First - the image of the villain. This guy was playing 56/48/20 over about 40 hands, had a stack of about $2500 and obviously very aggressive. He was potting about 3/4 of flops regardless of the number of players or the flop texture (my perception at least).

He obviously got check raised fairly often on the flop and folded most of the time.

Leading up to this hand, I had 4-bet/called off a 100bb stack preflop against him with QQT9ss after I attempted to isolate a limper and he repopped me... he did happen to have KK83ds and held against me. I then rebought for another $200 and worked it up to $425 without showdown basically by playing fit or fold against the aggressor and then check/jamming the flop or turn... I guess I should mention that I also had check/raised him on a number of flops with air/blockers. He folded every time.

For this reason, he might have been getting a little annoyed with my check/raises...

Villain (CO): ~$2500
Me (SB): ~$425

Villain raises to $8, I call in SB with 4678ss

Flop is 246 rainbow

I check/raise villain's pot sized bet to $60. He calls.

Turn: K, putting two hearts on the board (I have none).

There's $140 in the pot, and I have $360ish behind.

Hero??

If he has AA hes not callin the turn, it will be a fold or shove. Even if he has a set hes going to let you do the betting based on your history....... if you check turn and river is 9 or higher, surely he will pot the river which puts you in a tough spot.

history tells us he has been folding to your c-bets/check raises, $90bet on the turn should give you enough info to make a river decision if he calls. checkin might as well be folding in this spot, and it seems there is c-bet value vs this opponent... 3/4 pot on turn seems correct.

bet 101 re eval on river. If raised on turn, I might still get it in.

well by c/rsing the flop were declaring that we dont really care about sets/straights in villains range much right?

so if he stabs a lot at weakness im might go for a 2nd c/r here (given the history which probably makes him think that there is air/weakish hands in ur c/rsing range, especially on boards like these which are great to attack)

Ok so the suggestions are bet/call, bet/fold and check/raise.

I was more in the check/raise camp because I felt that my hand was good a majority of the time and didn't want to take a chance of being in an awfully awkward spot oop to a maniac in a huge pot with a marginal hand on the river.

Still feels a bit odd to try to get my stack in this deep with middle 2 pair.

Should we be considering the future value of potentially doubling our stack here against a maniac who will still have us covered (and thus can double us again).

Check-raising the flop this deep OOP with top two vs a loose-aggro maniac doesn't seem like a very good idea. I would much prefer to either chk-call and let him barrel or lead.

As played you absolutely have to bet the turn though (I would make it 120) and I would probably vomit and fold to a shove on the turn depending on how much of a maniac he had been.

gavs... In general, I agree with you... because we end up in situations exactly like this one. But given the history with the villain and the fact that he was actually folding regularly to check/raises, you still think it is a bad idea to check/raise the flop?

If he barrels flop, and you check/call:
1. What is your turn play given the Kh came on the turn?
2. Depending on your turn play - what are you doing on the river?

I just can't really see how going into call-down mode against this guy's pot-pot-pot betting lines is going to make life any easier...

JJ, it just depends what kind of maniac the guy is. Some people will just pot, pot, pot regardless of board texture and obviously the best strategy against these guys is to go bluff-catching.

So, in the hand in question I would definitely be calling the turn bet when the Kh turns up as now he can simply be betting any heart draw, any straight draw from the flop, any king etc...

River gets more tricky but I would be prepared to call down on a good proportion of the deck. And sometimes you look stupid and you have to be prepared for that but sometimes you look like a frickin genius and hopefully he goes on monkey tilt.

This sort of call-down strategy is only effective if the guy is just mindlessly aggro but if he is actually a thinking LAG then I much prefer leading the flop to see how he is going to react to my leads (if he just gives them no respect then I would start only leading strong made hands and strong draws).

The problem with your line against a thinking LAG is he may well just float your flop raise with garbage and shove any kind of any pair/draw he gets on the turn or even a worse two-pair thinking he has the best hand. Our hand is so weak and only ever barely ahead of whatever he has anyway that I don't think you can call a turn shove if you factor in the time you are beat and WAY WAY behind.