I played $1/2 at my local casino last night. A manic moved from the other table with about $400ish chip. He raised about $20-25 every hand. If there is a raise, he will pop it up to $60-80. After the flop (turn & river as well), he was still very aggressive, if he is first to the action, he will raise big regardless. If someone raise, he will raise or push.

Anyway, here is the problem, others at the table started getting pissed off. They started calling his preflop raise. But they play fit-fold after the flop. So the manic managed to big up his stack very quickly which made it harder to play against him. After an hour of card dead, I moved to the other table. OMG, same situation again. Another manic (stack: $900) on my new table. I picked up AQs in the first orbit, I raised to $20 on the manic's straddle (I didn't know he was a manic at that time), after 2 callers, he 3-bet to $50. I called since I have the position on him. I won that hand anyway. After that, I was cards dead again. I left an hour later.

So when people kept falling into his trap, giving him money ($60-$100 prefrop). He managed to win around 2 out of 3. Is it nothing much you can do when you are card dead?

The solution is to change your definition of what "card dead" is and let them value cut themselves to death.

You need to widen your range against him and be more willing to go all the way with it. If he's raising all bets that means he's doing it with air a large majority of the time. So you should be committing with any piece against him. Gonna have to gamble it up some. But don't be scared of this type of opponent, they pretty much always end the night busted out anyways.

I didn't have any pair (even 22). The best I got preflop was Ax non-suited). So I didn't really want to call $25 preflop for that. If I didn't get a piece from the borad, don't think my A high will be good majority of the time.

I think I will play suited connectors or gaps. Or even connected cards. But I didn't get those card during that hour. My plan was if I got those cards, I call preflop and raise with my draw or hit a pair. I don't think I can call his raise if I don't connect or hit anything, since my cards will not be that high. His K high maybe good at the end.

If you were truly card dead, there is nothing you can do, but Trev and venice are right. You have to be prepared to gamble a bit more. I seek these guys out -- my favorite type to play against!

x2, so good for the game. Your hand with AQs needs a 4bet/get-it-in ending.

I won that AQs hand. I didn't 4 bets him preflop. But I hit the Q on a rainbow flop. He bet, I called. Turn was a 10. He bet and I pushed with my flush draw. Apparently he got AK, so he called with his gut shot. River was a brick.

Ok. If I widely open my range, and gamble preflop. So if I don't hit/connect the flop, what should I do? float? or fold?

When playing a true maniac as described (and not just a good LAG), get on his right, not his left. Limp your premium hands, when he raises and the fit or folders call, you just jam when it gets back to you.

I get both concepts of sitting on his right and left.

But they contradict each other. If I sat on his right, I can't really open my range widely, unless I gamble a lot of hands preflop against him (& other players). Since I don't have position on him anymore. Yet this way, I can minimize the risk. Isn't it?

Exactly this. The reason you want to be is position against good players is because they presumably know how to play postflop poker well, read hands, put you on a range, etc. Having position on such a player negates some of his/her advantage.

Against the described maniac, there is no advantage to being on the left because his actions are not predicated on your actions, they are just him clicking bet and raise. In this case, being on the right is advantageous because it allows you to get a ton of money in by either limp/rr preflop, or check/raising post-flop when you are winning. Being on the right allows you to trap other players behind and collect a ton of dead money, whereas if you are on the left of the maniac you have no option to raise after there are a bunch of callers behind the maniac's raise.

Typically you're not trying to only hit a monster hand (nut flush, set, straight, etc.) against these players, . You are looking to hit top pair/meh kicker and being happy to get it in because if he is truly just raising everything, then your hand is good a vast majority of the time.

Hands that normally aren't great like KJo and ATo have much more value against this type of player because they make top pair hands a lot.

Probably start a band, try and get a bit of recognition, get a few songs, then write to James Dean Bradfield and tell him you've always been a massive fan and would love to jam with them sometime.

[/badjokes]

If you're not playing any hands it's a perfect time to observe.

The only specific information you gave us is that he 3-bets with AK and potentially takes it to far post-flop.

