me - the maniac?

Played on $20 last night and won – mostly due to great cards early.

First hand I get dealt QQ in the big blind. 3 limpers to me – I raise to 6x – everyone bails.

Second hand, AA from the small blind. Someone raises 2x, I reraise again, he calls. Flop comes TT3 or something like that. I bet into him, he calls, turn comes a J, I shove. He folds.

Now everyone thinks I’m a maniac, right? Let’s see how far I can take it.

I raise it up from all late positions, regardless of my cards. Most of the time I pick up the blinds. One time, I get called, donked into on the flop and fold.

Soon I get 88 in the big blind, someone makes it 3x, but I can afford this now with a big chip stack and I call. Flop comes 8 A x. I bust someone with an ace.

Then in late position I raise it up with 79o. Big blind is officially sick of my shit and calls. Flop comes 7 9 2. I laugh maniacally out loud and wake up the dog. I think about checkraising, but maniacs don’t do that – they bet all the time. I bet. He thinks for a second and shoves – there’s no way this flop hit me, right? I call – he’s got 44!

Soon after I get AKo, and raise it up late. Someone out of position calls me. Flop comes Jack low low – she leads into me, but very small and I call.
Turn comes an Ace. This time min-checkraises me. I’m worried about 2 pair but call anyway.
River comes another Ace. She shoves, I have her covered. Should I call? Could she checkraise with Ace high only? Eh, what the hell, I’ll still have an average stack if I call. I call. She turns over Ace-7 and I outkick her.

Now the table is officially scared of me. Button and small blind fold to me almost automatically when I’m in the big blind. I start playing with raise sizes for fun, most of the time I just take the blinds down without a fight. Once I checkraise bluff someone when a 3rd flush card comes (I had bottom pair, I think) and get a fold. Chipleader is fun!

We get down to 4. It starts off as me and one bad player with bigger stacks early, but the bad player loses 3 hands and redistributes the chips so that they’re all even against me. (Me about 5000, them about 2500-3000). Blinds are high enough that I tighten up and wait for some good cards.

Get heads up against good player – he’s very good at outmaneuvering me – seems to have a read on my betting style. I end up trying to change it up – leading into the flop instead of checking, thinking a bit longer before calling to look like a draw, etc. We go back and forth in the chip lead until I win a nice pot with AA (2nd of the tourney, along with QQ, KK, AK twice, and my set of 8s) – and then I’m able to muscle him out for the win.