50nl - Playing oop against maniacs

Stats so far are 83/17/5/50. I'm looking for some general tips/insight into playing against these kinds of players. See below: Am I adjusting to his play in the right ways?

Took a break after losing a few medium pots to this guy. Generally just overall tightening up PF range, isolating with hands that flop well. Giving up or bluffing on the right boards, and in general just getting the money in when I think I'm ahead.

It's extremely difficult though, even with a stronger range (that he pays no attention to), to play oop because obv you're not going to hit hands to go to war with often enough. I find myself having to c/f with hands like AK on the flop because it's a large pot and he'll usually bet on the river. I've picked up a tell too, where he overbets like 1.5x+ pot on the river with a vulnerable hand like 3rd pair.....only problem is, he's not capable of folding. And I don't have top pair/2nd pair often enough.

Is the only way to profitably play against this player:
-up the variance by calling down with Ahi, etc.
-drastically lower bluffing frequency on mid-scaryish boards


Anyway, I think. A couple hands if anyone's interested. We just went QQvAK PF 2bi deep and I don't win flips, so -EV shove for me. xP

I've lost a few of the smaller hands ones, might dig them up later.

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congrats on moving up to 50NL, the real money starts flowing there

thanks. -p

I just play TAG with an extra dose of AG. JJ+ or better preflop = raising them 6x their bet, and get it allin on the flop quite frequently. PP's and AK will be your friend here since most of their range is going to be big face cards every time. If you have top pair or overpairs I think you're good to go.

is it just me or was that second hand completely butchered

why are you trying to get tricky vs .25/.50 donkeys?

betting the turn can be fine if you know hes a station, but how can you call his minraise there then fire again on the river and then proceed to fold to his minraise there?
if you were putting him on Q3 Q4 or Q7 or A6 you would call the river? if you didnt you would fold the turn.

dont get tricky vs someone playing 83% of his hands preflop. its just standard tag

sitting out vs this guy??? you should love to have him at your table

just valuestack him those 2 hands you posted are pretty bad.

1st one ur read is that he never folds so why raise there; sounds like he is calling you with 2 overcards

2. river is really bad. c/c if you think hes bluffing or bet/call if you think thats +ev but bet folding river vs this donk who is totally out of line is off

It just seems like he bets 100% of his range on the river if checked to so no point in donkbetting unless you are 100% calling as your donkbet would have been intended to induce a raise.

otherwise c/c yields the same $ without the risk of u getting blown off your hand and can potentially offer the highest yielding play in a c/r if u think his range is that weak and will pay u off. but that would be pretty hyphy

this assumes his bet sized if checked to is similar to the size of ur donkbet

anyone who has 86 vpip i just wait for hands and bet bet bet.

play hands in position let him fire out.

the thing about guys like that who are in EVERY hand is that all it takes is ONE hand from you to stack them. So don't get involved with them until the time is right. All you need is one hand to stack them so be patient.

Thanks for the replies. Hawking's advice with upping my raise size to adapt, 6x 3-betting, etc sounds like a really good idea to me in retrospect. I'll remember it for next time.

One thing I don't think I made all that clear in the original post was that he was directly to my left. Obv I'm happy to have any player like him at the table, but I still had a lot of trouble playing against him because the main/only advantage I have is range equity, and postflop skill to a lesser extent. Position abuse is really difficult when can get it once an orbit, and at that table a few other tags to His Left were trying to isolate, etc. A couple of spots were especially tricky because I either have to give up the hand, or play back at the tags in a bloated postflop pot. Even then: Low chance of letting him into the pot once its like 3-4bet, and I still don't have position.

I think the blunt answer to my question is simply "not having position sucks". There are adjustments you can make and playing against this kind of player is obv sick sick profitable, but it will be a LOT more profitable if you can get even 1-2 seat seperation. As is, just stick to an overall tag game, valuebet. Fold early. Concede the small pots because you know he won't be giving up the big ones. Fox's points about just being patient are really all there is to it. (Except for trying to play hands in position, xP. Gotta just bear with the handicap I guess.)

On the Q8ss hand, my feeble defense is that this was before I had a complete read on the player, and was just assuming he would shut down to multiple-street aggression. I felt that if I put out a strong enough bet it would force him to slow down without the nuts. However, it's obvious I can't make a crying call here. imo in that spot: c/c>>>>>>>>>>>c/f>b/f>b/c. I'm getting better odds now but instamr-instamr is a line I'm confident enough shows has better than my top pair.

The second hand is spewaments imo, u lead the turn and get raised then you lead the river again ? Weird line. Q8 is not a powerhouse and you want to control the pot even against a fishy station, Bet strong with your strong hands, call more when you have a medium strenght hand, even bot pair or A high is often good against an 80% vpip fish.

What they like to do is making small blocking bets on the river to steal pots, call them very light you'll catch their bluffs so often you'll make it profitable on the long run. Also you should never try to bluff them out of a pot, since you have a tighter range preflop means you'll enter most pots as a favorite, therefore you should call them more lightly postflop than you'd do against a regular player.

Yeah, I forgot to add that part in my last post where it's obvious the hand was fubar, lol. gg tilt.

One question about the hand though: the board is only 2-tone, what do you guys think about a check on the flop -> value turn+river? c/c on the turn doesn't change the size of the pot on the river, and waiting for more cards to come can't hurt when my tp is still pretty marginal; lower the variance, open his bluffing range, that kind of thing.

Saw the guy again during tonight's session. Position helped. Stacked him once before he left...if only all of the regs played like this. T_T

the solution to this problem is to simply play against them in position