Quote:
Originally Posted by donkatruck
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.
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.