Ak Vs Maniac Raiser

[king_tanner 84]

Hey guys, I'm a regular poster usually in off topic, and I've just started to get semi serious in my poker game. I usually play low limit nlh sng's online, and 3/6 and occasionally 6/12 limit live. I went to my local cardroom for the first time that has only 4 tables, and runs a 3/100 spread limit game, where the max buy-in is $100, but you can raise up to a $100 in chips if you have that much. From observing (I had about 45 min wait), I noticed that some of the players were extremely loose, and calling large raises ($20 to $40) with crap hands. Luckily I was seated at the more conservative of the tables, because I'm not a very loose player.Anyways, I was getting lucky most of the night, caught a few flushes, and flopped a 4 of a kind with pocket 3's, and an interesting hand came up.A guy who looked like Sylvester Stallone sat down and started raising almost every hand to $30 or $40 up from the $3 big blind. He got caught a few times making large bluffs with straight draws and no pairs. I'm in seat 1 in the BB, and it's folded to Rocky on the button in seat 8 who raises to $35 (this was the 5th hand in a row he's made a huge raise). Seat 9 calls. So I'm last to act and I look down at As Kh. I have about $300 in chips at this point, and just call.So the flop comes 9h 8h 6h. Seat 9 checks. I was almost certain Rocky in seat 8 was going to bet a large amount behind me, so I just check. And he does, he bets $100 the max amount leaving him with about $20 left behind. Seat 9 insta folds, I think about calling because I thought he was bluffing, and if I did get caught I'd still have some outs if he didn't have the Ah which he might of had, but I fold.So since I am new to this game, I was a bit intimidated, I feel I have the skills for this game, but trying to call bluffs for $100 does make me a bit nervous which is why I folded. Do you guys think I should have pushed pre-flop since "Rocky" was playing the maniac role? The other player in the hand seemed solid, so I was worried about him also. Or do you think I should have called with the K high flush draw, if he had an A high id be screwed... Tell me how I played this hand wrong.Although I was troubled by this hand, I ended up finishing about $300 up which is good because I was definitely out of my comfort zone there.

[Royal_Tour 0]

whats yoru read on seat 9? and his stack sizeif rocky is as loose as you say, and seat 9 only smooth calls the 35, (what is seat 9's stack size) thats 70 in the pot rocky has 120 left behind. I probably raise with AK here.Unless you think seat 9 is solid or rock etc.. if not, raise.

[king_tanner 84]

Seat 9 seemed like a solid player, but seat 8 was making everyone play off their game and was putting the whole table to the test.I felt like I had seat 9 beat, he seemed like the person who wouldn't be afraid to re-raise if he actually had something. So I was mainly worried about seat 8. I thought a while about raising pre flop, but ultimately decided not to. That was probably my biggest mistake.

[Royal_Tour 0]

Seat 9 seemed like a solid player, but seat 8 was making everyone play off their game and was putting the whole table to the test.I felt like I had seat 9 beat, he seemed like the person who wouldn't be afraid to re-raise if he actually had something. So I was mainly worried about seat 8. I thought a while about raising pre flop, but ultimately decided not to. That was probably my biggest mistake.

I think the hand was over before it even began. Basically u weren't willing to invest any money post flop without an A or K or Q,J,10 hitting the board.It seemed like u thought your AK was good, but you decide to just call, then check the blank board with your 2nd nut draw and 2 overs because u were confident that rocky would make a move, which he did, then u fold to that move.The moral here is i wouldnt fault you for re-popping preflop in this situation. if rocky turns over AA or KK well bad timing, but oh well.but since his range is so huge to include A,Q AJ, A,10 which we dominate. JJ, QQ, 10,10 and any other pair that didnt hit, is a coinflip or better for us. only hands that have us beat that i;m scared of are any set or the Ah with a 8,9,or 6.

[king_tanner 84]

but since his range is so huge to include A,Q AJ, A,10 which we dominate. JJ, QQ, 10,10 and any other pair that didnt hit, is a coinflip or better for us. only hands that have us beat that i;m scared of are any set or the Ah with a 8,9,or 6.

Yea the range was huge post flop after his bet which made not raising pre flop a mistake. He seemed like a guy who would make a raise with a small pocket pair so trips had me concerned, and any ace rag with a A of hearts had me concerned also. Even though I'm only home for a few more weeks (back to school), I'm going to try and play this game a few more times so I get comfortable playing these limits, and I'll likely get put in similar situations due to the extremely loose and wealthy locals. It's a s_hitty card room though, all the good ones around my area are in San Jose which is kind of a drive, but I'm just as obsessed with poker as everyone else in here lol.

[pokerinc 0]

raise pre flop. As played, you have maybe 14 outs? Probably. So it's about a flip which I'd do for a hundred, but really, the guy had made this move over and over with unspectacular holdings, if he's raising 30 to 40 I don't think I'd ever flat call him preflop. Unless you wanted to set him up w/ aces. But that's about it. I'm not super familair w/ spread. Is it 100 a street/ a bet/ what's the deal could you have re raised him another 100 on the flop or only 65? Can you re raise a hundred more to isolate on the flop or just call? Why do they have this silly game?

[mtdesmoines 3]

A guy who looked like Sylvester Stallone sat down and started raising almost every hand to $30 or $40 up from the $3 big blind. He got caught a few times making large bluffs with straight draws and no pairs. I'm in seat 1 in the BB, and it's folded to Rocky on the button in seat 8 who raises to $35 (this was the 5th hand in a row he's made a huge raise). Seat 9 calls. So I'm last to act and I look down at As Kh. I have about $300 in chips at this point, and just call.

