Notice that playing a marginal hand against a crazy player is really dangerous. It’s unadvicable. However now that you’re in it, you have to look at what you know.

Does this crazy guy like to play a lot of hands but play tight after the flop? Does he like to check then go all-in? Does he like to bet to steal the pot?

If he’s a true maniac, you should call, but be wary of what he does on the turn. He probably has a 9/8 o.

If he’s real agressive (like Doyle Brunson aggressive) then you might wanna call with raising as a close second. There’s a distinct chance he’s got nothing, or he’s drawing and wants all the band hands out. Your pair happens to be one of those hands…

But aside from this, you also gotta realize you have nearly no outs. You have a runner-runner straight, maybe(?) a runner-runner flush, 6 outs to a weak two pair, and 2 outs to the golden trips card. Unluckily your kicker is really crappy, so if you don’t have any read on your maniac opponent, it’s a good idea to fold. You have to make a good sized call and maniacs tend to play hands that have 1 high card and a trash card (unluckiest would be q/5)

But yea. It’s all about information.

Smooth call here. He may have just hit a set of fives on you. If he raised to the 7 preflop - he may not have wanted too much action. But I wouldnt go too nuts with the second pair cruddy kicker. Its not a bad hand to call with while playing six handed - you are playing with a decent hand. The hands that I would call this kind of preflop bet with is like the 7 4 or the
6 3 or 8 5 or 7 5. These have implied odds that are there and if you hit (not with this flop obviously) you will bring down a good sized pot.

Your dilemma started by calling pre-flop. You obviously thought your Q10 was worth splashing around with and this is a pretty good flop to hit. If I wanted more information I would of re-raised him pre-flop and took control of the hand. Two things would probably happen 1. They fold to your re-raise (especially if you’ve set it up by playing solid hands prior) 2. They will check the flop and give you the option of seeing the turn for free. If I decide to play against a raise from the button I’m not going to let a person that plays 10 8s be the aggressor.

i never raise solely for the purpose of information because i am very confident in my ability to play the next card and re-evaluate my situation there…in the scenario you described, my play is to make what i call a “half info/half value” raise, because i expect to have the best hand against this type of opponent…when your opponent is loose and crazy like that and you flop second pair you can often safely assume that you have the best hand, and if he comes back over you then you can fold…so it is partly an information raise but mostly a raise to protect what i think is likely the best hand

and generally, that is the situation in which i will use the info raise, in conjunction with the idea that i expect to have the best hand…for example, an unknown villain raises from early position to 3x the BB and i call with K-J of clubs…the flop comes Jh-7h-5s and he leads for a pot-sized bet…now i will often have the best hand, he could easily have a middle pair or A-K/A-Q, but i could also be beat by J-J, Q-Q, K-K, A-A, A-J, all reasonable hands for him to have…i will raise most of the time on this flop because i feel like i rate to have the best hand, but also if i raise and he comes over the top, then i can fold my hand cheaply…if i just call, a blank comes on the turn, and he bets again, i will have no clue whether he is taking another shot at it with nothing, value betting a worse hand, value betting a better hand, or semibluffing, i will be at a guess

so for a general answer, raising solely for info is a play that should be rarely if ever used imo, you should know how your hand expects to rate against your opponent before raising to gauge your opponent’s hand

The situation you have descibed is not a good one to re-raise here, with a nut in the hand, a re-raise may get you an all-in. Since he is so loose you want to have a bigger hand then Q-10 here on the flop, you may have the best hand here and you may not, even loose players hit the flop sometime’s. I myself would just fold the hand here and move on, or if i thought he was on a draw or a bluff i would just smooth call and see what came off on the turn. I just **** getting to invested with just 2nd pair, no draw. I like useing the prob bet when i am the first one to bet at the flop, not when i have to call a bet. It’s one thing to be the one betting, and another thing to have to call a raise. If was first to act in the hand after the flop i would fire out a little more then 1/4 of the pot to see where my hand was at, but since he bet right out pre flop, and has now followed through with a bet on the flop, you will have to just lay this one down and pick a better spot. Other spots to use a probe bet are on hands where you have a hand like 8-8 and the flop comes out K-9-7, this is a good spot to put out a nice prob bet, these kinds of bets should be a little bit bigger then 1/4 of the pot, the size of your probe bet also matters on what kind of flop is out there and how many other players are in the hand, plus what kind of players are in the pot as well. Phil Ivey and Phil Helmuth are the masters of this kind of poker, the play small pots and they make these prob bets that are just big enough to get weaker hands to fold, and it also gives them info on what others hold as well if they call or re-raise.