blonde poker forum

21scotty89 is the maniac. He has been playing about 75% of his hands thus far. Raising with most of them and always always calling when re-raised all-in.

He has gotten lucky a few times, knocking out the other 5 players one at a time. The other two players and I all got our chips by doubling through 21scotty89.

The 5th place finisher lost some chips with this hand...


Seat 6 is the button
Seat 4: cougies ( $4275.00 USD )
Seat 6: 21scotty89 ( $980.00 USD )
Seat 7: aknolunggood ( $2990.00 USD )
Seat 8: HERO ( $2845.00 USD )
Seat 9: Chipolt ( $2410.00 USD )

aknolunggood posts small blind [$40.00 USD].
HERO posts big blind [$80.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HERO [  3d 9s ]
Chipolt calls [$80.00 USD]
cougies calls [$80.00 USD]
21scotty89 raises [$160.00 USD]
aknolunggood folds
HERO folds
Chipolt raises [$2330.00 USD]
cougies folds
21scotty89 calls [$820.00 USD]
Chipolt shows [5s, 5d ]
21scotty89 shows [8d, Js ]
Chipolt wins $1430.00 USD
** Dealing Flop ** [ Td, 7h, 9c ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4s ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qc ]
21scotty89 wins $2160.00 USD from main pot

I remeber thinking at the time that it was a poor push from Chipolt as he knows (or should know) that he has absolutely no fold equity in the pot.






The following situation came up.

Seat 6 is the button
Seat 4: cougies ( $3775.00 USD )
Seat 6: 21scotty89 ( $3700.00 USD )
Seat 7: aknolunggood ( $3430.00 USD )
Seat 8: HERO ( $2595.00 USD )

aknolunggood posts small blind [$50.00 USD].
HERO posts big blind [$100.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to HERO [   Aspades Kd ]
cougies folds
21scotty89 raises [$200.00 USD]
aknolunggood folds
HERO ??

it doesn't look too hard on the surface. My chip position is 4/4, I have AKo in the big blind and have been raised by the maniac. I know I will get called but AK is ahead of a lot more hands than 55.
If I win the pot, I will be chip daddy on the bubble. I always take the value of potentially getting into this very advantageous position into account, and so didn't think too long before pushing all-in and running the gauntlet.

cougies folds
21scotty89 raises [$200.00 USD]
aknolunggood folds
HERO raises [$2495.00 USD]
21scotty89 calls [$2395.00 USD]
HERO shows [ Aspades, Kd ]
21scotty89 shows [9c, Qs ]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7c, Jc, Qc ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3s ]
HERO wins $5240.00 USD from main pot






So it worked out for us, but what went on to happen left me wondering if what I did was the best +EV move.


The reason for this, I think I definately overvalued the benefit of the big stack on this particular bubble.

 - Due to the speed of the maniacs work early in the tournament, the blinds were still 50/100, half the size they usually are on the bubble.
 - The maniac was not likely to hang on very long while I stole the other two players blinds.
 - When UTG, he would likely enter the pot first, robbing me of steal oppurtunities on Seat 4's big blind.
 - When in the SB, his calling range would be such that I wouldn't be able to steal Seat 7's big blind with trash.

The unique bubble dynamic with the complete maniac doesn't happen often, (probably because these guys usually bite it early on.)
It is only in hindsight that I realise I grossly over valued the benefits of a big stack here.



I think I undervalued the other option. Flat calling with AKo and trying to stack off if I hit TPTK.

- Maniac's been uber-loose post flop too, so if I do hit, I am likely to not only get paid on the flop/turn a high% of the time, I'm also in very good shape a high% of the time.
- If I miss and fold, while I am still 4/4 chip position, I am not in any trouble. The big blinds are low, and I still have 24 of them.
- The blinds are going up only to 60/120 and it's a 6 minute blind level. So I'm not going to be dangerously low soon either.
- With the maniac at work, the bubble will probably burst before I have to gamble.



So I guess my questions are.

- Do you agree with the above, or have anything to add?
- Taking that into consideration, what is the best move here?

lol you pretty much answered all your questions if you look back all what you read

you're probably something like 64% jolly(you'll know better than me) against his random shit and even though theres no FE and the blinds are disproportionally small for that stage you have to be shoving here, predominantly because(as you eluded to) the table dynamic(specifically this idiot) disallows you from making pos shoves and steals, where else are your chips coming from? you can wait of course but if you call miss flop and fold to c- bet and the bubble starts to drag, scotty's still about and you're card dead with no +EV chances to steal the AK hand is gonna tilt your brain!

What bolt said, you have answered your own question, nice answer imo. In a normal bubble dynamic and i would ship this in i think as we have tonnes of FE.

AK plays little better against really stupidly wide ranges than it does against moderately wide ranges, as we dominate so little when he is stacking all qx and jx etc. There isn't a massive amount to steal and on this bubble the other two foes will eventually do your job for you.

Also as you say your chip utility as the big stack isn't as good here and this fool is not passing enough to you trying to pwn the bubble.

So far then, we have all-in for one, and one for the call.


I'm stretching for a three musketeers joke there but it's not really happening.

well if you include yourself as the cardinal that seems to be siding with both sides you'll come up with something :D