Handling calling stations and maniacs

Originally Posted by thepokerkid123

You know the guy who plays absolutely appaulingly, whether his weakness is calling or raising doesn't matter here, just that he does one or the other the vast majority of the time.

Unless they get very lucky, that particular player will lose chips to me. That's a given.

But what I'm noticing is that when I'm at the table with a particularly consistant calling station or maniac, my proffit from the rest of the table goes down dramatically (frequently into the negatives).

The presence of a calling station means I can't bluff anyone else because this guy is still in the hand. And the maniac forces me to fold in a lot of situations where I could otherwise have an expected proffit.

Is there a trick to playing at a table with a calling station/maniac, something more effective than falling back on playing straight forward abc poker?

The cs requires ABC poker - however, your frustration w him should be amply paid off when he calls down w second pair - value bet him to death. The maniac presents more possibilities, since he's frequently going to be playing air and will scare everyone else off, so selectively playing back at him where the board presents opportunities to do so is profitable.

Here's something else I'm noticing, and I don't really want to admit to believing this because I know goes against common wisdom but I'm convinced I'm right. Sitting to the immediate left of a maniac is the worst seat at the table. I win big with them on my left and lose/break even with them on my right. Here's why: If they raise most pots, and you're next to act, you've got the whole table to act behind you. If you choose to make a stand, you've still got to get through four or five other players behind you and frequently they'll be limp-raising the maniac and you'll be caught in between. Quite simply, being to their left makes you first to act in as many pots as he raises.

Are you 3betting him when he's on your right? If you're flatting behind him, you're inviting all the rest of the table to flat behind you. You need to dump your speculative hands from EP and MP if you're simply flatting behind a lagtard - in EP and MP, if I'm playing back at this guy, it's almost always w a 3bet. Flatting speculative hands here should be reserved for BTN, maybe CO.

And post flop even out of position you know what he's going to do a good amount of the time, because of this I'd rather play him out of position than have to call a raise or make a re-raise with half of the table behind me on every hand that I choose to play.

I never like being oop, too hard to extract value. Not sure what stakes you're playing, but only the biggest lagtard idiots will continue a pure bluff ip against somebody calling oop - an oop caller, unless they're really bad, should have a hand that'll be difficult to get him off of, and any competent lagtard will recognize this.

Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by Poker Orifice

Here's something else I'm noticing, and I don't really want to admit to believing this because I know goes against common wisdom but I'm convinced I'm right. Sitting to the immediate left of a maniac is the worst seat at the table. I win big with them on my left and lose/break even with them on my right. Here's why: If they raise most pots, and you're next to act, you've got the whole table to act behind you. If you choose to make a stand, you've still got to get through four or five other players behind you and frequently they'll be limp-raising the maniac and you'll be caught in between. Quite simply, being to their left makes you first to act in as many pots as he raises

So why 'take a stand'? Having the maniac to your right is far better than to your left. You know he's playing a wide range so this gives you the oppurtunity to raise & isolate them. How can this be a bad thing?
Why would you be first to act in as many pots as he raises?... when you're isolating or calling with position???