The Shark Tank

Its finally time for me to pay the variance tax. I had a very juicy 15/30 table with a real chip-spewing maniac at the table. He actually was a thinking maniac and played reasonably decent post-flop, although his relative skill post-flop didn’t make up for his horrid selection pre-flop. The best part was that his hyper-aggression was setting some of the other players at the table on tilt, so it looked like a great spot for me to generate a little cash. Some players that I know to be generally pretty good were making horrendous decisions in the face of the maniac’s constant aggression.

Unfortunately, I seemed to miss every flop or pick up a draw that didn’t come in. I wound up down $543, bringing my net for the week to $330. It was grim.

The most brutal hand was a debacle where I got in a capped pot pre-flop with JJ. The board was A3J5 with two diamonds on the turn where we capped it. I thought it was possible the maniac was on a draw, since he had been playing draws insanely hard on the turn (this seemed to be the thing that made the table coaches the most upset) or that he had AK or AJ. The river was another 3, completing the diamond flush, but giving me the second-best boat and I wound up 3 betting and calling his cap. Of course, he had AA and I gave him lots of chips. He sat out up almost $2,000 and with everyone else steaming. I was just unhappy that I couldn’t extract more value from what was a great table.

Reviewing the session, I think there were several places where I probably should have called bets on the flop (or even raised). I was adjusting my pre-flop game adequately for the presence of the maniac, but not adjusting enough post-flop. People were raising bottom pair like crazy because they knew he could easily have nothing and bet the flop. I don’t get to play at nearly enough tables where five or six people are playing this way and I don’t think I made as many good decisions as I do in situations I’m more familiar with. Possibly being stuck at the table affected me too. It is probably harder to call down with marginal hands when you are in the hole.

I’m playing in Round 2 of a Protégé freeroll tonight, so hopefully I’ll advance. I think we play 400 down to 40 tonight, but everyone in this event has already done well in a previous freeroll, so it probably will be a bit less of a donkey parade than most freerolls.

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