How to Play Against Maniacs - Part 1

Some general rules

If you are a maniac, limit hold'em is definitely your game. No other poker game offers so much opportunity for your raw aggression to be considerably successful. Of course, your swings will be huge, and you eventually will lose money, but the ride will be exciting. You will have occasional big wins, and if you enjoy such things, you can watch your opponents squirm with discomfort and distort their games when trying to react to you.

If you are not a maniac, like most readers, maniacs give you problems. Their constant hyperaggression increases the price of poker, forces you to play fewer hands, increases your volatility no matter what you do, and changes the strategies you normally use to beat games.

You will notice that I have not defined "maniac." If you wait, I will provide a more detailed definition, and help you distinguish among different types of maniacs. For now, let's just say a maniac is a player who seems to be far more aggressive than any rational hand-selection criteria would allow, raising and reraising preflop (and generally post-flop, as well) with great frequency.

Let's look at some general rules about maniacs and their games:
• You do not have to play.
• The maniac is comfortable.
• Bluffing him is difficult.
• He distorts the play of your opponents.
• Tighten up.

You do not have to play: Well, you never have to play poker, so this seems obvious. Nevertheless, many players sit down in a game with a maniac, or more often are sitting in a game when a maniac sits down, and stay there while having a terrible time, not knowing what to do and grumbling about everything, but not leaving.

Remember that you never should stay in a game when you do not feel comfortable. I realize that it seems like you should stay in maniac games, because the "book" says the maniacs are playing badly, which should give you a better chance to win. Also, every pot is huge, so you figure that you need to win just one or two of them to have a great night.

However, if you are unsure of which hands to play or how to play them, you can start to lose a lot. It is tough to lay down any hand because (a) it might be a winner, and (b) look at the pot odds you are getting. So, you play more hands, lose more, and start playing even more because if you win just one or two of these giant pots, you'll be even.

Sometimes you have to admit that you are in a game that - even though it looks juicy - is too hot to handle. If you know how to play in these games, can tolerate the swings, and brought enough money to buy in several times if needed, go ahead and play. If not, find a better game, time, or place.

The maniac is comfortable: Most people do not play in games with a maniac in them very often. However, the maniac does. While his opponents founder around in strange waters, not knowing what to play, when to raise, whether to respect his raises, or how to deal with the pots that seem to make it correct to chase with everything, the maniac is directly in the middle of his comfort zone. He is used to games in which everyone may win or lose two or three racks in a short period of time. He is used to getting raised by little or nothing, and reraising with little or nothing himself.

While opponents are struggling to cope with incessant raises and reraises, the maniac is directly in his element. He is in a maniac game every time he plays. This enables him to better understand the game's dynamics and enjoy the struggles of his opponents.

Bluffing him is difficult: Most players assume that if worse comes to worst, they can always try to bluff the maniac on the river, as he frequently has little or nothing. Unfortunately, this works far less often than it would seem, because the maniac is quite used to people trying to bluff him, and will often call with thin values that you and I might lay down, or even attempt a rebluff. Maniacs know what you are trying to do, as they see people trying to do this to them all the time. That is not to say that a bluff won't ever work, but it will not work nearly as often as it would against a more pedestrian player.

He distorts the play of your opponents: This may prove to be a good thing or a bad thing, but it is nevertheless an important fact that you need to consider. Maniacs in a game tend to turn even the most conservative opponents into looser and more aggressive players. People who would never think of playing the A
3
in an ordinary game from any position suddenly find themselves three-betting with it from middle position. Players who would fold the K
10
without a quiver for a single bet are now calling two bets, or even three, routinely.

They see the maniac raising with J-3 and 8-4, and they figure, "Well, my hand is so much better than his hand might be that I would be a fool to throw it away." The fact that they are playing more hands becomes contagious, and now four or five opponents are seeing flops for multiple bets with substandard (for them) hands.

This, of course, makes for bigger pots and larger pot odds, meaning it becomes tougher for anyone to lay down a hand post-flop, even for the multiple bets that are certainly coming, because the maniac is still going to bet and raise when it is his turn, at least on the flop.

Unfortunately, you now have a tougher time reading what used to be sedate and predictable opponents. Despite the bigger pots, the game becomes tougher to read.

Tighten up: This advice depends on how your opponents are reacting, but in general, play fewer hands. When entering pots becomes more expensive, you need more quality to play. If several players are in, high unsuited cards go down so much in value as to become unplayable, though I would still see flops with A-K. If you can eliminate players by three-betting (not as easy as it sounds, with everyone expecting you to try), you can play some hands like A-J and K-Q, but do not overdo it.

If everyone goes on tilt, as often happens, and six or seven players take every flop for multiple bets, restrict yourself to only suited aces and pocket pairs. Flee post-flop if you do not flop a set, overpair, or flush draw. Bet and raise like crazy if you do.

