PAHWM - $1/$3 AKo IP against maniac in straddled pot (1 Viewer)

[Legend5555]

My typical $1/$3 $10 rake private game.

Relevant villains:

HJ (Stack $700) - Maniac. 65-70% VPIP. Straddles 20-25% of his hands. Raises blind pre flop. Continues on flop with almost any draw or piece especially heads up. Hero has played with him twice and usually gets the better of him.

Hero CO (Stack $1100) - Hero is down on the session and in for $1500. Hero is sticking it out because the button straddler is a whale that is is sitting on almost $4k having hit every hand he needed to.

UTG+2 (Stack $155) - Never played with him before. Pretty typical loose 1/3 player. Not creative and spazzes for seeming no reason from time to time.

Button Straddles to $9.
4 limps to Hero in the CO with and raises to $75. Big sizing as players are typically calling very wide.
Button whale folds.
Folds to UTG+2 who calls of ~50% of his stack.
HJ calls.

Pot ~$250

Flop:

Checks to Hero.

HERO?

 

[Kain8]

Happily check behind. If you lead and get smacked by the maniac, you leave some good equity behind. Unless you really want to go to war and shove over a maniac check-raise.

 

[Moxie Mike]

So the HJ has ~$625 behind?

HERO's action is depending on whether he's willing to stack off or not. If HERO is willing to stack off on the flop or turn, then barrel away for $200 and hope to induce two folds. HERO has between 4 and 10 outs guaranteed if the hand goes to showdown.

If HERO is unwilling to play for stacks here, then checking back is the best play. There are a lot of favorable turn cards - any A, K, J, or card that pairs the board is good for HERO's hand/position.

HJ (Stack $700) - Maniac. 65-70% VPIP. Straddles 20-25% of his hands. Raises blind pre flop. Continues on flop with almost any draw or piece especially heads up. Hero has played with him twice and usually gets the better of him.

HERO didn't say anything about Villain's post-flop tendencies with respect to being OOP against a PF raiser. Does he automatically check this flop 100% of the time in this situation? Or is he capable of donk-betting?

So whether to bet here pretty much depends on HERO's fold equity from the main villain. If HERO thinks there's a decent chance Villain folds to a $200 bet, then fire away. But if he's as sticky as described, a check back is probably more appropriate.

 

[Legend5555]

So the HJ has ~$625 behind?

HERO's action is depending on whether he's willing to stack off or not. If here is willing to stack off on the flop or turn, then barrel away for $200 and hope to induce two folds. HERO has between 4 and 10 outs guaranteed if the hand goes to showdown.

If HERO is unwilling to play for stacks here, then checking back is the best play. There are a lot of favorable turn cards - any A, K, J, or card that pairs the board is good for HERO's hand/position.



HERO didn't say anything about Villain's post-flop tendencies with respect to being OOP against a PF raiser. Does he automatically check this flop 100% of the time in this situation? Or is he capable of donk-betting?

So whether to bet here pretty much depends on HERO's fold equity from the main villain. If HERO thinks there's a decent chance Villain folds to a $200 bet, then fire away. But if he's as sticky as described, a check back is probably more appropriate.

He didn't tend to go absolute crazy raising with like gutters or bottom pair etc. He's just very laggy pre. He's also not an idiot and is aware in a tighter player and generally have strong ranges.

 

[Moxie Mike]

He didn't tend to go absolute crazy raising with like gutters or bottom pair etc. He's just very laggy pre. He's also not an idiot and is aware in a tighter player and generally have strong ranges.

So it's a line where you're either barrelling the flop and the turn regardless or you're checking back. The short stacked opponent is also a minor issue. I'd probably check back this flop.

 

[Legend5555]

Part 2

My typical $1/$3 $10 rake private game.

Relevant villains:

HJ (Stack $700) - Maniac. 65-70% VPIP. Straddles 20-25% of his hands. Raises blind pre flop. Continues on flop with almost any draw or piece especially heads up. Hero has played with him twice and usually gets the better of him.

Hero CO (Stack $1100) - Hero is down on the session and in for $1500. Hero is sticking it out because the button straddler is a whale that is is sitting on almost $4k having hit every hand he needed to.

UTG+2 (Stack $155) - Never played with him before. Pretty typical loose 1/3 player. Not creative and spazzes for seeming no reason from time to time.

Button Straddles to $9.
4 limps to Hero in the CO with and raises to $75. Big sizing as players are typically calling very wide.
Button whale folds.
Folds to UTG+2 who calls of ~50% of his stack.
HJ calls.

Pot ~$250

Flop:

Checks to Hero.

Hero bets $80.

More than willing to get it in against the short stack. And while the maniac is a maniac, I don't really see him check raising here a ton and he have decent equity but need some protection against J9, KJ, 89, 78, etc.

