Playing against really bad people.

I mostly play cash games, grinding it out on the internet. Every month a bunch of us get together to play a little tournament, live game with just a small buy in, nothing serious. I join in because I think its good to play live games as well as on the internet. It's a different dynamic handling real chips and also picking up physical tells.

Anyway a few months back a couple joined in our game and they were both super loose and just maniac style players, but really had no concept of position or pot odds. Interestingly I found it really difficult to play against them because I couldn't put them on a range at all. A10o in the CO doesn't look very good when you have a raise, a re-reraise and then an all in :/ I didn't get premium pf hands the whole night, which didn't help. I wish I could've landed up with AA or KK when they tried their all in move but it didn't happen. So I ended up folding way more than usual and eventually other players knocked them out.

Have you guys also been in this situation? What do you think the best approach is to play against maniacs in live tournaments.

Ive played in MANY games like this. You just have to wait it out, get it in with the best of it and hopefully your hand holds up. The guys I played with would call ANY amount just for the chance to hit that gut shot straight or flush. So you have to make sure you have it and hope it holds. Putting them on a hand will come the more games you play against them. Good luck!

plays like this its pretty much impossible to put them on a range... but like brian said, wait it out get into cheap pots against them in position with hands that have potetial, and outplay them postflop..

In a live tournament when you've got some really poor players (not uncommon.... in my area you'll typically see limp.. limp.. limp.. min-raise..call... call, then Pot it w big pr & get 4 callers, lol).
I tend to rely on physical tells from them.
Another typical play by the rookie/maniac is to make smallish cbets and then either shove the river or way overbet pot, quite often w air or 3rd pair or something.
It can be tough to play against bad players (for reasons you've mentioned) and it sucks to watch them pick up big pots and then re-distribute those chips to other players.

tough at first, then once youve played 2 hours with them it becomes a lot easier ;D

If you want to adjust to playing loose/maniac type players live, get some experience with online freerolls.
What I mean by that is you descibe the 2 above players as playing way loose and those are the type of players you see all the time in freerolls so more than likely ATos will beat, if not racing those types.

I have played those types in live games before and would almost always fold the better hand preflop because I didn't know how they played but after seeing them turn their hands over I now play into them because I know I am the better player and know what they will be pushing, which usually ends up being any suited ace and all, and I mean all pocket pairs.

Wow thanks for all the help. I think I'll be a lot more confident facing these types of players again in the future.