Weekend o' poker, part I - Friday continued

When we left, I had doubled my buy-in at the little table, and the $400 min / $1000 max table had just opened up. Glenn and I moved over, and the table started a bit short handed (7 people), which was fine by me, because the lineup was such that everyone was going to be giving Glenn and I their money. In fact, within the first 10 minutes, Glenn doubled up his buyin when he hit trips. In fact this game was so soft, and the CMG was a weird enough lineup that Mark decided to come in and play, and he hates max buy in games.

We had one maniac at our table who truly had a horseshoe up the horseshoe up his tush. He'd raise with any ace suited, any A9 or better (suited or not), and in general, overvaluing his hands. So, reasonably early in the game, when I knew he was a maniac, but not quite sure if he was a HORRIBLE maniac or not, this hand came up:

I'm UTG with QQ, and I raise the $10 blind to $60. Everyone folds to the maniac, who calls, and then it's folded back around to me. As the maniac calls, I say, "You're calling? You know I have a hand!" to which he responds, "I give you respect! You need to give me respect!" Fine.

I'm thrilled to see the flop come down: T♥ 5♠ 2♣

I bet out $125, and Maniac calls. WTF, does he have a ten?

Turn is another T, this time in spades. I bet out $275, he raises me all in. Hello, pressure point. I count my chips down and I have $780 behind. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

I look over to him and ask one of my favorite questions, "Will you show me your cards if I fold?" He laughs a little and says, "Maybe, If I in good mood [sic]". Ok, it's possible that he doesn't have a ten.

I smile again and turn up Paris and Nicky, and state, "These aren't any good?" And he starts smirking and shifting in his seat. [For those of you who only play online poker, it is perfectly legal in a B&M casino to show your cards without it being a fold once you are heads-up. Don't do it with other players live in the pot or you're going to get in trouble.] At this point my instincts are screaming that I should call him down, but it's $780 more! He tells me, "I show you my cards if you fold," and laughs and says again, "I show you my cards if you don't fold too!"

Dammit, dammit dammit, I talk myself out of calling and fold. He says, "Good fold, good fold."

To the reader: What would you have done?

He then proceeds to start giving the cards to the dealer without showing them to me, and I throw a little snit. I say, "Hey, dude, you said you were going to show me your cards, don't be a jerk and go back on your word."

And then proceeds to turn over the A♠ 4♠. Yes, he called $125 on the flop with a gutshot wheel draw and an overcard. And then raised me $780 more when he picked up 8 more outs (it would have been nine, but the Q♠ gives me a boat)!

I'm pretty sure I should have called this hand - first off, my instincts were saying I was good, especially when he saw my hand and got ants in his pants. Also, when I think about it, if the Maniac had top pair on the flop, he would have raised the crap out of my flop bet, and I should have never put him on the T. So he had 8 (spades) + 3 (aces) + 3 (treys for the straight minus the 3♠) = 14 outs with one card to go and 38 cards left in the deck, meaning I was a 2.7:1 favorite to win. The only time I should have folded was if I really thought he had a T, because then I only have 2 outs left in the deck, anything else I'm pretty good.

I asked Mark if he would have called and he said, "Did I tell you that I never like to put all my chips in the pot with just one pair?"

My anguished reply: "But I had TWO!" He laughed and said he didn't know what to tell me.

So, at this point it's pretty clear that he is a Very Bad Maniac. Which is Very Good for us at the table. Or it should have been. Poor Mark got caught by his horseshoes:

4 players limp in to see the flop, pot is $45 (the SB folded, as did I). Flop comes down:

K♥ T♥ 3♥

Maniac bets $75. Mark says what everyone's thinking: "You bet $75 into a $45 flop?" He smiles and nods and Mark says, "Hmm, well, ok, I call." The other two limpers get out of the way. Pot is now $195.

Turn: 9♣ Maniac bets $200. Mark thinks, and at this point I've got Mark on a pretty decent hand - a flush, and most likely the nut. Maniac perks up and says, "Go ahead, raise me all in!" Mark replies, "Oh, I wouldn't want to do anything stupid - I'll just call."

River: 3♦ to pair the board. Maniac bets $500. Mark groans and said, "Did that just hit you and fill you up?" Maniac chatters, says it's $500 to find out, etc. There's no way Mark (or I, for that matter) can put the Maniac on KK or TT because there's no WAY he would have limped preflop with that because remember, he's not a good maniac, he's an overplaying maniac, so Mark has to make the call.

Maniac turns over 9♥ 3♠. Yes, that'd be a runner runner full house with 93o. Mark, of course, had the nut flush and played the maniac beautifully until lady luck spiked that river card on him. Live poker is RIGGED, I tell you, RIGGED!

To make matters worse, Mark flops a straight against the maniac and another guy, maniac bets out, the other guy raises, mark raises all in, maniac folds. Other guy can't let go of his two pair for $500, and calls, and of course turns his full house.

The maniac then proceeds to get not one but two more runner runner full houses, and leaves the table with $7000. At least by his last down, he'd started to loosen up, and I'd started to get pissed and was reraising him and not being intimidated and ended the night up $700. Adam (who stopped by earlier with his girlfriend to come play) managed to make $400 at the baby table, and I decided to pack it in about 3 am, and we went to find Nikki.

Turns out Nikki showed us all with her $2400 jackpot playing the dollar slots. Dayymn, I was definitely playing the wrong game!

... to be continued - I play much better when I can't do math, which bodes well for Vegas ...