How do you play against a pushing maniac??

M

megl

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OK, here's a situation I would like some comments on. Warning: This post is a bit long, but please take your time to read and comment. What would you have done, do you think I handled this situation optimally?

So, I'm playing 4 tables at 5NL cash at pokerstars, after a while at one of my table I notice a freak maniac. The guy is going all-in preflop more than half the time, showing up very mediocre hands.
I have 50 hands on him in my HEM and his PFR% is 53 and all his preflop raises are all-in. When he looses a hand he just reloads to max buyin (which at these tables is 250bb = $12.50) and keeps going.

Question 1:
So I figure, if he pushes his top 50% range preflop, it's profitable for me to call with, say, top 45% of my hands, correct? (of course, at the table I add some safety margin, calling with maybe just top 25%). Assume I'm the only one willing to call him, which was actually the case.

Next, I look him up in player search and notice he's playing like 8 tables. So I join some more tables where he is sitting (and leave some of the regular TAGs-and-weaktights-tables I'm playing) just to play some hands against him because I smell profit and fun at the same time (does it get any better than that??:p )

Question 2:
Considering his playing style, it should be more profitable for me to seek the tables he's at, just to call his maniac pushes with my good hands that are ahead of his range, than spending the time grinding against a table half full of TAG regs, would you agree?

So before he logs off, during a period of 20 minutes or so, I get to play 8 hands all-in preflop against him. His stack size for each hand is between $2 and $12, for most of the hands somewhere in the middle. My stack size always max (=$12.50) because I reload often. The hands are listed below (for all the listed hands, my cards are the first ones listed).
Hand 1: All-in preflop - A6o vs 9Jo
Hand 2: All-in preflop - A2o vs 89s
Hand 3: All-in preflop - ATo vs 33
Hand 4: All in preflop - AQo vs Q9s
Hand 5: All-in preflop - TT vs A9o
Hand 6: All-in preflop - ATs vs Q3o
Hand 7: All-in preflop - A6s vs Q6o
Hand 8: All-in preflop - JJ vs T8o

Question 3: If I play these 8 hands against him all-in preflop, let's just to make the math easier say that our average stack size per hand is $8 (= the pot is $16 in each hand) and an average stack size of, say $8 for each hand, what is my total expected value for these 8 hands? (Yes, I worked it through PokerStove myself, but would be nice to have a second opinion as to whether I got it right)

Question 4: All things considered, would you agree that my tactics against him should be profitable, and would you have played it differently?

No more questions for now, just a bit of whining at the end. Here are the results:
Hand 1: I lost when he hit a 9 on the turn
Hand 2: I lost when he hit a runner-runner flush on the river
Hand 3: I flop a pair of tens but he flops set and wins
Hand 4: we both miss the flop but he turns a 9 and wins
Hand 5: we both miss the flop but he catches 4 to a flush on the turn and wins with his ace
Hand 6: I win with an ace on the board
Hand 7: None of us connect and I win
Hand 8: He doesn't connect and I win
In the end, it cost me a couple of bucks (or a significant amount of BBs) playing this guy tonight. Is it just that damn variance and I should get compassion from all of you, or did I play like a moron and I should play lotto instead? :confused:
 
acky100

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Seems like you played it right, just bad variance yep, keep following this guy around
 
Colbefc

Colbefc

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I agree with exactly what you said you thought you
should do call his maniac
pushes when you have a a better than average hand
and in the long run you will win, he is gonna win some
hands but if you only call with better than average hands
in the end there is only one winner, you :)

maniacs are annoying to play against but are
profitable and i would always prefer a maniac
at my table than TAG regs any day

I love playing against maniacs and I play at PS, I
wish you had told us his name :)
 
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megl

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I intentionally did NOT reveal the maniac's alias as my intent was not to scoff him in public, merely to get a second opinion on my own play. Wouldn't it be out of line revealing the nicks of percieved 'bad' players in the public forums, you think? Are there any forum rules about this?
 
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TorreyB

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If the maniac's VPIP was around the same amount as his PFR I would have played J9+ and better against him. Your first two hands (and possibly hand seven) should have been folded preflop, your kicker is too low.

I might have played against this guy at 10NL about 10 days ago. He was completely insane, and just kept reloading. In the end I took $45 of his money. It had to make me look pretty cool to new comers when I'm sitting there with a stack of $60 and they sit with $10.
 
Colbefc

Colbefc

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I was only asking for the maniacs name in jest,
I am sure he would be easy to find if i really wanted to ,
sorry if this
annoyed you :confused:
 
M

megl

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I
sorry if this
annoyed you :confused:
Not annoyed at all :) but you know, I'm still new here so I'm just trying to get a feel for the tone and do's/don'ts of this forum. You can PM me if you want to know the nick :D
 
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