UTG+2 folds.
HJ calls.

Pot $410
Eff stack: $545

Turn:

HJ checks.

HERO?

 

[Legend5555]

Part 3

My typical $1/$3 $10 rake private game.

Relevant villains:

HJ (Stack $700) - Maniac. 65-70% VPIP. Straddles 20-25% of his hands. Raises blind pre flop. Continues on flop with almost any draw or piece especially heads up. Hero has played with him twice and usually gets the better of him.

Hero CO (Stack $1100) - Hero is down on the session and in for $1500. Hero is sticking it out because the button straddler is a whale that is is sitting on almost $4k having hit every hand he needed to.

UTG+2 (Stack $155) - Never played with him before. Pretty typical loose 1/3 player. Not creative and spazzes for seeming no reason from time to time.

Button Straddles to $9.
4 limps to Hero in the CO with and raises to $75. Big sizing as players are typically calling very wide.
Button whale folds.
Folds to UTG+2 who calls of ~50% of his stack.
HJ calls.

Pot ~$250

Flop:

Checks to Hero.

Hero bets $80.

More than willing to get it in against the short stack. And while the maniac is a maniac, I don't really see him check raising here a ton and he have decent equity but need some protection against J9, KJ, 89, 78, etc.

UTG+2 folds.
HJ calls.

Pot $410
Eff stack: $545

Turn:

HJ checks.
HERO decides villain is likely not folding anything on this turn card that he called with on the flop. SPR is also awkward and makes triple barreling pretty difficult. HERO decides to check and evaluate the river.

River:

HJ bets $165.

HERO?

 

[Legend5555]

I thought this hand might get a little more traction than this. Oh well.

 

[warma]

I’m watching, but not feeling the hand. Your straight didn’t show and there’s a pair on the board that’s reasonable for a lot of maniac hands. There are too many ways to lose this hand. I put maniac on three of a kind, at least, and they’re excited to break you and take revenge for the earlier losses thinking you missed your hand. You’ve thrown in $155, that’s enough for me you less you want to up your gambler image.

 

[Frogzilla]

Have to call at this price I think. He’s got air enough.

 

[Moxie Mike]

I thought this hand might get a little more traction than this. Oh well.

This is a weird post to comment a lot on because there's a variable missing - the read on your main villain. You described him as a 'maniac' with a VPIP in the 70% range but the line he's taken is not what we'd expect from a 'maniac'. Maniacs typically try odd bluffs and bet in incongruent, confusing sizing. Villain's line here is more of a loose/passive player rather than someone who's excessively aggressive.

What makes him a maniac? Has he tabled weird bluffs that were uncalled? Shown down some thin holdings, etc.?

As told, this thread is really about what to do with AK when it doesn't connect with the board... and that almost always comes down to reads on the opponent, odds being laid, etc.

Have to call at this price I think. He’s got air enough.

Getting 3.5:1 on a call is tempting. It seems like if he was bluffing he'd bet more though having been described as a 'maniac'? If villain has a propensity to stab at pots like this, in this manner, then a call is fine. But this really feels like a value bet. Villain limp/called pre and c/ced the flop. Q-10 feels like a real possibility.
If there's merit to 'keeping him honest' from a metagame standpoint that I'd probably lean toward a call. It's certainly an appropriate 'advertising' play. I'd probably fold though - I just don't think AK shows down a winner often enough as described.

So how did this turn out?

 

[grebe]

My typical $1/$3 $10 rake private game.

Relevant villains:

HJ (Stack $700) - Maniac. 65-70% VPIP. Straddles 20-25% of his hands. Raises blind pre flop. Continues on flop with almost any draw or piece especially heads up. Hero has played with him twice and usually gets the better of him.

Hero CO (Stack $1100) - Hero is down on the session and in for $1500. Hero is sticking it out because the button straddler is a whale that is is sitting on almost $4k having hit every hand he needed to.

UTG+2 (Stack $155) - Never played with him before. Pretty typical loose 1/3 player. Not creative and spazzes for seeming no reason from time to time.

Button Straddles to $9.
4 limps to Hero in the CO with and raises to $75. Big sizing as players are typically calling very wide.
Button whale folds.
Folds to UTG+2 who calls of ~50% of his stack.
HJ calls.

Pot ~$250

Flop:

Checks to Hero.

HERO?

Short stack is an issue. If we hit a pair, v we are happy to get him in. If we bet anything and he shoves we are forced to call it off with most likely the worst of it.

I would check this flop as much as it pains me.

 

[grebe]

Part 2

My typical $1/$3 $10 rake private game.

Relevant villains:

HJ (Stack $700) - Maniac. 65-70% VPIP. Straddles 20-25% of his hands. Raises blind pre flop. Continues on flop with almost any draw or piece especially heads up. Hero has played with him twice and usually gets the better of him.

