Playing a deep 1/1/2 with one short whale UTG. Everyone else at the table is hyper-aggressive, with a street being checked almost never happening. I'm the new guy to this poker circle.

Whale shoves for $23, I flat with QQ from the SB. BB, a good player, calls from BB, maniac in BB calls.

FLOP:

A 5 2

We all check

TURN-- main(~100)--side($0):

6

Check, Check, maniac bets $30.

Being stuck, I folded without too much thought. Maniac turns over J8, whale flips K3.

The maniac and the whale are good friends outside of poker, and I know the maniac wanted to keep the whale in the game.

This put me on mega tilt that I think will last for at least a week, so I quit.

If I call the turn, he's firing the river %100 of the time. So do I just chalk it up to a Maniac making stupid bets or am I the stupid one for folding?

You played it fine; if you hadn't posted results, I guarantee you nobody would tell you to call. They are idiots for betting/calling into a non-existant sidepot with no show-down value and nothing to gain. Since they are this bad and loose, you will get money from them sooner or later (likely sooner). I would never leave this game while I still had money on the table.

One option would be to 3bet pre to isolate the shorty/get more money in the pot and just never fold post-flop.

Why the hell did you flat in SB with an all-in in front?

That was the first thing I thought when I saw this too. You want to protect your hand here by reraising and running the board against the whale. If the other guys are willing to cold-call after you throw in a $75+ reraise, good for them.

No, they are not willing to cold-call with $75 with j8o, but more than happy to call $23 with J8, that is why I flatted.

I think this was just a tilt-fold, because looking back on it, this guy is dumb enough to bluff here.

This is great !! they will flat with J8, but they are also flatting with A8 and K8 or Ax Kx and you have no idea of there range here all you can really eliminate is pp. 99+ ! weak aces and kings make up a huge part of there range. You cannot flat here in the sb oop with such a vunarable hand because they may have a weak jack. anytime you flop an A or K you have no idea whats up and you will be forced to lay down. also the way you describe these villians you may find they may occasionaly make a dumb call here so pop it up bro

Yeah, I don't get that. It's spelled I-S-O.

But what are you going to do against the Krabbler?

Hmm I thought it was the KRABLAR. And it's really only the Krablar if you show it down, win, then get up from your chair and hop around pinching your hands together afterwards.

Anyway...

Fold is fine if you weren't going to reraise to ISO. Why did you let this tilt you so hard?

Also, how is the "whale" shortstacking???

reraise pre 100% of the time ffs
hey you guys advocate flatting pre here too?
what if i get shoved on?

I definitely agree with the people advocating a raise pre. Being first to act with a hand like QQ sucks against an all-in with further action is terrible against basically every flop. Raise for value.

But what bothered me most about your post was this:

If you're letting your immediate results influence your play, you are not playing your best. If you're making decisions that factor in whether you're stuck/winning, it's time to rack up and go home.

How can this tilt you? It seems standard to me, the other guys or the whale shoving could easily have an ace. Typically you don't see people bet in this spot with air, because if they fold everybody out then they will lose to the preflop shover. Standard fold on that flop to any bet in a 3 way pot imo.

I think the other guys posting in here might be results oriented, they know you were ahead so they are like "omg raise it up pre obv". I'm not a fan of that play. People typically call anyway in the loose games I play in, then you are in a bloated pot OOP. If you DO manage to fold them all out you only win 10bb from the whale anyway, QQ is worth more than that. In my games the players typically have $400+ in front of them, so calling is probably more profitable because you can value bet any flops under Q and then turn/river. Also, you might hit a set and can check/fold ace high flops like this.

So you're advocating that when UTG jams for 11bb and the table folds to you in the SB you are going to flat to the BB? Saying OP should have raised pre isn't being results oriented, it's raising for value with a premium pocket pair ESPECIALLY when it's going to look like an iso move to the BB.

Flatting this from the SB is no bueno. Raise it up and if his buddy wants to play against both of you for real money, so be it, but as you have said, QQ is worth more than 10bb - raise is for value.

Seems like turn is an easy call, since a maniac who understands his image would almost certainly value bet an ace on the flop.

im calling the turn against this guy. if he bets the river and i think theres a chance im good im calling. its a spot where a lot of bad players bluff and you checked 3 streets so chances are you dont have an ace and hes trying to get you off of it.