Crazy home game oop vs maniac

If he’s a maniac raise again preflop

To how much? 400? 500?
We have very little fold equity.

Given the table dynamic, I don't mind a strategy of limp-calling EP with ATs.

We need to approximate what our effective blinds are in this game if players are really RFing 17x, so I agree that thinking of it as a 5/T is about right, in which case with a 1800 stack you're playing 180 rather than 600 bb.

I don't hate a fold to the 3bet after you misclicked but definitely wouldn't 4bet because whales can just ship it, plus if he calls a 4bet you'll be at an awkward SPR of 4-5, OOP, and far from top of range.

I think you can fold to the cbet here given the board texture. You have no visibility on a bunch of turns (any card above a 7, a ♣ as well as ♥). Generally you need more robust equity against aggressive opponents who are more likely to barrel (e.g. a bdfd).

If this was a standard 1/3 hand and you were 600bb effective, then you could call flop with more confidence. I'm generally not in favour of "wait for a better spot" generalisations but in this case I would make that statement.

Given table dynamics and sizings I would fold pre the first time.

4bet $400 preflop.

FWIW, in your QJs hand history, I would have 4bet back raise shoved over the maniac's 3bet squeeze and the CO just calling the 3bet. CO is probably pretty weak and unwilling to play his hand for a preflop jam.

Even if the maniac is willing to get his stack in here really light preflop with something like pocket 33 or A4ss sometimes, I think we still have a little fold equity versus him and a lot of fold equity versus the CO. I don't mind it we often get QJs in with about 40%+ equity against the maniac while folding the CO off his $150 of dead money. Who knows? We might even be getting QJs for stacks as a slight favorite or even a big favorite every now and then against the maniac gambling for some some juicy dead money donated by CO who telegraphed weakness.

I think the real question here is, are you completely risk-tolerant and just care about making a +EV choice, or do you care about variance minimization?

If you're purely in it for the +EV, you have to play this hand because it is +EV against a super wide range. You should probably even open instead of limp-calling, and then I guess raise this flop (second pair seems pretty good) or raise preflop.

but if you only have so much money with you, then get to the pot with less investment (so limp-call as you intended) and then you could be somewhat more cautious here. It depends on how crazy he is post flop, presumably he's not going all-in with everything since then he'd already be broke, so you shouldn't have to play for stacks here, and if he does then he probably has the K and you can fold this & wait until you get top pair or better.

Another thing about the same principle, if people play these stacks in a 1-3 game, then you could play literally only JJ, QQ, KK, AA and you would make money because the blinds are so irrelevant. And those hands of course have much more equity since AT or even AK can easily lose to 63o.

If V is truly a maniac willing to get stacks in pre with any two cards, why not 4B pre when he 3B's? Your ATs has to be ahead vs any two cards.

As for the flop, if you have 1 SPR or less, I think we just get it in and hope for the best. If you have over 3 SPR, I probably call. Between 1 and 3 SPR, it's kind of gross, and I probably rage-fold.

The mistake here was flatting pre. 4bet to ~$400. FWIW, we aren't trying to get him to fold. As played, it depends on your tilt factor and how gambl-y you are. Personally, if he's really a maniac, I at least call and see how he reacts to the turn. If it's not horrible for our hand, I go ahead and bet. If V sees me as tight, I might go ahead and raise the flop.

Ok general consensus is 4bet to 400.

Say we 4bet to 400
V calls

Pot 800
With 1400 behind, whats our plan on this flop bet small? check/call check/shove?

Very interesting idea of back jamming which I didn't even think about.

I remember a hand ages ago vs hyper aggro/maniac 3betting him w/AQo and got 4bet, I was put in tough spot. You said my 3bet was probably bad because once he 4bet, my option of folding/calling/jamming feels bad.

So if we get 5bet jammed on aren't we in a tough spot as well. Both folding/calling doesn't feel that good.