What do you do against the maniacs? You know, those who would float your every cbet, just love to bet, raise any time they sense weakness and who are liable to have ATC? I'm especially curious about this OOP.

IP I find just calling them down yields the best results, since they often keep potting - but it's pretty hard to call down 3 barrels even with TPTK and with weaker holdings I can never seem to find the guts to do it. So should I just be raising them more often with weak(er) holdings or should I wait for a trapping hand?

I find that these players are my weakest spot by far, and would appreciate any advice.

Valuebet, and raise.

Either go nit .... or if you have the balls you can go medieval on their asses and out aggro them !

Go nit is actually bad advice ... you really just have to gamble it up with lower values than you are used to

I play a lot of micro stakes on-line and don't run into maniacs very often. If you really don't do well against them, then one option is just to switch tables when you have a maniac who is bothering you.

I actually like to play against them. I think it makes the game more interesting. I usually try to play them only in position unless I have a premimum hand and vary between playing back at them hard and letting them do the betting for me on the flop and turn. You have to play your good hands aggressively on the river.

There will be some variance, so you have to be comfortable with that because even maniacs get good hands.

i set them all-in with any kind of a hand and put pressure on them as much as i can without allowing them to be the one that gets to make the last bet.

Cbet fewer hands.
Avoid them.

When you hit let them bet your hands for you.

Maniacs love to put on the pressure and usually bet, bet, bet evertime they sense weakness or have control in a hand (either the lead in betting or position). When you re-raise them they fold. So don't


Get passive with big hands and they will get the money in for you.


Play some more marginal hands against them for them for value.

Yeah, let them hang themselves, let them bet untill they are pot commited. TPGK is the nuts, but you have to make your decision on the flop...if you call the flop, you know he is barreling big on the turn and river, so don't waste money calling if your going to chicken ou when the inevitable river bet comes on the scare card. That plays right into his hands. Face cards are more important than drawing hands.

calling down light or waiting for big hands is ok if they're bad. i mean, its $, but its not optimal though. when i a guy keeps putting money in with crap, you can just beat them at their own game and take it away from them over and over again.

I used to be/am/will still occasionally be a maniac, so here're some anti-maniac/LAGTard advice. =)

Before everything else, I would like to say that of the responses above, I think EyeJacket did a really nice concise summary of everything really important. I would have said mostly what he said.

I think the psychology of a maniac works this way: the maniac has many faces, but you can generalize them mathematically in the following form:

The maniac picks a street, call it street X. Plays either lagtard/calling station until that street, and then goes into careful/even nit mode starting on street X. The basic premise is: on street X and after, they'll respect your big bets (and especially raises) tremendously, even though they seem to not care at all before street X!

1) X = flop. These guys really burn money. They are 60/45 types who will actually still cbet a lot. The key is to be in their basez raising their cbetz and they'll fold.
2) X = turn. I've known several of these people in real life. They will go crazy on the flop and pre, but when the big bets come in on the turn and river, be very careful. They'll always have a hand.
3) X = river. triple barrel. Seriously.

I think a usual gameplan is to understand what the hell X is. I think about 25% of the maniacs have X = flop, 60% have X = turn, and 15% have X = river (once in a blue moon you'll meet someone who will actually have X = ocean because they do not sane-up on any street, and will be convinced you have 3 high so they'll call with A high, or even K high. Just value these guys to death) So it is usually a good idea to expect that X = turn until you are shown otherwise.

Then the basic strat consists of:

1) before street X, bet strong hands for value and call down with mediocre hands for value. Do not raise speculative hands for value.
2) on street X and after, polarize your range. Bluff with hands with no showdown value (if you pegged X = river, you MUST fire that third barrel or you are wasting way too much money!!!!). If you can, bluff with a raise instead of a bet. Maniacs are very very scared of raises. Here is where knowing X is important. If X = turn like it usually is, then they will call your raises on flop all day but be ass scared of your river raises! Call their bet with 3-high IP on the flop and raise the turn. Hard. They WILL fold like all the time.

I think the hardest part is figuring out what X is and stick with your read. Most of the advice given so far are excellent and it is good to apply them in general, but I think you gain a level of optimization when you can put the villain on a specific X and play correspondingly. You gain a lot of value by keeping in a passive gear when they are maniacal and immediately shifting into aggressive gear when they get out of their maniacal gear. We all know this fact is true in inter-hand analysis, but I think it is also very true in intra-hand analysis.

-YZ

Make a hand, let them bet