Had a fun 200NL session on Party this morning, sat next to Kalle (with position!)

Generally the cards went my way, but interested in analysis/comments on the following two hands, in which I'm not convinced by my play.

Hand #1

This hand is against a maniac. He has 50/20 pre-flop and AF 3.8/4.5/2. Examples: he open-raises with ATo, calls my $35 limp reraise, and reraises all-in on a J83r board; he limp-calls a pre-flop raise w J5s, raises the flop with bottom pair, calls a reraise, pushes the turn when he hits trips.

In this hand, I have $392 and he has me covered.

I open raise to $9 w QQ UTG and only he calls. Flop is [3s][3c]. I lead for $15, he raises to $40, I call. Turn is , I check, he insta-pushes for $350, I fold.

Is this actually an easy call against a nutter? How do I play this to avoid this horrid situation?

Hand #2

I randomly limp UTG with [Td]. 4 others limp, including SB ($180) and aggressive-ish MP ($230). I have everyone covered.

Flop is [Jd][7d], $10 pot. SB min bets, I raise to $10, MP and SB calls.
Turn is , $40 pot. SB checks, I check (??), MP bets $30, SB min raises ($60), I call (?), MP calls.
River is , $220 pot. SB bets $20, I call (?), MP raises to $90, SB pushes (to $105), I call (???), MP calls.
Total pot is $540.

So ... how do I best persuade lower flushes to get their money in, while protecting against and full-house draws (or should I just not worry about this?)?

How do you like my passive play? The final river call is awful (MP has $60 left with a $500 pot), and I'm not sure about the turn check. I quite like the turn and river calls.

Guesses as to hand ranges for SB and MP?

Hand #1: I hate these kinds of things, and it depends a little on the particular maniac flavor. I'm tempted to respond to the flop raise with just an all-in right there (particularly if you have Qc), but the paired board creates problems of its own. In principle, I think I'd be looking for any board with overpair, if it's the kind of player I'm suspecting. But I'll have to admit that I hate doing that kind of thing at more serious stakes (and that's the reason why these guys end up in big stacks so often).

Hand #2: I like the checks on flop and turn only if you are almost certain that someone will bet for you. Some tables are real scared of suited boards, others (like this one, it seems) are all over them. In any case, with all this betting, the Ad has to be out there somewhere. As aggressive as the table is, I probably would have bet out the flop, too. I don't think the check on the turn is so bad after all that action, but once you have the opportunity, I think I'd push all-in at that point (i.e., turn checkraise to all-in). I'm seriously worried about Ad, and I'm going to feel really bad if I have to lay it down on the river.

Hand 1: you don't think I should push $375 into a $65 pot on the flop in hand 1, surely? Even maniacs get trips sometimes. Yuck, overpairs are horrid with 200BB stacks, and an opponent not afraid to get stuck in....

How about a reraise to $100 and fold to a push?

Hand 2: My worry was that if MP has a medium flush/set/2 pair, an all-in check-raise is going to lose him, and possibly ditto for SB. Of course, if someone is drawing, they're not going to put any money in the river anyway. Hmmm...

Possible hands for SB/MP:
43d, 45d,89d,Q9d: 8 hands - Musn't jam too hard or I'll lose these
A2d,A3d,A4d,A5d,A8d,A9d,AQd: 12 hands - Al loses stack
AdQx-AdTx: 24 hands - Give these draws ~3/1 odds
66,77, 67: 18 hands - Give these draws ~4/1 odds

So how about a $20 lead on the turn, push if raised to me?

Ok... here goes...

Hand #1... crappy board... it's paired and there's a flush out there... The problem w/ the $100 reraise is what if he doesn't push but calls... Then you're stuck back where you started, w/ check/fold... There are just too many hands that beat you... And, the problem w/ a maniac is that you can't figure out what the hell cards he's playing... He could just as easily be playing A3 as a 7 or 2 clubs or an overpair... I would just fold, eat the loss, and wait for a better opportunity...

hand #2... I would've pushed the turn also... There was already a decent amount of money in the pot, you almost suredly have the best hand now (only Axd beats you), but these guys are obviously in love with their hand... The river could possibly disasterous for you if a. the board pairs and someone bets into you... b. another diamond comes, and everyone folds to your bet... c. another diamond comes, and someone is playing the Ace... I think with the way these guys were playing, there's a pretty good chance someone comes along for the ride... If not, you still get a nice pot w/ a non-nut flush on a possibly dangerous board... I had a hand like this in Costa Rica w/ 4 callers, and slowplayed myself right into 3 people having full houses and me losing my nut flush...

Good analysis, MVP (esp on hand 2) ... how much would you have led the turn after SB checks?

Hand 1: I like the way you played it. I think it's a bad idea to reraise on flop. I couldnt find out if this guy was on tilt, drunk or just a maniac. But I remember that he called a big raise on flop with A8 on a 983 flop in another hand (I dont remember if this was before or after this hand). He could have anything but I think you are behind more often than ahead.

Hand 2: I couldnt understand what you played like this. You need to bet the turn - $25-35. You have the second nuts and it is very possible that it is the best hand right now. Bet to build the pot and charge sets and flush draws. And raise the river bet.

If you were 100% sure that MP was gonna bet, I would've reraised allin... If not, I would've led the turn like Kalle said and gone allin when raised... I'd be more than happy to take the pot down right now... Honestly, the amount of times I flop a flush, about 90% of the time, I can't get any action anyway...

Well it turns out I got lucky with their hands (given the ranges I just worked out), but the idea was:
1) MP is quite aggressive (Kalle - any thoughts on that read?) and quite likely to bet the turn if we both checked to him.
2) SB is most likely to be drawing/ahead (min bet, just calls raise in spite of MP's overcall)
3) So the plan is ... MP bets, SB calls, then I reraise. But when SB reraised, I got a bit confused, and decided to keep MP in the pot (a reraise here loses any made hand worse than mine).

It's all feels a bit contrived after the event though ... next time, it's a $25 bet.

ps Kalle my computer crashed during your big hand against maniac + other guy - what did you all have?

Results (in white):
SB had a set of 6s and MP had 34d for an appallingly low flush.

Honestly I didnt pay much attention to the players on the table. I didnt have reads on anyone (though I observed that you didnt play monkey poker like in the btp cash game). I didnt notice that the maniac was a maniac before the AT vs AA hand.

My hand vs maniac + other guy was good for me. Other guy raised preflop and I called with [Td]. Flop is 983 with two diamonds. Maniac bet, other guy calls, I make a big raise and they both call. Turn blank, we check. River jack and we check again. Maniac had A8 and other guy had [Qd]. MHIG.

My computer crashed right after the hand

Al, one question.....What in Gods name were you doing in hand #2? UGH!

Check the turn? At some point , Im getting my stack in on the turn with all that craziness. I knew one of them had a set and one had a flush. I'll take my chances that its not the nut flush.

Yeah, harsh but fair.

So much for my master plan to limp out of position with marginal hands and outplay my fishy opposition