...the old gunfighter had almost retired, he'd mastered his ego years ago and decided to concentrate on the more important things in life...
A young kid came into town who was good...he wanted to take out the old gunslinger, who'd been no.1...now, altho old, he was still in the top 10 fastest gunfighters alive.
The kid yelled at him in the middle of the street in town...(the kid had 2 2 preflop) The old gunslinger (had A K off) "Draw, old man!" The wise old gunslinger knew this would probably be a coin flip on who would win, because he'd heard of this new kid. The old gunslinger, didn't want to bet his life on a 50/50 chance, so quietly turned around and walked away. (moral- in NL, early to middle in tournament, don't bet the farm on a 50/50 shot)
The kid went on tilt, 2 days later he found the no. 9 best gunfighter, they both drew... the kid won...Cocky (with his whole life yet ahead of him) and elated he hunted down the no. 8 guy...challenged him...another coin flip...

...next day there was a freshly dug grave in boothill...for the Kid. (moral - keep going all in on coin flips, and eventually you WILL lose, go in twice on 50/50 and chances are 75% you'll lose...save all in's for end of tournament or when you have locks)
The old gunslinger still lives today, enjoying some of the finer things in life...every now and then, he takes down some new kid with his nut hand.

Something similar happened to me in a SnG a few days ago. I was up against a gunslinger, but I couldn't get away from his shots.

We're at the very end of the SnG, down to 2 players, and I have the bigger stack, and I know I am a better player than this idiot. I know I'm going to win eventually with any kind of decent luck at all.

Out of the blue, though, he starts going all in every hand. And I'm not sure how to respond.

In one sense, I know this is a losing strategy on his part. I just have to call him when I have a better than average hand and a better than average chance of busting him out. But even in that case, he does have SOME chance to take a bunch of my chips, get the chip lead, and then beat me. So maybe he thought this was his best chance to win. (Either that or he was just bored.)

OK, so I'm sitting there, giving up blind after blind, trying to decide what sort of hand I want to have if I'm going to call his all-in. What I really want is TT or JJ or better, say. But of course those hands aren't coming.

So -- here's the question. Which hands are good-enough hands to play in this situation?

For instance, I got 22, and mucked it. 22 feels like a terrible hand to play. In a ring game or any time when you can see the flop cheaply, it can be great because when you catch your set you can make a ton of chips. But in a preflop all-in situation, 22 sucks, doesn't it?

Should I play suited cards? Suited connectors? Ax suited? Ax unsuited? Kx? What about JT? Q9?

Any and all thoughts welcome.

(I finally settled for A9o, which was way ahead of his T6o and won for me.)

K3nt, sounds like you played him the right way....a maniac going all in EVERY hand, just wait for...just an estimate...A8 or better, or KQ, or a pair 10's or better to call with, MAYbe even a J10s...to CALL him with...but if YOU"RE the one going all in first, AND the blinds are getting WAY high, then you might go all in with any pair, any Ace, any 2 faces...
Just an estimate, he may fold 50% of the time, and the times he calls, you'll win say 50% of those times, so by going all in first, you're going to win 75% of the times...that may be the strategy he was using on you...many times i'll use this, i've been seen as a tight player, then all of a sudden here i come, all in every other time and it scares the pants off them, you'll pick up some good pile of chips, BUT, once i'm up, i'll suddenly back WAY off, get REAL tight again, and they won't notice this, then i'll pick up a big one, Q's of better, or AK, AQ, and all in again, and will get called with a much lessor hand.
If you DO get a monster, perhaps slowplay it, then let the maniac go all in , then all in with him and catch him.
Hope this helps some, you may have already known all of this...GL!

Wild Bill's in town. Warn the women but it won't do any good. Welcome.

Your gun slinger story is approriate to two types of courageous folks I'm facing here in the Lone Star State. These new twenty somethings who can really play and have read in some damn book to fire away at the pot all the time are one bunch I have trouble standing up to. They are too damn dumb to be afraid of the likes of me. The other group are these richies whose bankrolls are tall as the biggest Ferris wheel at the State Fair.

They know the money makes my ass grab the chair which doesn't happen to your richie.

One time I tour every little casino in New Mezico scooping in tiny winnings only to end up in the big Sandia game with Banker Sam. Maybe you've heard the stories. Naturally I put all my road bankroll and all my winnings for the week on the table. It's like Wild Bill said, they were gonna make me draw sooner or later because to Banker Sam, a fellow like me is permanently short stacked.

Finally I catch A,6 suited in the big blind and Banker Sam makes this p;iddling unatural $10 raise and I went for it. Flop comes A,6,2 and two hearts. I start firing, he raises big, and I study a long time and put him on a flush draw. I move in. He calls happy with a small flush draw. One heart beat and one heart later my bankroll has vanished like smoke. Again, Welcom Wild Bill. You have to make a stand.

Johnny Hughes

Thanks for the Welcome Johnny....yep, a fellar's gotta take a stand every now and then....
I wrote a little tribute to you on that "other" forum...
This seems to be a place where a fella can really learn somthing!

Boy you hit it on the head there..."these fellas are too dumb to be afraid of ya"
An old gunfighter can still show'em some tricks...

I"m heading to California this weekend, and know i'll be playing a couple of young gunslingers that love to ram and jam and play any 2 cards... 8) ...we'll see...