1-2, late evening on a week night, full table.

Villain – 60s-70s yo Asian gent w/ wrap-around sunglasses and ball cap pulled down low. Claims he was a dealer for 25 years, possibly on a cruise ship, his broken English and accent make it hard for me to understand him. Rumor at the table says he won $2000+ High Hand earlier in the day. Lost several buy ins when I first arrived at the table but has rebounded and is now even +/- 15% for the time I have been present.

Villain is a MANIAC ! Plays 90+% of hands, seldom limps, open raises from $4 to $50(usually the upper end of that range), re-raises of 5x+ are common (re-raises a $6 open to $45 and $20 open to $115). Post-flop is just as aggressive. After V bet $55 into a $8 pot, the table Poker Expert gave Villain a short lecture on pot odds and proper betting. The ensuing discussion was spirited and brought some laughter to the table as well as a comment from the dealer about coaching at the table. V has Gamble, his over-sized post-flop bet was called all-in by a short stack which won w/ trips, V showed a K high flush draw. V's 59o made a winning FH. On a flop of K-10-8 (I forget pre-flop action) Poker Expert bets $50, V tanks. V raises to $300, PE tanks. PE folds, V shows 55. PE, with a shocked look on his face, says “You mean I folded 2 pair to an under pair!”

Hero – MAWG, newbie, long on 'book learnin', short on experience (~20 trips to the card room). If we include 2 High Hands, (Aces full and quad 10s, no chasing with 25s for me) I am about even in my short poker career. Generally I play TAG, but I will try a LAG move when I think I can pull it off.

Since V is in nearly every hand I try to study him, looking for tells. When 2 players leave I can move to V's left or V+3. I pick V's left and he immediately moves to the other seat, putting him 2 left of me. I wonder why because I took a shower and put on clean clothes an hour before and we are both smokers. Could he possibly fear my skills or is he just messing w/ my head? Lol. When this hand occurred I had detected no tells. V is always talkative and fidgety. I conclude that V is smarter than his 'act', he is a bit of an angle shooter, and he understands aggression.

OTTH

Hero has $160, V covers

UTG folds, V in UTG+1 makes it $19, folds to me in BB w/ 99.

Thoughts – Usually an easy fold. I consider 99 the top of the limp to set mine range but not quite worthy of raising from strength. $19 is far from a cheap flop and raising will put ¼ to 1/3 of my stack out there. But Vs range is pretty much any 2 cards which puts me ahead 80 or 90% of the time. Then a lurking tidbit floated into my thoughts. I've read somewhere that the way to deal with a maniac is to wait for any PP and shove. I've done this in the fantasy world of play money Pokerstars but this is real money. If ever there is a spot for this move to be used this is the perfect time. Then I remember the old adage about everyone wakes up w/ AA sometime. I had one hell of an argument with myself.

So, what say ye old wise ones?

Back later w/ the rest of the story.

Well, the question is if you shove, how likely is it that he will call? If he is rarely going to fold, you have an easy shove.
If you are unsure if he will, I would raise to ~$55 and shove nearly any flop and fold basically no flops short of AKQ/JKQ etc. Obviously not folding if he 4 bet shoves preflop.
Also, if you're ever at the table with him again...troll the "poker expert" as much as possible. They are bad at the game and for the game.

3b and get it in dude. The poker expert sounds like the nut low. V sounds like an awesome guy.

Best advice I an give is that you have to adjust your "getting it in and thrilled about it" range. This is both a logical and emotional problem that you have to resolve for yourself.

If you can't determine BOTH at the table, you should probably get up. You'll get there with experience. For more about dealing with maniacs, search the Best of LLSNL, you'l find really good threads about the topic.

For this particular hand, the best argument here for shoving is that you're kind of short. What is V's stack size? Are others 3betting him? How often? You didn't mention any of that in the description. How he and the table are adjusting/not adjusting will give us a sense of how to continue (btw, if we're sitting at the table, we need to be continuing with 99. Folding is out of the question.)

If he DGAF and is just gambling, you can shove with 99 and certainly get called with worse.

You're wildly underestimating pocket 9s. It isn't pocket 3s. It has much more value than simple set mining. Calling 19 dollars pre against an opponent like this is going to be wildly +EV. You have his range crushed.

Definitely agree with all this.

Think about what 90% of hands means, OP. He's raising J3o, and you need to punish him with a wide range. From the blinds, I would 3b, A2s+, A9o+, K9s+, KTo+, QJs-87s, QTs-97s, 66+. If he really wasn't folding pre to 3 bets, I would add more Axo and take out suited connectors. Just do this until he opens a lot fewer hands.

When you're dealing with a maniac, you have to be prepared to gamble. By betting and raising with a wide range of hands, they deny you information. Fortunately, this is more than compensated by the fact that a range that wide must necessarily contain many more weak hands than strong hands.

Step 1: Winch 'em up and be prepared for high variance.

An aggressive player with skills will know to back off when a tight player plays back at her. She makes money by scooping all the pots the other players aren't willing to stack off with, while ducking when the other players swing back. A true maniac will just shove money in the pot regardless.

If this is a true maniac (sounds like he is), 3b and get it in. If he'll fold when you show aggression like that, call and then call all the way to the river unless it's a truly nightmarish runout -- and I don't mean just a couple of overcards. You make money by letting him bluff of his chips. Yes, sometimes he won't be bluffing (or he'll accidentally be bluffing with the best hand). See step 1.

Don't worry about tells. His range is wide and weak. Play better hands than he does and aim to be all in as soon as possible. I'd start with 88+, AT+, KQ.

If/when he adjusts and starts playing a stronger range, you can adjust by laying back with your strong hands and encouraging him to bet into you, while occasionally playing back with your weakest hands as bluffs.

It's actually beneficial if he's to your left. Best position is directly to his right. That way, you can call, let him raise, see how everyone else reacts and then act accordingly. Worst position is actually directly to his left, since you'll have to act right after him and before everyone else. Sitting there, you're going to find yourself having called or raised the maniac when someone else shovels more chips in. That's not a good spot to be.

EZ 3bet and GII. All aboard the variance train.

You need a big enough roll to play against these guys without jeapordising your whole session by being out after 2 o r 3 buy ins.

I used to play with two buy ins and effectively if I didn't have a monster preflop I'd just have to fold and therefore it is better to find a new table. I should say even then 99+ AQ+ was more than enough for me to 3bet gii vs this sort of player.

Don't give them too much credit either. If he's an affable chap and enjoying himself and getting a decent run of cards and being folded to by some idiot with 2-pair on flop (WTF????) then he is going to look like a poker genius.

He is not a poker genius, he is just a guy having fun running people off their hands with someone else's money he doesn't care about. Get in there and gamble with him!

I find it helps to engage with maniacs like this and show the same joy at throwing your chips about as they do. He'll be least likely to adjust if you give the impression of being like:


"oh if it's that time of night let's all gambooooool! "

Rather than:

"don't you realise how bad I'm going to own you when I get AA??? "

Maniacs are high variance and almost impossible to place on a hand. They are there to gamble and reek havoc on the table. One this bad isn't there for poker, only excitement.

Many players are not comfortable playing against maniacs. You may find yourself feeding their habit of collecting huge piles of chips before spewing them away to someone else who holds on to them.

You really have two choices as already pointed out. Fold or get ready for an all in. Generally, I would suggest staying out of their (Maniacs) way until you are very comfortable and do not mind multiple buy ins with the possibility you may not win your buy ins back.

This particular Maniac has a huge edge. He plays as if he can afford to lose a lot more than you can.