Is he positionally aware?

Does he bluff rivers?

How many times does he 3-bet per orbit? Is it 100% of hands?

How many times does he raise per orbit? Is it 100% of hands?

Once you observe ask yourself what is the likely strength of the hands he raises or 3-bets.

Your Villain is taking advantage of people's willingness to call raises (with weak hands) and then fold flops unless they hit them very strongly. In other words he's taking advantage of people who play very bad poker.

Short buy, buy in for minimum and just jamm to any bet, gambol pre. At my local casinos, for the 1-2 1-3 blind games you can buy in for 40$ or 50$.

P.S. you seem to have a lot of excuses like being card dead, but it seems like you were waiting for pairs and premiums. Stop being scared money and gambol up. This is one of the best situations you could hope for. I thought poker was dead, but maniacs like these make me have hope.

[QUOTE=au4all;44005973]

Is he positionally aware?
No

Does he bluff rivers?
Only few hands went to the river. Two that I remember were a) he raised with 4/9o. His river the straight. Bet the whole way. b) Raise w/ 89o. Flop: Hit 9 & bet. Turn: he got gut shot, bet and got re-raised. Push. River was a brick. The winner got A9.

How many times does he 3-bet per orbit? Is it 100% of hands?
How many times does he raise per orbit? Is it 100% of hands?
I would said 95% of the time.


[QUOTE]

Gambol up or move down to penny stakes #realadvice

At my local casino, I have to wait 90min to seat down again once I cash out.
As I said the early, I'm willing to play suited connectors, gaps, and connectors & high cards. I just didn't get those hands in that hour. Don't really want to play with Q3, 10/5 etc hands. I don't mind to play with manic, I made a lot from them before too. the reason I made this post was if you got into the situation that really don't have many hands can play, is there any good suggestion to do

Grunch: in general, grab your nuts and ride the variance. 3 bet for value with anything that's ahead of his range. Also punish those that flat him. The key to beating aaniac is havin as little fear as him. Understand that it's going to be crazy swingy and just play a stronger range than him. Understand that a stronger range than him is still probably much weaker than the one you're used to. What you shouldn't so is tighten up and try to "catch" him. A maniacs success is dependent on the table being too afraid and of kilter to play with him. Don't let that happen.


For specifics, this is actually addressed in the COTM stickies at the top of the forum.

This is actually backwards. You should eschew the connector type hands. The hands that have a lot more value against this guy are the Ax kind of hands and stuff that can make lots of top pairs since you're going to be getting it in early a lot and often you'll both have air/1 pair. You want your air to beat his air. You want your 1 pair to be bigger than his.

This is great if you have no bank roll. It's god awful if you can withstand a little variance. Don't cut your profits because you don't know how to handle this guy emotionally. I'd much rarer get it in good for 100-200bb than 25bb.

You want AT/face cards, not connectors/gappers. It's like playing the late stages of a tournament. Did he SHOW AK the hand you had AQ or did he SAY he had AK?

Two face cards are going to bring better value than suited/connected low cards. Playing the low card with a big pot PF will put you in some bad spots.

I am not a fan of playing a bigger range against maniacs unless I can handle 4 or 5 buy ins and play high variance. I would stick to top 20% starting hands and get the money in PF with a top 10% starting hand. I have no problem folding 2 orbits against a maniac. Let him build a stack against the other villians, then double up on him.

And obviously if you're truly card dead then there's nothing you can do. Don't play a bad hand out of frustration. Often, we watch horrible players bleed their money to everyone at the table except us and that's fine. We don't always get to have that money but we need o take advantage of every opportunity that does come out way.

Or bust out while you're waitin for your "sure thing." This is nothing more than risk aversion. If you cannot handle te variance then fine but understand that it's costing you money.


I'm posting too much.

He showed. He turned his cards over on the turn already.

Anyway, thanks everyone. I think I got the idea.

Agree with this. If you feel the need to wait for "good" hands because you can't handle the variance, don't play against maniacs.