dilemma against maniac

chesslw · dilemma against maniac

Today grinded $1.5 hu on stars as well as some cash (nl2 of course..). $1.5 level seems softer than it was on fulltilt- although could be that I've improved since moving up.

There is one thing that I thought was interesting. I played a total maniac/station who doesn't fold oop (though openfolded 1 button) and punishes 100% of buttons. I made a huge mistake of not getting stacks in with KK vs his 4th pair (with betsizing problems)- then he 4xed tank-called shove with 26s and beat my 88 to be level in chips (he went even more crazy after I owned him with KK).

Now blinds are 25/50 and he is 4x/5xing preflop every hand. As stacksizes are fairly shallow now, and he is raising so much preflop, I 3bet jammed with KJs thinking that I need to shove something like top 10% value range so as not to be exploited by his steals.

Now I know that I could have waited for a better spot, but I felt that it was a +EV decision since if he calls shove with 62s there isn't much he doesn't call with (I may have fe vs 27o which is not bad considering i gain 200 chips). And I would get top 10% of hands on average every 10 hands, so oop I would be losing 500 chips on average to wait for such a hand. Of course by waiting, I could be gaining by getting a good hand in position as well to limp shove with. What is the bottom of your range when you value shove? I also felt that if I waited too long, then even he will adapt and fold to my first vpip in a long while as well. Also minraising button with like 98s is only marginally +EV vs him as he 3bets big every other hand, so unless I hit big often enough when he calls (and he hits as well) I won't get that much from him (he only bluffs off 1/2 streets).

Do you guys agree with my logic? Anyone ever bothered to do the maths in this situation to work out optimal play? Anyway he snap called with A4o (which would have done fairly bad against my 10% shove range btw- I think 35% equity) and held.

ChrisB

I think you played well and focused a bit too much on the results.

you'll definitely lose some more games on average against these guys because you can't really grind them down, becacause they never fold.

3bet jamming KJs is alright, not great...but alright. Just dont let them get to your head Smile

chesslw

Thanks for the reassurance Chris- although I wasn't really looking for that.

So what sort of range would you be happy to shove over the top? I'm thinking KJ is the bottom of my range here (10% feels about right imo).

Kim Cardassian

Assuming his 26s call was rather loose even for him and that he's clearly raising everything that big you can shove way more then that. KTs+/KJo+/QJ/A7s+/A8o+/66+/ (15% range). You can probably shove even more, like 30% profitably but this is what I would stick to since you have massive equity against his range, and I don't expect to have much if any FE.

chesslw

Yeah I agree that I can shove way more with +EV (maybe even top 50% marginally), but it is not necessarily the best game plan. Since we lose the opportunity of getting it in as a much bigger favourite by waiting for a better hand- like if someone is shoving every hand from the beginning of the match, then you could call with QJs, but with 75bb effectivev stacks, you can get a much bigger edge by waiting (in that case, definitely can wait for better than KJs).

I guess I'll take a 60-40 edge...