comments on both hands are welcome. Both hands are with the same guy.

The game is 1/2 NL 9 handed

This guy will limp/call with anything. I caught him limping on the button with QQ after several limpers. I have little to no respect for his game.

hand 1

Hero has $215
Villian has 150

Hero is dealth A :heart: K :spade:
1 limp, 1 fold Hero raises to $15, Villian calls in SB, limper calls.

Flop A 6 4 rainbow (pot = $50)
Villian bet $15, limper folds, Hero raises to $50, villian raises to $90

Now I go into the tank thinking whether or not he flopped a set or 2 pair on me. It only costs $85 more to put him all-in. So I take my time and then question him a little bit.

"Got a big hand huh?" -hero
"I always have a big hand" -villian (full of confidence)

After thinking for a while I put him all-in. he drags the pot with a set of sixes.

About an hour later i have $80 and drag a big pot with pocket aces against villian in a multi-way pot. The very next hand I get these Kings!

Hero 225
Villian 195

Hero is dealt K :spade: K :diamond: in the BB
The entire table limps!
I make it $20 on top
Villian calls in LP (as I knew he would with anything)
button calls

Flop 7 :diamond: 4 :club: 7 :club: (pot is ~$75)
Hero raises to $50, Villian pushes, button folds

I'm thinking about this for a bit. Does he actually have the 7? maybe... he could have 44.

Villian lifts his had allowing his surrounding players to see. I find this strange but don't know what to make of it. I ask him "did you flop a set on me again?" and he does not respond. Finally after a while he tells me to hurry. I tell him to call a cloak on me if he wants me to hurry. He doesn't call the cloak. It is $125 more to me to call. Call or fold?

I say "If you called $20 with a naked 7 and hit trips then I'm paying you off. I call!"
Like it?

I don't like the AK hand, I like the KK hand...

OK, now I can go more in depth. Last night I was playing 4 tables and researching sports bets lol..

On the AK hand.

His re-raise to 90 is basically a min-raise (35 was min, he raised 40).. This just looks like a line that he has to have a set or two pair. Is he doing this with AQ?

Also, the other reason I hate the push is because if he does have AQ you are giving him another opportunity to fold. If you're beat he always calls, and if you're behind you give him a chance to let the hand go while drawing very slim.

On the KK hand.. You're being laid 3:1.25, and he could be doing this with 88-QQ in addition to the trip 7's... I think you have to pay it off.


Also FYI, it's called a clock not a cloak. And you don't raise when you are the first to put chips in the pot post-flop, you bet.

The first one is just a tough break.

The second one...
I'm not gonna slug it out with a slugger, unless I improve on the flop.

This guy is a maniac from what you have described - you can't blast him out of the pot! You have to trap him.

Control the pot size when you are up against a guy like that, and try to get cheap or free cards.

Or, push preflop if you are holding weight.

The first one is just a tough break.

The second one...
I'm not gonna slug it out with a slugger, unless I improve on the flop.

This guy is a maniac from what you have described - you can't blast him out of the pot! You have to trap him.

Control the pot size when you are up against a guy like that, and try to get cheap or free cards.

Or, push preflop if you are holding weight.

Your folding KK there??? Against a MANIAC???

And you aren't folding the AK?

Are you serious?

TPTK against a maniac is a good hand, no?
He improved on the flop....you would fold that Cuse?

From what I gather this guy is a D.Negreneu on Fridays, if you know what I mean...Meaning a maniac preflop, but post flop it's nothing short of the goods.

Joe, what happened in the second hand...

TPTK against a maniac is a good hand, no?
He improved on the flop....you would fold that Cuse?

From what I gather this guy is a D.Negreneu on Fridays, if you know what I mean...Meaning a maniac preflop, but post flop it's nothing short of the goods.

Joe, what happened in the second hand...

Party Day! LOL! But even maniacs and DN on Fridays aren't putting in that extra raise w/out having TPTK beat. (This brings up another topic I'll make a separate post about)... And pushing is the worst strategy here because if they somehow are going nuts with like AQ, it takes a big, huge, bright red flag that says "Your Ace is NO good" and waves it in their face. Then it beats them in the head with it, and shoves it down their throat.

In other words, we pay off sets and two pair, and let weak aces off.

We're much stronger on the KK hand, both because of our hand and the action so far... Given the villains action, he could have one of many drawing hands, or a weaker overpair.

And pushing is the worst strategy here because if they somehow are going nuts with like AQ, it takes a big, huge, bright red flag that says "Your Ace is NO good" and waves it in their face. Then it beats them in the head with it, and shoves it down their throat.

In other words, we pay off sets and two pair, and let weak aces off.


First hand, when Villain reraised to 90, he's pot commited either way...

Would you really fold TPTK to a reraise with that board. Not me.

You either raise or fold right there.

Villain played that hand badly IMO. Why blast Hero out of the pot with a set there. It's idiotic. That move makes all the hands except for AA, AK fold. Which means he's really only gonna catch someone holding AK. He got really lucky.

Would you really fold TPTK to a reraise with that board. Not me.

You either raise or fold right there.

Yes, I would. Tell me what hand the villain plays that way that we beat?

And then tell me what the point of raising is. What are we accomplishing with a raise?

Yes, I would. Tell me what hand the villain plays that way that we beat?

And then tell me what the point of raising is. What are we accomplishing with a raise?

He could be holding KK,QQ,JJ,Ax

Well, if you don't fold, you have to raise...What would you accomplish by calling there?

You really think he's going to weak lead and then min-raise three bet with KK-JJ?

The range I give him is two pair +. Put it this way, say you have like AT here, you bet and get raised to $50. Are you making it $90?? I sure hope not.

The reason I think I push is so bad is, once again, if he's going nuts with one of these hands you mentioned, which is highly unlikely anyway, he can fold it if we push because he knows he must have 2-3 outs. A push MINIMIZES our EV. A call still loses money IMO, and a fold is the best option.

You might be right...

This guy is kinda running over the table though...

It's a tough one.

I tend to get into it all the way when I improve on the flop againt a guy who is in every pot...

It's my chance to catch him. And if he improved better than me, so be it...
It does not happen often enough to make it hurt.

Thanks for the advice. I think Cuse is right here. The AK hand is much easier to get away from than the KK hand. Both of these hands I played terribly.

With AK there are 2 ways to play it IMO.
1) You could call the flop and raise the turn. This will get value out of AQ or AJ.
2) You could raise the flop and fold to a reraise. In this case, a raise to about 40 will tell us where we stand. If we get called on the flop we should check/fold turn and call a moderately sized bet on the river. If the river is checked to us then we make would make a value bet.

I actually folded the KK hand instead of calling the push. Which I think was a huge mistake! There is just so little that beats us. This is just a tough hand being OOP here. I think I just need to pay it off. I think the previous hand influenced me to fold here. I didn't want to stack off twice to the same guy with just a pair. Of course you can't think like that at the poker table.

BTW That was a typo (cloak instead of clock). Been playing WoW too much I guess

I thought maybe you were trying to put a weird British accent on clock lol...

On the KK hand, I think his range has to be:

56, flush draw, 55+, air some percentage of the time between 10 and 20..

Great Evaluation CUSE. Perfect.