02-18-04, LearnTexasHoldem:

AQs in no limit tourney and playing against a maniac...

Question:alright first question relates to playing no limit tournys or sit and gos either or. lets say you start with 800 chips and blinds are 15/30. and like early in the tourny like 3rd hand you see AQs and you riase it up to 60 and get a few callers but not the blinds. i kno wthese other callers are not good players and will call on poor hands. now lets say the flop comes Qxx rainbow and i bet about 60-90 in early position and then someone behind me goes all in. do i call this or cause i mean they will go all in with nothing alot of times or do i give away the 120-150 chips i have put in and lay down the high pair??? another thing about maniac type play on the money tables, do i go play the maniac and take more money with the risk of losing money i have tried waitin them out for an hour or so and have never got a soilid hand to stick in with after the flop to catch him so i end up paying 3 bets or more with a solid starting hand to see nothin and have to fold to the maniac. get back at me whenever you can.

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Answer: Thanks for the questions. To answer the AQs one, I would need to know two things: what the other cards on the flop were and if the person had gone all-in before like this. If they have played really crazy and have gone all-in already and the board didn't look very coordinated (Q98 or QJT or QT8) then I would call. If this is the first time they have gone all-in then I might fold even if I thought there was a good chance I had the best hand. That would especially be the case if there was a draw that could easily overtake me.

You run into this type of problem when you have QQ and someone goes all-in in front of you. The chances are you either are a slight favorite or a big loser so if the person is a bad player often times people will muck QQ and wait for another better opportunity to put all their chips in. You would assume that if the person was a bad player they would do this less but it is the opposite. Since he is a bad player the pro will assume there will be other chances to take advantage of the bad play that won't be as risky instead of thinking that QQ is a great hand against such a crappy player.

I remember one tourney I was in where I was dealt KK the first hand. Someone went all-in in front of me, I called, the dreaded Ace flopped and he had A6off. I wouldn't change my play but it just shows how easy it is to lose all your chips in one pot with the best starting hand. Another thing to remember though is that this isn't the World Series of Poker or the World Poker Tour, or any other big tourney for that matter. It is most likely a little buy-in one at a home game or online in which case I wouldn't think twice about going all-in and getting a decent chip lead early on since you can play another tourney 5 minutes later.

As for your other question regarding waiting for good hands against a very aggressive player, you have to understand that in tournaments there is a limited amount of time and a good player or a maniac will take advantage of your tightness. You can't allow someone to constantly steal against you. They will win sometimes by position bets when you have checked which is fine but don't let it go too far (especially if it is heads up).

You have two courses of action against a maniac who is betting you out of every pot. The first strategy is to just call him down. Let's say you have middle pair and think it might be good. The good thing about calling down is you may not risk all your chips. The bad thing is that it gives free cards and also puts you in a very weak position. A call can only win with the best hand.

The second strategy is to play back at him once in a while. If he bets and you think you have the best hand, raise a decent amount. The good thing about being aggressive is that it can win by either getting the person to fold or by winning with the best hand. The down side with this play against a maniac is that occasionally he will reraise you putting you in a bad spot, or sometimes he may actually have a good hand.

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