I push back here and fold him or stack him maybe 75% of the time.

[king_tanner 84]

raise pre flop. As played, you have maybe 14 outs? Probably. So it's about a flip which I'd do for a hundred, but really, the guy had made this move over and over with unspectacular holdings, if he's raising 30 to 40 I don't think I'd ever flat call him preflop. Unless you wanted to set him up w/ aces. But that's about it. I'm not super familair w/ spread. Is it 100 a street/ a bet/ what's the deal could you have re raised him another 100 on the flop or only 65? Can you re raise a hundred more to isolate on the flop or just call? Why do they have this silly game?

For some reason in Northern California at most card rooms its against the law to have NL holdem games, I think unless its an indian casino. So that's why there is spread. So in tournaments they make the spread a ridiculous amount so people can go all in. I think at the Bay 101 Shooting Star WPT event its also spread limit, but it is no different from NL because the spread is so high. I'm pretty sure I could have raised another $100 after the flop, although that situation didn't really come up at the table, and it was my first time playing this game so I'm not 100% sure. They do have a dumb rule at the card room I was at where there could only be 3 raises, So if there is a raise from $5 to $25 to $75, and I pick up AA, I can't go all in I can only call $75. I think that rule is probably different at other places, but it seemed pretty ridiculous since in limit games its usually capped at 4 bets.Thanks for the advice guys, I thought I was making a good move by saving my money and not raising, but now I realize raising pre-flop should have been the obvious move.

[potatoman 0]

I push back here and fold him or stack him maybe 75% of the time.

[NoBBiR 0]

Had he been showing down a lot of absolute nothing hands after he bet the limit on the flop? If so I think I'd be going for broke on this flop just about every single time. You played it fine up until the flop too. I don't like to get too fancy with AK against maniacs, I wait to hit the flop and then get all of their money in. Calling a raise from a maniac preflop here is 100%, A, ok.

[tskillz187 0]

Reraise PF please. I don't really understand the game though, can you only reraise to $100? I'd probably reraise pretty big and lead out the flop hard.

[king_tanner 84]

Reraise PF please. I don't really understand the game though, can you only reraise to $100? I'd probably reraise pretty big and lead out the flop hard.

Im pretty sure I can re raise a hundred more on top of the raise. I should have done that.And every hand I saw him play was mucked except for 1 where he bluffed on the river with a straight draw and got called so he lost that 1

[sierradave 0]

Particularly important is stack sizes here. Seat 9 probably has a decent, non-premium hand and is looking to hit and then get paid by the maniac. Maniac has $120 and probably likes to gamble. If you reraise the max preflop, I pretty much guarantee that the maniac reraises his last $20 preflop. Then 9 folds, and you get to see all five cards as what will often be a 2-to-1 favorite. I say create the dead money, negate your positional disadvantage, and get the money in now.If maniac had $400, then I could see an argument for playing more cautiously, because you can't negate the positional advantage preflop by getting all the money in there, so all you're doing is revealing the strength of your hand while building a huge pot out of position.On the flop, I'm auto-calling. You're often going to be ahead, sometimes miles ahead, and you're effectively getting 2-to-1 with two cards to come. If seat 9 had come along, that would have presented a challenging decision, but as such I think you're long-term getting it in with the best of it.

[Alina 0]

Hey guys, I'm a regular poster usually in off topic, and I've just started to get semi serious in my poker game. I usually play low limit nlh sng's online, and 3/6 and occasionally 6/12 limit live. I went to my local cardroom for the first time that has only 4 tables, and runs a 3/100 spread limit game, where the max buy-in is $100, but you can raise up to a $100 in chips if you have that much. From observing (I had about 45 min wait), I noticed that some of the players were extremely loose, and calling large raises ($20 to $40) with crap hands. Luckily I was seated at the more conservative of the tables, because I'm not a very loose player.Anyways, I was getting lucky most of the night, caught a few flushes, and flopped a 4 of a kind with pocket 3's, and an interesting hand came up.A guy who looked like Sylvester Stallone sat down and started raising almost every hand to $30 or $40 up from the $3 big blind. He got caught a few times making large bluffs with straight draws and no pairs. I'm in seat 1 in the BB, and it's folded to Rocky on the button in seat 8 who raises to $35 (this was the 5th hand in a row he's made a huge raise). Seat 9 calls. So I'm last to act and I look down at As Kh. I have about $300 in chips at this point, and just call.So the flop comes 9h 8h 6h. Seat 9 checks. I was almost certain Rocky in seat 8 was going to bet a large amount behind me, so I just check. And he does, he bets $100 the max amount leaving him with about $20 left behind. Seat 9 insta folds, I think about calling because I thought he was bluffing, and if I did get caught I'd still have some outs if he didn't have the Ah which he might of had, but I fold.So since I am new to this game, I was a bit intimidated, I feel I have the skills for this game, but trying to call bluffs for $100 does make me a bit nervous which is why I folded. Do you guys think I should have pushed pre-flop since "Rocky" was playing the maniac role? The other player in the hand seemed solid, so I was worried about him also. Or do you think I should have called with the K high flush draw, if he had an A high id be screwed... Tell me how I played this hand wrong.Although I was troubled by this hand, I ended up finishing about $300 up which is good because I was definitely out of my comfort zone there.

You clearly don't.

[Shimmering Wang 1]

Reraise preflop with the dead-money in. Don't let the third player in the hand play a hand between the maniac and you for the least. And on that flop, you should beat him into the pot. He's a maniac. He has what amounts to a random hand. You have the second nut heart draw, nut no pair, and two overs if he has something stupid like 92. He could turn over top pair and still be a dog.Wang