I play mostly micro-stakes online and rarely get to play live, and I’m not used to it. But a few weeks ago I was playing 1-3 NL live and for the first time I found myself in a game with a true maniac. This guy was in almost every hand and making huge raises which made the game play much higher than I’m used to. He also had the poker gods on his side that night and was catching runner-runner straights and flushes with garbage hole cards against other players’ flopped sets. I was on his immediate left, thank god, and had been card dead for about two hours watching him run over the table while I’m dribbling away my stack. I did notice he would often make half-pot or larger bets after the flop when he had crap, and smaller when he actually had a hand.

When I finally got dealt QQ on the button, it was checked around to the maniac who raised to $10 and I reraised to $20 (too little?) and got five callers ($120 pot). Flop was J64 rainbow. It was checked all the way around to the maniac who bet $65 into the $120 pot and I thought “hot damn, I’ve got him since that meant he was likely bluffing”. I shoved my last $130 and it was folded around to the guy on the maniac’s immediate right, who hesitated, hesitated, then called (uh-oh). The maniac looked at each of us, laughed and mucked his bluff face up. The caller had a flopped set of 6’s and I’m toast. The guy with the set said he was going to check-raise the maniac but I did his betting for him. He hesitated because he thought I might have a set of jacks.

This hand has been bugging me ever since and I keep switching between thinking it was a good play since it was checked around to the maniac, I read him correctly, and I was just unlucky the other guy was going to check-raise. Then I think no, it was a stupid noob mistake because I should never shove with just one pair. Opinions please.

i'm sorry you lost a measly 50BB stack in a live cash game.

no ****, you should have 3bet more pre-flop - around 30-40, then ship all flops.

Raise more preflop. You say it was checked around to maniac preflop so I assume you mean 3-4 people limped and maniac raised to $10, so pot was ~23 when it got to you. If you raise too small here it often sets up a cascade of callers like what happened here. You want to raise enough to get heads up w/maniac. Sometimes 20 gets you HU on 1 hand and the next hand 20 gets you ~4 callers/that's LLSNL LOL.

Preflop I'd raise to ~30 here, tho depends on how the game is playing.

Flop shove: Played fine by you, there's no way you get away from this hand w/QQ with this flop/size pot and your stack size, it was not a "stupid noob mistake".

I think preflop is a pretty big mistake. The minraise gives great odds to the maniac to call with almost anything playable so long as he thinks we'll stack off with our overpair if he hits. But more importantly it invites the whole world in to try and stack us, as happened here. Have to remember that we're not just playing against the maniac. Table is obviously pretty loose, so I probably go upwards of $50 (especially if the maniac is going to call ATC preflop) and then ship the flop.

With this pot size versus our stack size and the fact that we have an overpair, the flop plays itself. But preflop set us up to get stacked.

With the stack size I like the min 3-bet since it set-up a pot-sized shove with an overpair. You will get tons of calls from TP and draws.

If only maniac calls, that creates a ~$40ish pot with $130ish stack.

someday i want to sit down at a game thats smaller than what i usually play and go all out maniac. tilt the crap out of everyone.

You want to be on the maniacs right. Tighten up, limp preflop then trap the field limp reraising for free $. Do this with somehting like 77+, KQ+, AJo+ etc

As played, raise to at least 45 preflop then ship safe flops

My experience with maniacs is give them a taste of their own medicine...they hate getting re-raised.

Your PF pop was way to little, but that's already been pointed out.

If you really wanted to turn the tables on this aggro maniac...you could've pushed and if he wakes with better...then so be it.

Believe it or not, you want to be on his immediate right. You want RELATIVE position on a maniac. Since maniacs are so active and raise pretty much all the time, he will open the action for you and then you get to see how everyone reacts and then you are last to act which is like having position

Since maniacs almost never check, you end up being "the button" pretty much every hand they are in if you are on their immediate right. Also, this makes it easier to "isolate" against the maniac.

so, its counter intuitive but the best position against a true maniac is on his immediate right.

This is why maniacs do so well. Players wait and wait and wait for the "big" hand and then they are itching to get it in with the maniac. Which is all well and good, but the way you stack a maniac is to just widen your range and become a calling station against them when you have mid pair or better.

But what happens is that since the maniac has been anal raping you all day, you've got the built in rage, and then FINALLY you get a big hand and end up raising the maniac off his hand in response to him bullying you all day....

In any event, there are a lot of threads here on how to play against a maniac, I suggest you read up.


See, this is exactly what i'm talking about. Imagine if you were on his immediate right and had QQ. You got the maniac raising, the table itching to call so they can flop gin and stack him, and NOW action comes to you and you have QQ

Incidentally, yes, your pfr was way too low. Just play your hand straightforward, make it $35, players will still call.

Thanks for the responses. As soon as I made the min-raise I realized it was a mistake. I questioned shoving with the overpair because in the past I have made the mistake of falling in love with AA or TPTK and paying for it dearly. I'll search the treads for playing vs maniac.

it doesnt matter in this hand, but here is another great leak in your thinking. u think yeah he is bluffing, i have the best hand, so i move in. but if he is bluffing, u want him to continue, and if u move in , how can he continue?

anyway, in that hand u had to move in, had no choice, but thats just a point to think about in the future maybe.

and raise way bigger pre please.

see, ur strategy was to stack the maniac hellmuth-style by waiting for a monster, but that isnt the right strategy. a smart maniac will notice it and fold when u have it, and will bluff you all day long when u havent.

station him down with mediocre holdings, and loosen up your raising standards, especially pre.

If you thought he was bluffing why did you raise all-in...?

Don't you want him to fire another barrel on the turn?

Four other players had checked to the cutoff maniac and I was on the button. I wanted the other four to fold to get him heads up. He would have called for the additonal $65 if the hijack hadn't called. I understand I should have tried to get them out with a much larger preflop raise.