Message Board : What do you think......

     Hi, Ed-

I enjoy your articles, and your insight is very helpful-

Yesterday, I was playing in a 2-2 no-limit game@ Oceans-11 in

Oceanside, Ca. Max buy-in is $100.00. I’m in seat 6, in the bb.

Almost everyone limps in, I look down @ QQ & make it $15.00

to go. Everyone folds but seat 9, who calls. This guy just sat

down, he’s been there less than a full lap around the table. I’ve

never played w/ him before, but I recognize him as one of the

busboys in the club. He has played every pot since he sat down,

the 3rd hand, he went all-in & showed 8-5 os, he had paired his

5 on the turn, & it was the lowest card on the board. He re-loaded

for $100.00, I have about $350.00. The flop comes kxx rainbow.

I lead out w/ $20.00, he calls- The turn is a brick, I put out another

$20.00, he calls. At this point, I’m thinking maybe AK, as any other

hand that has me beat he probably would have re-raised pre-flop.

The river is an ace. Damn. I check, expecting a big bet. He calls, &

shows A7 os. Now this is what pisses me off- The cocky kid in seat 8

says, "Next time give me those queens, & I’ll play ‘em right."

My read on seat 9 is that he’s a maniac, & had I shoved at any

point (other than, perhaps pre-flop), he would have called. Was I

wrong?

I don’t agree that the flop bet was necessarily "weak".  On a dry board you don’t have to bet big to because there generally won’t be draws with lots of outs, so the need to cut implied odds is lower.  However, I would say that you could bet bigger against a loose player just because he will call bigger bets with worse hands, thus making bigger mistakes.