Hand Analysis

Evening chaps and chapesses.

Almost finished reading Harrington, and after finishing Greenstein last week, I'm trying to put some of my new found theories into place. The biggest thing I have learnt, I think, is that I don't watch enough of what's going on around me. I make notes, and read them regularly, but there are things I ain't picking up. Maybe my recent bad run has made me concentrate too much on my losing hands, and I've lost some focus on my opponents and my other hands.

So, I played a 5$ NL $1000 added tourny last night, 350 were in, and whilst I only managed to hit 46th (money paid top 30) - I felt my game was spot on. I didn't have a premium pair all tourny, and had it not been for two hands out of the blinds, where I flopped monsters on unraised pots, I'd have gone out much earlier.

This hand, was a pivotal one in the mid stages, and prolonged mty participation until I went out later.

Maniac sat two spaces to my right, and has been raising about half the time. He's shown a range of hands from trash to slighty better. Most of the table, including me, have been folding to him pretty much all the time. In my defence, I had nothing better than 9 high almost every time he raised, so could not do too much.

So, I'm on the BB and am dealt KQ sooted, the best hand I'd had so far. A couple of limpers and Mr Agressive puts in his 4 x bb raise. and it folds to me. My thought process here involves several things:
We have pretty similar stacks
2 players after me have yet to react to his raise

I'm out of position whoever says in.

If there were no one after me, I'd consider re-raising here, but the 2 latter players may be holding a strong hand, but relying on Mr Maniac to do the raising for them.
With the bets in the pot, and my BB already in, the odds were favourable, so I just flat call (good decision?).

The other 2 players flat call, and we see a flop of KQ7.

So, what to do here? It's impossible to put the maniac on a hand seeing his play so far, and there are 2 other players in the hand, so I check (right?) and the other 2 check to maniac - who also checks. This confused me, as he's always put a cont bet - yet doesn't this time.
Has he realised he's been playing loose, or does he have a monster? In the time I'm thinking about what he has, I almost time out as the turn brough another K.
I bet 3 x bb (enough?) trying to tempt in a caller.
2 fold and maniac raises me 3 x my bet.
What does he have? He can't have KK, could have AK, or even QQ crosses my mind. I don't think he checks the flop with AA, so I'm pretty confident it's either AK or QQ, but can't dismiss a JJ or even 10 10 hand he thinks is good with me checking on the flop.
Now, a decision. If he does have QQ or AK and I reraise him, he ain't gonna fold. But if he does have JJ or 10 10 I don't want to scare him away.
I flat call (right?) and we see a 2 on the river.
I have the nuts, and have a decision of what to do on the river. If I bet about qaurter the pot, he will flat call unless he feels he has the strongest hand and I won't make any more. His raise on the turn indicates he thinks he has me beat, or he want's to scare me away, so I decide to check (right?) and he bets about half his stack.
He's not going anywhere, so it's an easy re-raise to put him all in. He calls and turns over QQ.

The irony, he bets with such trash on almost every other hand, and the moment he flops a monster, in position, he checks and lets us all have a free card. Guess he can't have envisioned those cards, and hitting a FH on the turn, must have thought he had the nuts!

Anyway, I (more than) doubled up and he was out. Maybe the hand plays itself, I was interested in getting as much as I could out of him, but with his hand and mine, I guess he was always committing everything, as I would in his position.

I feel ready for the bloggerment tonight - look forward to joining in again after several weeks absence!
See you then - Poker Stars / 9pm / Private Tourny / password Bloggerment.