has T6s or 76o or one of the myriad hands that have no pair no draw that need to fold to our 100? Maybe they float, who knows, but they are likely to bet if we check.

I almost certainly butchered it. I just got tunnel vision—right from the start I assumed his huge preflop raise was a mid pocket pair—and didn’t allow anything to sway me. Of course it helped that that was the one type of hand I was still beating!

There a lot of hands like the J5 example that we are beating / crushing.

It was probably a real-life example of “winner’s tilt”, as I hadn’t even finished stacking my chips from the previous huge KK pot. “Eh, **** it, if he has the King, no biggie, I’m still up!”

all good. usually kxx is range bet as 3bettor but then u start polarizing on later streets. its basically non existent that you're going to go for 3 streets with an underpair. the issue is he really just needs to call with top pair and a few middle pairs vs 3 barrels so you already don't have a +ev bet by the river, and you completely cap / destroy your checking range

What's your stack size? Better move it just call pre-flop. Pretty much you have to pick either go with it all the way through or trying to check it down. Your stack size is really going to determine what you do. Do you have 100left? 500?