1-2

Villain 1 (~600): He’s in seat #8. A wild player. Preflop, he’s raising about 40 percent of the time and calling about 30 percent. He’s opening the pot with a 35 dollar bet or three betting a 15 dollar raise to 40. He’s revealed lots of stone-cold bluffs. He flips over cards like A3o when an opponent folds to his bluff or he folds to an opponent’s raise after his bluff. He’s also a calling station against V2’s 20 to 30 dollar bets, showing cards like 68o after he sucks out his opponent in a showdown. He’s losing a lot of chips on some hands but getting lucky on others and maintaining his big stack.

Villain 2 (~1100): He’s in seat #2. He’s going heads up with Villain #1 in most of the hands, calling the 35 raises, or getting his 20 dollar raises called, and V2 is winning more than losing on showdowns with pots of 250 with hands like A6o on flops like KT6 and bricks on the turn and river. He’s opening the pot to 20 or 30, and everyone folds to V2, who calls or raises, and everyone else folds. In the end, after the hands below, he took V1’s stack of about 700. I can’t tell if V2 is a good player isolating a weak opponent, and using his big stack to bully everyone else out of the hand, or if he is wild like V1 with just a little more common sense.

Hero (220): in seat #3, in front of V2 and from five seats from V1. TAG, on the nitty side. Hero got in on the action with AA UTG with a raise to 15, folds to V1 who raised to 35, folds to Hero who raised to 70, and V1 folded. Hero thinks: This game is like 5/10, and I have 20 BB and can’t get the implied odds. Hero has only $100 in his pocket, and wants to reduce variance so that he doesn’t have to tell his wife he lost more than $300.

OTTHs

Hand #1
Folds to V1 who opens to 35, folds to V2 in CO who calls. Hero on the button has 55. Hero?

Hand #2
Folds to V1 in MP who opens to 35, folds to Hero in the CO with J9s. Hero?

Hand #3
V2 UTG raises to 20. Hero has A7o. Hero?

Get up pre. You are in the wrong game. You must be able to handle variance to play this game.

If you are going to play, stop raising V1 out of hands, let him keep blasting away, and call whenever you have SDV. Live with variance.

Considering you have to leave if you lose there is an opportunity cost to GII and lose. This is one time you can "wait for a better spot," in a cash game.

I'd shove hand 1, fold hands 2 and 3. Never call pre with your stack size.

Don't get up pre. If you really want you can play like a nit and make money waiting for 99+, AQ+ or something.

Yeah, you don't have to leave the game. But you need to understand you're only gonna get 2, maybe 3 shots at these guys with your stack and roll, so you need to pick the best spot(s) possible and be willing to live with the consequences.

And the absolute worst thing to do in a hand with maniacs is re-raise with big hands, as you saw with your AA. Remember: just because they're maniacs doesn't mean they're morons. If a nit 4-bets them PF, of course they're gonna fold their KJo or Q6s or whatever they would have donked off to you postflop after hitting TP. Give them the rope to hang themselves and they'll do it.

The good news is that even though it's playing like 5/10, you're still only paying $3 per orbit to wait for a big hand. Wait until a maniac has raised to you and you pick up TT+/AQ/AK. Three-bet. If you're in EP, limp and flat any raises from them. Jam the flop regardless of texture. Cross your fingers. Repeat as necessary.

When a maniac like V1 is at your table, don't you want to get into the action before someone else on the table takes his stack? If you wait for TT+ AQ+, V1's stack might already be gone. You also stand a chance of outplaying him on the flop. So what kind of hand do you need preflop to raise V1 in this game in position? Any pocket pair? AT+, KJ+?