Next time we will take a look at different kinds of maniacs and how to adjust to them.


Types of maniacs

In my last column, I discussed some general considerations about playing limit hold'em with maniacs. I promised you a better definition of "maniac," and that is what we will deal with in this column.

When someone starts to bet and raise every hand preflop, most players put them in the category of maniac. However, if you examine the maniac's play more carefully, you may discover a pattern to his aggression. Think of maniacs as falling into one of four categories:

• Predictable maniacs
• Situational maniacs
• Whimsical maniacs
• Expert maniacs

Predictable maniacs, whom you also can think of as "maniacal maniacs," are the ones most people think of when using the term maniac. They simply bet, raise, or reraise virtually every hand preflop, and most hands on the flop, as well. There is no way to tell what they hold, because they do the same thing every time. Nevertheless, we can make some observations about these characters.

First, they often stop being quite so crazy on the turn. When you get three-bet on the turn by a maniacal maniac, he usually has something that he really likes. Of course, what he likes for a given situation may not be the same as something you would like there, but it is rare for all but the craziest maniac to put in multiple bets on the turn with nothing at all.

Second, you definitely want this maniac on your left. I realize that there is a school of thought stating that you want maniacs on your right, so that you can reraise them and knock people out, thus "isolating" the maniac, but this does not work as well at the table as it does in theory, because your opponents rapidly catch on and ignore or reraise your attempts to get this type of maniac to yourself.

Keeping this maniac on your left accomplishes several things:

1. It follows the excellent poker principle that you want predictable players on your left.

2. Because you can be certain that he will raise, you can call with excellent hands preflop or check big hands on the flop and let the maniac drive the field into you. You essentially will have the button almost every hand, at least for the first two betting rounds.

3. The maniac will bet at every flop, thus putting the player on his left under the gun for action after the flop. This is not a desirable position, as he will never know if a raise is coming, and thus must lay down hands he would be able to play if his action closed the betting.

Situational maniacs look a lot like predictable ones, but actually have a trigger that inspires them into hyperaggression. Some like to raise the next bunch of hands after they win a pot, trying to create a rush. Others decide to raise every pot after they lose one, trying to get back to even right away. And some have a mystery trigger that only they know, but you should work hard to figure out.

If you know their trigger, you can actually have them on your left or right. On your left works because you know when they will be raising and you can set traps. If they are on your right, you can make isolation raises before the rest of the field realizes that they have suddenly become temporary maniacs. In effect, they will be predictable to you, while just seeming random to the balance of the players. If you don't know their trigger, they must be on your right, so that you will not be surprised when they suddenly start raising. Work hard to find their triggers, especially if they are regulars.

Whimsical maniacs are almost identical to the situational ones, but do not seem to have reliable trigger points. Once in a while, they just go off for a round, or an hour or more, before settling back down to a somewhat more normal pattern. You will do better if these players are on your right.

In a discussion of these whimsical maniacs, a student asked, "Isn't it still better to have them on your left? You will effectively get the button half the time, and that's pretty good." Yes, it is good to have the relative button more than your fair share, but only if you know when it will happen. Otherwise, you will make costly errors - checking good hands in hope of check-raising the field, only to find that the guy you thought was going to bet now checks behind you.

Players in this category are some of the toughest to play against, because you must assume that a raise by them right out of the blue is a legitimate hand. Once the raises start, those chances go down, but they seem to subside almost as soon as they started. It is thus much harder to get into the flow of their game and to take advantage of their unreasonable play while it is occurring.

Expert maniacs clearly deserve their own category. They are terrific players who choose to randomize their game with massive preflop aggression. They often are playing for lower stakes than usual. They are bored or impatient with the size of the pots and want to gamble. In some cases, they also want to upset those who normally play those stakes and to whom the money means something.

So, they bet and raise preflop with almost every hand, capping every pot that they can. However, here is where the commonality with the more typical maniac ends. After the flop, they play quite well, if still situationally aggressively. If they bet and raise, they have something real. If they play on, it is because they are getting the right price.

Lower-limit players tend to think these expert maniacs are the type they see more often: players who are there for action and do not play well. They give these players (who are admittedly playing some very weak hands) far more action than they deserve, since the expert maniacs are actually making sensible plays post-flop. Even when expert maniacs lay down a hand, they usually continue to make aggressive noises to mask their contradictory play, trying to sound far more maniacal than they are actually playing. Of course, winning an occasional pot with J-3 after three-betting a tight player preflop adds to that image.

Look for actions, not words. If a player does a lot of folding post-flop, and seems to raise at just the right times, he is probably an expert maniac. Of course, these players belong on your right, because even though they play predictably preflop, their post-flop actions are predicated on their chances of winning, not on their desire for action.

