Diagnose: Maniac
For some reason, I wasn’t in the mood to play heads up last night. So instead, I opened up a 6 max table instead.
Folding pretty soon became really, really boring. I even 2-tabled for about a half hour, but that only made it worse.
I suddenly got the craving for action again. Excellent, now I know what to do next time…
There happened to be very little action at the heads up tables, so I sat down at an empty table and waited.
Didn’t have to wait long before an unknown sat down with a full stack. Game on.
First hand I standard opened from the button with [K8o]. I’d hardly released the ‘Raise’ button before he threw a 3-bet back in my face. Hmm – okay, he has a hand. I fold.
Next hand, I had [JJ]:
Cassava Poker $0.15/$0.30 No Limit Hold’em – 2 players – View hand 415998
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): $29.10
BTN/SB: $30.90
Pre Flop: ($0.45) Hero is BB with J
J
BTN/SB calls $0.15, Hero raises to $0.90, BTN/SB calls $0.60
Flop: ($1.80) 4
3 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $0.90, BTN/SB raises to $1.80, Hero raises to $7.11, BTN/SB calls $5.31
Turn: ($16.02) 5
(2 players)
Hero bets $21.09, BTN/SB calls $21.09
River: ($58.20) 3 (2 players)
Final Pot: $58.20
Hero shows J J
BTN/SB shows 6 4
Hero wins $57.70
(Rake: $0.50)
—
I had a durrr moment:
WTF? 64? suited? Sweet!
I could see where this was going, so naturally a new deal could only happen too late.
[97o] : I raise, he min-raises. I fold. Perfect, three hands in, and I knew exactly what this guy was all about.
The trick to playing a maniac is to change gears immediately. Then breathe. Then go to war.
You do NOT want to get sucked into his world and start playing loose from the button or reraise with mediocre hands. There’s just no point.
Against a maniac, I find my tightest image and put it on: I limp a lot from the button. I let him set the pace. I let him get out of line. I control the game and I pounce when the situation is right.
So we move on: I raise [Q9o] and he reraises. I fold. I’m probably ahead, but I have no way of knowing when I miss the flop and he pots it. No point in chasing, and the money will be well spent if they keep him at the table.
He takes the next three blinds.
[QTo]: I raise and as expected, he asks to dance, and I accept.
Cassava Poker $0.15/$0.30 No Limit Hold’em – 2 players – View hand 416029
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN/SB): $55.30
BB: $31.50
Pre Flop: ($0.45) Hero is BTN/SB with T Q
Hero raises to $0.90, BB raises to $2.70, Hero calls $1.80
Flop: ($5.40) 7 Q 9 (2 players)
BB bets $5.40, Hero raises to $52.60, BB calls $23.40 all in
Turn: ($63.00) K (2 players – 1 is all in)
River: ($63.00) 9 (2 players – 1 is all in)
Final Pot: $63.00
Hero shows T Q
BB shows Q J
Hero wins $31.25
BB wins $31.25
(Rake: $0.50)
—
Close shave, but that’s poker – can’t win them all.
So why the shove? He pots the flop, so I’m fairly sure he has connected with the flop. Given his nature and style, he’s just as likely to be playing a draw as a pair of something. Hell, he may even play air and plan to shove the Turn, just to push me off the hand. Whatever, I spoil his plans by going all in and making him figure it out.
Texture’s kind of rich, so there are several possible draws. I’m ahead of all, except the two possible straight flush draws, [Ts8s] and [8s6s]. If he has [AsQs] I’m really screwed (9:1 against). In fact, I’d rather see him flip over [AsKs] either, but with those two hands, I actually think he would have shoved the flop instead of just potting it, so I’m not sure I need to put them into the equation.
Hand 11: [43s]. I limp. He raises, I call. This is not as marginal a hand as it may seem. Connecting with the board will mostly be well disguised. And I excersise pot control from position, so I’m free to dump it, if uglyness happens.
Flop is [K72], none of my suits, so I fold.
He takes the next blind and I find [3s3d] on the button. I limp, he raises, I call. He pots the flop: [TJ8]. This may or may not connect to his hand – I don’t care. If he runs amok and shoves, I’m going to have a hard time to call. I fold.
Good news is that he hasn’t slowed down.
Next hand – whaddayaknow, it’s [3c3d] again! This can only be good…
Cassava Poker $0.15/$0.30 No Limit Hold’em – 2 players – View hand 416069
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN/SB): $52.50
BB: $33.62
Pre Flop: ($0.45) Hero is BTN/SB with 3 3
Hero calls $0.15, BB raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1.20
Flop: ($3.00) K 7 9 (2 players)
BB bets $1.50, Hero calls $1.50
Turn: ($6.00) 3 (2 players)
BB bets $3, Hero raises to $6, BB calls $3
River: ($18.00) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $43.50, BB calls $24.62 all in
Final Pot: $67.24
Hero shows 3 3
BB shows T T
Hero wins $67.24
—
The continuation bet screams “I HAVE A HAND, RAISE ME!”. So naturally, I don’t, but I can’t always fold the flop, that would be a giveaway.
The Turn card is of course a godsend and the rest is history.
Hand #16: I checkraise his potsize bet on an A high Flop, holding [A4]. He folds.
By now he should have had an idea of what I was up to. And maybe he had.
Very next hand he just shoves. WTF? Why’d he do that when he knows I’m gonna fold? Holding [Q2o] makes it a nobrainer anyway.
Not much happens for a couple of hands. I notice, he hasn’t reloaded for a while. I guess he’s just about broke.
I get a little frisky with [K6o]. Catch a 6 on the Turn, but he shoves, so it’s an easy fold. Like I said, I keep the decisions simple. There’s absolutely no need to get giddy with third pair.
Okay, so he tries something new and limpcheks [AKo]. I limpcheck my [42o] and he collects the blinds. Sorry, dude!
Limpfold [K4o]. Easy peasy.
Final Hand #22:
Cassava Poker $0.15/$0.30 No Limit Hold’em – 2 players – View hand 416105
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): $85.05
BTN/SB: $12.29
Pre Flop: ($0.45) Hero is BB with A 7
BTN/SB raises to $0.90, Hero calls $0.60
Flop: ($1.80) 4 A K (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $1.80, Hero raises to $3.60, BTN/SB raises to $11.39, Hero calls $7.79
Turn: ($24.58) 7 (2 players)
River: ($24.58) Q (2 players)
Final Pot: $24.58
Hero shows A 7
BTN/SB shows 9 9
Hero wins $24.08
(Rake: $0.50)
—
And that was that. He left, 5 minutes and 50 seconds after he sat down, and I was up by uhm…over two buyins.
That was nice.
/j.
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Well done. If only they all went that way. I don’t believe my nerves could handle HU.
Nice job getting his money and nice write-up, too. I don’t play heads up much, but it sounds like it’s as much psychology as anything. Well done.
HU poker is mostly psychology since you’ll both miss the flop often. It’s a game of momentum and making paper thin value bets. In short it’s a game I just don’t have the focus to play anymore! But it is extremely profitable for the 5% or so in the poker world who are skilled at it.
Ha! yeah, I wish every day was this easy. Some days they are, but as you all point out, heads up poker is about more than getting cards.
You have to be on top of things and if your head is not in the game, it’s going to get really expensive down the road.
This session, I was also lucky that the cards cooperated. Considering this was a span of 22 hands, I hit an awful lot of pocket pairs and top pair on the Flop. And then of course, the icing on the cake is the fact that he played so horribly wrong from beginning to end.
/j.