Hero CO (Stack $1100) - Hero is down on the session and in for $1500. Hero is sticking it out because the button straddler is a whale that is is sitting on almost $4k having hit every hand he needed to.

UTG+2 (Stack $155) - Never played with him before. Pretty typical loose 1/3 player. Not creative and spazzes for seeming no reason from time to time.

Button Straddles to $9.
4 limps to Hero in the CO with and raises to $75. Big sizing as players are typically calling very wide.
Button whale folds.
Folds to UTG+2 who calls of ~50% of his stack.
HJ calls.

Pot ~$250

Flop:

Checks to Hero.

Hero bets $80.

More than willing to get it in against the short stack. And while the maniac is a maniac, I don't really see him check raising here a ton and he have decent equity but need some protection against J9, KJ, 89, 78, etc.

UTG+2 folds.
HJ calls.

Pot $410
Eff stack: $545

Turn:

HJ checks.

HERO?

I check. No reason to bet here that I can see. Are we getting a queen to fold? Do we really want to bluff AK?

 

[grebe]

Part 3

My typical $1/$3 $10 rake private game.

Relevant villains:

HJ (Stack $700) - Maniac. 65-70% VPIP. Straddles 20-25% of his hands. Raises blind pre flop. Continues on flop with almost any draw or piece especially heads up. Hero has played with him twice and usually gets the better of him.

Hero CO (Stack $1100) - Hero is down on the session and in for $1500. Hero is sticking it out because the button straddler is a whale that is is sitting on almost $4k having hit every hand he needed to.

UTG+2 (Stack $155) - Never played with him before. Pretty typical loose 1/3 player. Not creative and spazzes for seeming no reason from time to time.

Button Straddles to $9.
4 limps to Hero in the CO with and raises to $75. Big sizing as players are typically calling very wide.
Button whale folds.
Folds to UTG+2 who calls of ~50% of his stack.
HJ calls.

Pot ~$250

Flop:

Checks to Hero.

Hero bets $80.

More than willing to get it in against the short stack. And while the maniac is a maniac, I don't really see him check raising here a ton and he have decent equity but need some protection against J9, KJ, 89, 78, etc.

UTG+2 folds.
HJ calls.

Pot $410
Eff stack: $545

Turn:

HJ checks.
HERO decides villain is likely not folding anything on this turn card that he called with on the flop. SPR is also awkward and makes triple barreling pretty difficult. HERO decides to check and evaluate the river.

River:

HJ bets $165.

HERO?

Villain fixed our spr problem. Easy shove.

 

[grebe]

I thought this hand might get a little more traction than this. Oh well.

Sorry, I was off work and busting my ass getting ready for family. Not my usual sit on my ass and surf the net at work week.

 

[grebe]

Villain fixed our spr problem. Easy shove.

I misread the thread. I fold.

 

[Legend5555]

What makes him a maniac? Has he tabled weird bluffs that were uncalled? Shown down some thin holdings, etc.?

Maybe I'm using maniac a bit wide here. But he will both raise junk and limp junk, but will mostly raise his strong hands. His PFR% is fairly high. Like half of his VPIP range. He also raises blind and calls blind pre at least once ever couple of orbits. He will rarely fold anything pre once he has put any chips in unless it's like 4 bet when it gets back to him. He will pretty much always bluff with air if given any sort of green light post flop, especially heads up.

He is capable of floating flops with gutters and any pair. I've not often seen him raise flops with worse than 8 outs, but he's def capable. Biggest reason I don't see this though is that heads up flops are rare in this game. Though he seems way less likely to do it against me specifically because he sees me as very tight.

 

[Legend5555]

I decided at the price I was being laid and the fact that he can just have what I think is all the KJ and J9, and some 87 and 98, that I was working to try and bluff catch.

I called. He showed KJ.

Bonus in the psychological game was that he just couldn't believe it or understand why.

I still haven't actually crunched the numbers given my range for him (which includes lots of Qs and Ts) whether this call was actually correct or not. But I figure if he has 28 bluff combos, it probably isn't that bad to call if it even is getting the price I was getting.

 

[Frogzilla]

I decided at the price I was being laid and the fact that he can just have what I think is all the KJ and J9, and some 87 and 98, that I was working to try and bluff catch.

I called. He showed KJ.

Bonus in the psychological game was that he just couldn't believe it or understand why.

I still haven't actually crunched the numbers given my range for him (which includes lots of Qs and Ts) whether this call was actually correct or not. But I figure if he has 28 bluff combos, it probably isn't that bad to call if it even is getting the price I was getting.

quizzical looks after successful hero calls, that’s one of the best feelings

I wonder if he had misread you as too nitty post and that’s more of the surprise. Nut no pair isn’t wild for that sizing