$5 NLHE 6-max: Two Hands vs. Maniac

Villian Stats (VPIP/PFR/AF): 73/14/1

I usually do not play that way but... Villain started calling and betting with almost any hand, especially if he made any kind of pair OTF. No matter if it was the lowest on board. He lost many hands - won a few. So I started waiting for TPGK hands to come and kept firing after hitting the flop with TPGK or TPTK as long as no obvious danger was in sight. Seeing things through my fish-eyes (-3BB, 23k hands) I am wondering if I am overlooking something here (except for the Q in Hand 2) or if both plays were right under the given circumstances and the almost 2BI loss within two consecutive (argh!) hands at that table was an ugly occurence of variance aka bad luck.

Really bad month so far. 3.5k hands (two tables mostly). 6BI down despite the fact that I had many good sessions where I was satisfied with my game. Improved a lot recently, things seem to be coming together in theory but the numbers tell me something different and seem to be screaming "Stop Poker!"


Full Tilt - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: $5.96 (VPIP: 15.00, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 120)
BB: $7.26 (VPIP: 16.84, PFR: 11.05, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 197)
UTG: $14.39 (VPIP: 49.53, PFR: 36.45, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 107)
MP: $4.22 (VPIP: 72.32, PFR: 16.96, 3Bet Preflop: 1.64, Hands: 114)
CO: $6.15 (VPIP: 46.22, PFR: 5.04, 3Bet Preflop: 4.84, Hands: 120)
Hero (BTN): $7.31

SB posts SB $0.02, BB posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.07) Hero has Q:spade: A:heart:

UTG raises to $0.15, MP calls $0.15, fold, Hero calls $0.15, fold, fold

Flop: ($0.52, 3 players) A:club: 5:spade: 5:heart:
UTG bets $0.15, MP raises to $0.30, Hero raises to $0.75, fold, MP calls $0.45

Turn: ($2.17, 2 players) 6:spade:
MP bets $0.56, Hero raises to $1.50, MP raises to $2.44, Hero raises to $3.38, MP calls $0.88 and is all-in

River: ($8.81, 2 players) 9:club:



2nd hand: The Q on the river would usually definetly be the time at which I'd let that hand go but his play was beyond any sort of calculation at that time. But one might say that his behaviour also made me kind of tilt, greedy and blind to see and think about that Q properly...

Full Tilt - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: $5.94 (VPIP: 14.52, PFR: 6.45, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 124)
MP: $7.19 (VPIP: 16.49, PFR: 10.82, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 201)
CO: $15.48 (VPIP: 50.91, PFR: 38.18, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 111)
BTN: $7.07 (VPIP: 72.41, PFR: 16.38, 3Bet Preflop: 1.56, Hands: 118)
SB: $5.95 (VPIP: 45.53, PFR: 4.88, 3Bet Preflop: 4.62, Hands: 124)
Hero (BB): $5.00

SB posts SB $0.02, Hero posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.07) Hero has A:diamond: J:club:

fold, fold, fold, BTN calls $0.05, SB calls $0.03, Hero raises to $0.20, BTN calls $0.15, fold

Flop: ($0.45, 2 players) J:heart: 8:spade: 7:spade:
Hero bets $0.30, BTN calls $0.30

Turn: ($1.05, 2 players) 5:club:
Hero bets $1.00, BTN calls $1.00

River: ($3.05, 2 players) Q:club:
Hero bets $3.00, BTN calls $3.00

I'm 100% comfortable with how you're playing both hands, with one small exception: second hand should be b/f on river, so I'd advocate betting ~1.5

-9.72 instead of 16.97 this is the result of both rivers for this villain, and that´s why this kind of players keep playing, i´m sure he didn´t care about the river both hands, first hand he was happy with his top pair (Aces) he didn´t care about kicker (does he know what is that? no , not reallly) then he is allin and after the river lift him and gave him a nine saver, second hand similar story, he hit an eight so he has a pair, therefore he is not longer worry about what the opponent´s cards could be, no he is sure he is going to take the pot with his eights, then the same story: the river saved him again, but for him it was an additional, a part of his game, that´s the way plays and wins, if hits something on the flop he is going to win it, that´s the end of story, and that´s the kind of players put on tilt the rest of us

i just lost aces in a similar fashion, the villain limped i raised 6x (against 3 limpers), everybody folds but him, the flop came T-Q-3, and he doubled the pot, knowing that he had hit the flop i shove he paid, the river brought another T as he carried the pot with him showing T-7o (maybe the same guy)

I think both hands look fine. You may want to 3-bet hand 1 to try and ISO the UTG fish. But with two fish in... call is ok.

First hand pre Id raise to maybe 70-80c as I think they are both terrible players and will call you with a lot of hands you have dominated. This makes it easier to GII later on. Post flop is very read dependent so I would say its fine.
Second hand Pre and on flop is great. Turn id bet a little smaller like 70c as a pot sized bet looks very strong at micros. River again I would bet smaller, about 1/2 - 2/3 pot to give him an opportunity to call with hands you beat such as worse jacks, 8s and maybe 7s. Also you risk less money if he raises and you have to b/f. However, if you know villain will call your pot sized bets with middle pair as he did then the play is perfect. This situation is very read dependent as I mentioned. I think you played both fine.

Thanks guys! Especially for the advice about b/f on river.