playing vs maniac who 3bets a lot

Hello SPeedFANat1c

I have moved your hand to the hand discussion board.
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Cheers,
SDK1987

The problem is that vs loose aggressive fish you start to play loose aggressive yourself. Don't open wider range than you normally do. I know it is frustrating to play vs this kind of fish and I have had problems myself too. Vs 3bet K9o would be a standard fold. Now when you think of this, his 3bet range is very wide but what do you expect to win with K9o? He can still easily dominate you and you just end up losing big pots. And your flop raise is just stupid. He will not fold and that board hits his maniac range hard. Wait until you get a good hand and then go for it.

K9 doesnt look good to open vs loose even from button. Why play fire against fire? You dont need to make hero play vs such guys to win. You will get frustrated and dried out after 30% of your daily volume and will not play A game for rest of the day or even longer.

IP you should gradually expand your 3b calling range.
You should 4b bluff too.
When bluffing, don't fall in love with your hand untill you flop good.

You should not automatically assume that villain is bad because he is loose and aggressive.

Very good players can easily play this way (especially at NL10) on the early streets and much have the best of it. They are your nightmare opponents, not fish. Don't try to beat those players on their home turf.

If he is bad, well, play the value of your cards, and you'll automatically come out on top. This means that you shouldn't bloat the pot with trash. Let him do that. You can call somewhat wider in general, but don't raise with mediocre value hands.

I wouldn't raise K9o here. Why do this while you can get way more value against a LAG with many better hands?
As played, I do like the raise OTF since it is wet and many hands in villain's range can scare him off. The shove was indeed a fold.

Raising flop is everything but good here vs a maniac. We should flop strong and then take his money.

seems like you are the one getting outplayed by this guy, even in the case that he doesnt have a clue what hes doing

Originally posted by Tomaloc
seems like you are the one getting outplayed by this guy, even in the case that he doesnt have a clue what hes doing

Those of you having played much FL will recognize this: A total maniac that bets and raises at every opportunity every time he enters the pot (60% or so), except on the river (where he doesn't reraise), is a much more difficult opponent than a loose-passive fish. Hard to believe, but this is the case, especially when shorthanded. This applies to some extent to NL as well.

Didn't read the other comments. But if he's a maniac I'm happy to muck K9o preflop. It's not in my standard opening range anyways and (I think) game-theory wise also a fold, unless the blinds are very tight.

As played you have the salad postflop, you hit a little piece and all you can do is...
1) raise --> he plays back anyways, so what now?
2) call --> he will fire any turn, no matter what --> you have to fold
3) fold --> you give up on your equity, but you are not losing more than you have to

Weighting these options against each other I would say, just fold the flop vs. this guy, unless he cbets a lot on the flop but gives up a lot on the turn too. In general I would also advice to play just tighter than usual and very straightforward. What these guys are able to do is to put everyone on tilt, easily, so don't let yourself fall victim of that

But if he's a maniac I'm happy to muck K9o preflop.

What is your range to open then? 22 % even from BTN?

he plays back anyways, so what now?

maybe he will not be able to play back often enough?

Lemon said in coaching vs maniacs to open 10-15 % tighter, so if I open in BTN 45 % vs fish as standard, then from 45 %, I am not sure what he meant - 85-90 % from 45%, or just 45- 10 or 15 = 35 or 30 %.
So if 45 % is 100%. then 90 % is like 40 %.

But anyway K9o even in 30 % range exists or need to somehow modify the range what equilab suggessts -

55+, A2s+, K5s+, Q7s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, A7o+, A5o, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o