AJJ42 vs maniac

I'm going to say what I always do in bomb pots: do not gii (deep) w/o the nuts on at least one board. I just call, bink at least one board, then go to war. It's great, because you can bink both boards and he might still go to war thinking he's good on at least one and can bet you off your board.

Might be different if this, "...huge maniac, extremely aggressive and doesn’t fold much. He exerts a lot of pressure and likes playing and bluffing big pots, " were not followed by this, "He is a pro and can hand read well."

That said, we did flop pretty darn well on both boards, so if you wanted to go for it on the flop, I can't blame you. Maybe he gives up if you show strength -- scooping that pot on the flop would be nice.

If we call and both boards don't get improved do you call a psb on the turn ?

Pretty standard call.

You can certainly call the raise, but I probably would not have bet the flop to begin with.

Checking is the standard here before even looking at your cards (deep stacked, OOP, dynamic and interfering boards)
Your specific hand also plays well as a check.
Lastly with Villain having position on you, I also want to check more than baseline.

i generally have very few leads first to act in bomb pots. although it being only 5 handed i guess i can see the argument. but i think i prefer to start with a check.

as played, folding is the worst option, i think call flop and evaluate turn is pretty standard.

when we think about his raising range here, i think he will have a lot of hands that interact with both boards (like KQT, KKQ, usually with at least one FD). we have nut outs on both boards but sort of one-dimensional hands, which will make it harder to play OOP. i don't think OP states V's relative position, it makes a big difference if he is raising next to act vs. after a couple of folds in between.

i'm trying to think about how wide V needs to be raising here for us to think about b/3b flop and he would need to be pretty out of line. all of which also kind of points back towards check flop and manage pot size OOP.

no point to lead the flop. moreover when you have a maniac in your back. let him bet and hang himself with some x/r

call unhappy

Re: lead sizing

If Hero leads, he can go smaller sizing,which is more of an equity-denial bet and value-building bet vs hands we currently dominate, as we have the wrong blockers for future agression if we don't improve.

Hero wants Tx, Kx, Qx,and 5x. Even maybe 7x. Ac is the only blocker we really like. J blockers good, but in this exact situation, discount the value heavily.

I do think check is probably better, both to induce lighter bets and because lots of good things can happen when we get to showdown, especially if the pot stays multiway.