Daily Leak — July 13, 2026: Bluff-catching a maniac's river shove with a small pair
Last updated One free training spot from the Holdem Pro pool, published daily at midnight UTC.
Your hand: 9♥ 9♦, on the button. You have a pair of nines — a weak bluff-catcher on a scary Ace-King board. But the player shoving is a maniac: she's been betting and raising relentlessly and you've already caught her bluffing the river three times tonight. She jams again.
Against this wild player, what do you do with your bluff-catcher?
- ACall — she over-bluffs, and I beat a bluff
- BFold — nines are too weak on this board
- CIt depends on my exact kicker
Reveal the answer
Call — she over-bluffs, and I beat a bluff
That's the adjustment. Against a proven over-bluffer you widen your calling range — a pair that beats her bluffs is plenty when she's firing this often.
Why
Playing everyone the same means running one 'correct' script regardless of the opponent — bluffing the calling stations and paying off the nits — instead of exploiting the player actually in front of you.
Vs a maniac who has shown you three river bluffs, a pair of nines is a profitable call. The same hand you'd fold to a nit, you call vs her. Reading the opponent is the whole game.
Option by option
- ✓ Call — she over-bluffs, and I beat a bluff — Vs a maniac who has shown you three river bluffs, a pair of nines is a profitable call. The same hand you'd fold to a nit, you call vs her. Reading the opponent is the whole game.
- Fold — nines are too weak on this board — This is the no-adjust leak in the other direction: you over-fold to a player who's shown you nothing but bluffs. Vs a maniac you must call lighter — folding a live bluff-catcher to a known over-bluffer hands her the pot she's begging you to take.
- It depends on my exact kicker — The kicker barely matters here — what matters is HER range. She's over-bluffing, so any reasonable bluff-catcher calls. Anchoring on your own cards instead of her tendency is the mistake.
You run one 'correct' script regardless of who's across from you — so you bluff the calling stations and pay off the nits, leaving money against the exact weak players you should be crushing.
Learn to fix plays everyone the same →This is 1 of 7 hands in the free leak quiz — find YOUR leak.
Play the free leak quiz →