Hi there Cini4, thank you very much for posting your hand.
Now, I would like to understand why were you playing with less than 100 blinds of effective stack? If you had 100 bb effective stack you would take down a much bigger pot.
Unless you are playing short stack strategy, than forget about everything that I am saying.
You said that BB is a maniac right? Was it a regular table, I assume? Because if it were a Zoom table it would be harder to tell if the opponent is a maniac or simply a tight player overplaying. (why?
)
Ever since you decided to play with a broken stack, at lower limits such as 50 NLHE, regulars will exploit you a lot just because of the simple fact that you are not BSS (Big Stack Strategy = 100 BB at minimum). 100% of regulars these days are playing BSS, so when it comes a broken stack they are automatically classified as weak ones.
Maybe this player that you are calling
'maniac' was just a regular of the field trying to level against you or other players with broken stack at the table (except for the BB,
all the players in the table were broken stack).
So, maybe this is a good reason for even a NIT try to level and widen its range a bit, because it will create the image of "non-sense player". (perceived range).
Preflop
When it comes a limper before you and you decide to raise, go for 3.5x, 4x or 4.5x.
3 blinds is simply to cheap for the player in the BB to enter the pot for odds and so does the player in the CO who limped first and then game over, because QT will not play very well 3-handed (actually not even AA playes okay 3-handed so we don't want to give excellent odds for our opponents to call/3-bet/Squeeze).
The player in the BB 3-bets for 4x and you decided to call in position. It is okay to call here, but be aware that because this
"maniac" is out of position he could be calling more than raising for trying to trap you postflop with whatever what.
When you decide to call, no matter how maniac this player is, it still has better hands than you such as AA, KK, JJ, 99, etc; AK, AQ, AJ, A9, A8, etc; Also KQ, KJ, K9, those are hands that BB could be 3-betting in a higher frequency versus a broken stack player who commits a slight blunder of raising a limper very cheap.
Flop:
Flop comes 8QT and BB elects to make a very large c-bet out of position, probably seeking too much fold equity, since BB has a perceived range of QQ, AQ, and it is trying to represent QT (which it doesn't have).
BB betting too much is also another tell that maybe, with all due respect, the Villain in the Big Blind thought you were a recreational player/fish. Against other regulars he's never betting this volume either with its value range or bluff range.
Because you called in the button you can have T8, QT, Q8?, even 88 and TT. Given that the player in the BB commited a blunder here, polarizing its range with a strong bet (nearly 1/2 pot), I would go for a check-raise on this flop with all my value range, for protection.
The only hands we could be losing here are 88, QQ and TT, and we believe that BB would take a different line if it had those hands.
On the other hand there is a flush draw+straight draw on the flop, and many turns can end our action and put us on very extreme hard spots, when it comes another diamond, or another overcard such as A, K and J.
SO on the flop, either we decide to raise for value and protection our Two Pair types and Sets (our flush draws should not be raising here, because Villain still can have AQ and QQ on its range), or we decide to fold, which I believe would be a bigger mistake than calling.
By calling you are letting the BB to realize the equity of its bluffs very cheap, and given the SPR, it doesn't matter now if it comes another diamond or an Ace on the turn you have to go here, no matter if it comes a tomahawk missile on the turn/river!
However, when you call this flop, you are capping your range for some crazy pocket pair that is sticky to the board such as 99, JJ or you have flush draws+straight draws and is trying to float these hands on many turns/rivers that are better for BTN's range than the BB's range.
Regulars are expecting you to raise your sets and two pair here quite a few chunck of times, so when you call you almost never can represent those hands, and when it comes a turn, BB will feel free to tryna bluff you out of the pot, especially if it has some removal on tis range.
Turn:
It comes an Ace and the player in the BB elects to jam, which it doesn't make any sense at all: if BB had QQ, TT and 88, now those hands had lost a lot of value, because when Hero/BTN calls it could be calling with flush-draws and straight draws and gutters and this turn isn't the best card for bluffing, at all. Yes, by calling flop you capped your range for FD+SD or mostly "floating airs", this is what the BB thought.
On the other side, if BB had completed a straight now, it could be simply checking trying to induce you to bluff your Two Pair types and Sets AT, AQ, A8, QT, Q8, 88 and TT, AA you will have none here but BB could have some in its range. The diamond is the least of the concerns of the BB if it has a straight right now. If it jams a straight you fold all of your bluffs and BTN can/will have a lot of bluffs on a spot like this.
BB should not be jamming its sets and two pairs here under the risk of being almost drawing dead to the button's straights.
BB is seeking a ton of fold equity, but what BB forgot is that Hero/BTN is already commited to the pot, and it's not even folding TP Good Kicker here (if you had for example AQ, AJ).
Sometimes you will have any pair and a flush draw and you should call here given the SPR of the hand, because you started it only with 73 blinds?
The odds are brutal, you have to pay 14 for a pot of 42 (not including rake), so with two pair, given that BB still has a lot of flush draws of diamonds bluffs, some Jx with a diamond or two diamonds, some Kx with a diamond or two diamonds, those are possible bluffs, but only when players are both Deep Stacked (100 blinds or more).
In this scenario BB overplayed its TPTK hand, turning a value hand into a bluff on the turn, simply because it thought that BTN was a "fish", and so it lost more than 70 blinds with one stupid error.
How much is the expectation for 50 NLHE? 4 BB/100? How many hours the player in the BB will have to play, making 4 blinds out of 100, in order to recover this 70 blinds, lost in the most wildly manner? OMG a lot of hours...a lot of hours! :boring::icon_flow Who was the fish here?
You played the hand fine. Try to play with a strategy of 100 BB or more because now you could've taken a pot of 200 BB or more! It is not happening everytime such as 2 NLHE at 50 NLHE so we must take a spot like this and embrace it.
Before putting opponents into boxes and classifying them based only on recent behavior, try to see the whole picture of the table and you will discover that sometimes even players that are Rocks/NITS play very wild and aggressively: when they believe that it has edge over all other players on the table, because they showed clear signs of weakness: limping, limp-calling, over-calling, playing with broken stacks, raising in dominated spots where it clearly doesn't have range advantage, etc.
Regards;
Carlos 'Aballinamion' Barbosa