Next time, we will take a look at hand selection, and ways to cope with, or even prosper from, one or more maniacs at your table. We also will look at how to play when you cannot sit in the seat that I recommend.

Two final topics

In the last two columns, we discussed some general characteristics of maniac games and some specific types of maniacs. Both of those columns are available at www.CardPlayer.com. Now, we'll look at two final topics:

• How to actually play in mania games
• What to do if the maniac is not where you want him to be

How to actually play in maniac games: This depends on several factors, but as a general rule, you need to play tighter than usual, for several reasons:

1. You can't win the blinds.
2. Every hand will be contested at least to the turn and generally the river.
3. The pots will be large, and most will go to showdown.
4. You do not need to win many of the large pots to show a good profit.
5. The entry price will be high.

I want to emphasize that last reason. It will cost you a lot to see any flop, since the maniac will raise pretty much all the time, and anyone with a premium hand will raise, as well. Thus, most pots will cost at least three bets before the flop, and many will be capped. The more it costs you to play, the better the hands you need to enter a pot.

This results in some pretty tight poker, with long waits between hands played, in part because you are playing tight, and in part because every hand takes a long time to play due to all of the betting and raising. You will be tempted to play weaker hands because they appear to be winning, and because waiting while it is raining money all around you really tries your patience. Try to conquer this temptation by understanding it.

An obvious drawback to playing only good hands is that the maniac knows more or less what you are playing, while you have no idea what he is playing. He potentially can bluff you off pots by representing that he has connected with a trash flop, knowing you do not have any of it. You can vary your play a bit if you wish, but my advice is to stay tight and just win the ones you are entitled to with powerful hands. Let starting from behind be the other guy's problem.

Other factors I mentioned in how to play when a maniac invades your game are:

1. The type of maniac you're facing.
2. How the rest of the table is reacting.
3. Your tolerance for volatility.

1. The type of maniac you're facing: As discussed in the last column, maniacs vary in degree and skill. Predictable maniacs are among the easiest to play, as they are at least largely consistent. Of course, you can do virtually no hand-reading with this type of player, but you can exploit the fact that he will raise preflop, bet the flop, and generally raise on the flop, as well. Inasmuch as you will be playing tighter than usual, you can get in several value-raises against this character.

You can get even more leverage exploiting situational maniacs if you understand their triggers. For example, if a certain player always raises the next pot when he loses on the river, and you are on his left, you can three-bet the next hand somewhat weakly, because the rest of the field (hopefully) does not realize that his standards have changed. This is one of the rare times that isolating a maniac has some chance of succeeding.

The whimsical and expert maniacs are far more difficult, one because of unpredictability and the other because of his ability to play after the flop. Play tighter than usual, and trust the expert player more to make correct plays post-flop. Some of these plays may be weak, but all of them will have outs and some mathematical (or bluffing) basis.

2. How the rest of the table is reacting: Often, the maniac puts the rest of the table on some form of tilt. Rather than playing tighter, they loosen up their standards, calling and raising the maniac and each other with hands that they would not usually play. Their attitude seems to be, "If this guy is raising with J-2, I certainly should reraise with Q-5, as I probably have a better hand than he does." When this hysteria sets in, as it frequently does after a few orbits of constant preflop raises, isolation becomes impossible.

However, if enough of your opponents (five or more) start playing loosely and become immune to multiple preflop raises, you can begin to play small and medium pocket pairs and even weak suited aces from any position. Your goal is to flop a set or flush draw. You will be getting the right price to try to hit one, and great action when you succeed.

If your table remains timid enough for you to try isolation plays against the maniac, fine. This timidity rarely lasts long. Just remember to have a hand with some showdown value, as it is extremely annoying to isolate a maniac with a hand like Q-J suited, go a few bets on the flop, call the turn with your draw, and face a bet on the river with the choices of folding to what may be any two cards, calling with queen high, or bluff-raising with scant hope of success.

3. Your tolerance for volatility: Maniac games feature big swings. You will have to put in several bets to get to the river, and several players with strange hands will be trying to draw out.

You can add more volatility to this mix by getting involved in more pots with the maniac, sometimes raising and check-raising with draws and moderate values. Even if you have a deep bankroll and a strong tolerance of swings, remember to stay value-based. When you decide to mix it up with a maniac by playing J-8 or 6-4 for four bets, you have become a maniac yourself. We have established that the maniac is primarily playing for luck, and you give up whatever value and skill edge you have if you just start gambling.

What to do if the maniac is not where you want him to be: I know how annoying it can be to read a writer like me tell you where to sit, as if you can just show up in a cardroom and start rearranging players. If you are in the wrong seat (see my previous column regarding seat selection), keep trying to get into a right one, and play very conservatively. Your opponents will be able to trap you, raise you off hands, and put you under pressure. The only real way to survive until you can get into a better spot is to play as if you were under the gun on every deal. It's either that or give up and find a better game.

---