On hands I folded I noticed there was a maniac that was going all in with anything, absolutely anything. I get my stack up to around $9 and I am feeling real good thinking I made back my lost buy-in and my other table is over 4x’s the buy-in ($22ish). Then I get in a hand with A-Ko and wouldn’t you know it the maniac 2 seats before me goes all in for $7. I have watched him for about a half hour now and know he could be on anything. I wont play scared to lose so I called. The guy had Kc-7c. Wouldn’t you know it – hits his 7 on the turn and takes down the pot. I was pissed. I know I made the right call there, but it still burned.

We start to chat it up and he actually says nice call (he had been acting like a tard to others prior to this). So I tell him “I will call that all day long.” I go super tight not entering any pots unless I will call him cause I know he is gonna push anything I limp in. Few hands later I have AJs and limp. He pushes and I go all in for my $2. He has K-4o but actually hits his King on the flop. I get a little karmic vengeance and hit my ace on the river. Now I have 4$ and I know he’s a little pissed.

Again I pick my spots and like 10 hands later I get KK. Again I only limp UTG hoping he will push. He actually folds but the BB re-raises like 5x’s the BB, so then I push. He calls turns over QQ. I hit a K on the flop and it’s all over. I am up to around $9 now and still looking for the maniac. Probably 5 hands later the maniac pushes again. I look down and have 9-9. I call knowing I more then likely have at least a horse race. He turns over J-6o. Again I hit my card on the flop and he hits his 6, but it’s all over and now I am up to around $17.

I guess the other people at the table didn’t like playing with this maniac as he took a few people down and they started to leave. I lost a decent pot and was down to about 13$ when we found ourselves heads up at the table. He asks if I want to “wait for new people” – I laugh to myself and think “Is this guy kidding me – this is exactly what I want!” So we go heads up.

I am trying to set him up purposefully limping into pots that will fold away at his first aggressive move. I am just waiting for the cards. Then he pushes all in from the SB and I look down at pocket 6’s. Again I like my chances with this guy in a coin flip and I have him covered (he has $9) so I call. He actually turns over KQh this time and I am nervous. Even more nervous when 2 hearts hit the board on the flop. But somehow my pair holds up and I take down the pot. He just does a “LoL” and leaves the table.

So now I am logging with this account at around $22 (subtract the two buy-ins) for a $12 profit. Then my initial “good” table cashes out for another $23 (sub one buy-in) for a profit of $18. So I end this session with a $30 profit. Not a lot of money – but when you figure the stakes I am playing at, that’s pretty good.

Of course wouldn’t you know it the cards only come at the $5 table. Of course, what is new? I managed to almost triple that buy-in. At the $10NL table I lost my buy-in when my full house jacks and kings lost to full house kings and jacks. But that happens so I did not get too pissed about it.

I bought in again and wasn’t really able to do anything with it. I had AA once but it folded around to me on the BB (hate when that happens). I also flopped quad 4’s and tried to slow play it and let the flush draw catch up but it never did and I only got like a dollar out of it or so.

All in all I ended the session up about $5

My biggest problem right now is figuring out how to get max value on my hands. I have figured out what bets need to be made to thin the field out. But since people can be playing anything – and I mean anything – it’s hard to know what to bet when you have a monster.

I did manage to hit my raked hands target so I should get my license for Holdem Manager, so that should help me keep track of my play much better during this experiment. It is important to use these poker tracking tools, and if you do not, your opponents will use them against you and massacre you.

I plan to sit down and log another session at Titan Poker this afternoon hopefully. Let the poker gods be with me.