An Unusual Hand

Here's something that doesn't happen very often, even at micro-limits.

Playing this morning, there was a maniac at the table. Now maniacs fall into two groups: those with a semi-method to their madness and those who are just plain mad. This guy fell into the second category. Unfortunately, he was directly to my left so I didn't have the chance to make any isolation plays or anything like that (not that I was getting the cards for it anyway - in fact, I was stuck in the game). After a while I looked down at a pair of kings in early position and thought "if I limp, he'll raise and then I can come back over the top. But if I do that all the others will disregard his raise and cold-call and I'll be left out of position facing a large field with a lone pair and everyone chasing like mad. Not a comfortable situation. But if I raise there's a good chance he'll re-raise. Cold-calling three bets with the original raiser still to act is not something even these guys are likely to relish, so there's a good chance it'll limit the field."

So I raised. The maniac re-raised. It was folded round to me. Perfect. My plan from here was simply to bet at every opportunity, no matter what the maniac did or how scary the board became. The likelihood that I was crushing him was simply too high.

So I capped the betting and he called. The flop was rags. I bet, he raised, I re-raised, he capped it, I called. The turn was a harmless 10. I bet, he raised, I re-raised, he capped it, I called. The river was another 10 which might've killed me but much more likely helped me, because if he'd flopped a streaky 2 pair I now had a better 2 pair. I bet, he raised, I re-raised, he capped it, I called. He turned over Q7 for a pair of tens with a queen kicker. I scooped the pot.

Now, apart from my initial decision to bet rather than get cute with a limp, there was no skill at all involved in my play. I only mention it because it's not very often you get to win a hand that's been raised to the maximum on every single round of betting - especially not when your opponent has nothing better than queen high, rubbish kicker until the river brings him a pointless pair on the board. Even for a maniac, that was a formidably bone-headed piece of poker.