I played against maniac yesterday and I lost a lot, but I also learned a lot (cash game).
There are a few types of maniacs and you have to adjust your strategy for each of them. That I played against was a very good maniac type player. And he won because he put me on the tilt. I think this is the main strategy of maniacs. My ego didn't just let them steal my blinds, also, I got all the time bad cards and wasn't patient enough.
There was a situation when maniac was on Button and I was on Small blind. Maniac bet 3x BB (as always), I did slight 3bet (minimum) with KJo, Big Blind involved (super fish, bad player), then maniac did 4bet (that was weird), I wasn't sure if he is bluffing, so I did 5bet and he folds. I won that hand (big pot).
That was one strategy that worked this time, not always of course. This type of maniac makes players easily to tilt because they need to think a lot of how to exploit them, aka needs a lot of brain power. You just can't follow some simple guideline. After all, he succeeded and I lost a lot of chips (I didn't play my A-game anyway and I tried to be too fancy).
There are people who say never bluff maniac, but I don't agree, sometimes you can bluff. But you have to do that by big bets and you need to have a good hand reading ability. And not playing against maniacs is not an option if you are playing on the small
poker site like I am. And if you have big poker goals, you have to play against all kind of player types in order to get better.
And of course, you need an EGO at the poker table. It is your table image, but there are golden mean, having a too big ego will ruin your career. But you can't show your weakness to maniac or he will use that. I will continue with that strategy against a good maniac to slightly 3 and 4bet all the time and make light bluffs and play In Position as much as possible. Make a plan and follow that no matter what. And the most important thing,
tilt control. Do not let them go under your skin.
So, I don't know if this a right strategy to beat a good maniac, but next time I will try this and adjust it to MY game.
1. Play In Position as much as possible
2. Make only slight 3 and 4bets (sometimes even with marginals)
3. Use their aggression against them.
4. When they raise PF, 3bet ALWAYS slightly if you want to involve
5, When they raise on the later streets, slightly 3bet almost always if they are very loose players (just making things harder to read your hand).
6. Change your playing style and make a plan ALWAYS beforehand how are you going to play your hand if you are going to involve. Just try to be as annoying as possible. Show him if he wants to steal your stack, it is not going to be easy.