Maniac

Do you have any tactics against maniac? Please share with me

To me a "maniac" is someone, who play to many hands, and they also tend to play them in an aggressive way. So basically just think about, how you want to adjust against someone, who can have a wider than normal range, and who is perhaps also more likely to bet or raise than other players? Some of the reasonable adjustments, that come to my mind, would be:

* bluff less which will also include opening less marginal hands preflop, if the maniac is still left to act, and especially if he has position on you.

* Fold less to bets and raises. Maybe AJ is normally a fold to a 3-bet, if you opened from early position, but not against a maniac.

* Value bet thinner. Since the maniac can have a wide range, he have more junky hands, he might call you with, especially because this kind of player typically dont want to give up.

* Take check-to-induce lines more often especially if you are out of position.

In general with maniacs the way to beat them is to let them win many small pots, but then you win most of the big pots, when you have a hand. In cash games you also want to not have these players on your direct left, because that is going to make the session a pure hell. If you find a maniac on your direct left, table change or seat change is a completely legit option. In tournaments you obviously can not do that, but in MTTs you can hope for one of you to get moved to another table, or that the maniac lose his chips.

With Maniacs there is just one thing you need to do. Buckle in, its going to be a rough ride. I dont know of a great way to play them but you need to be smart against them. You also need to be willing to take more calculated risk against the. Suddenly you cant fold your 4 bets to them when you have a good but not great pair. If he shoves on every flop, you will have to call with lesser holding than normal. IE top pair. Just remember, even the maniac can wake up with aces.

My tactic is to be patient, and play only high pairs AKs and AQs, there is nothing else to do when we have a maniac at the table, especially those who go all-in with bad cards.

Luvepoker said:

Just remember, even the maniac can wake up with aces.

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This is an important point. Sometimes when we decide, its time to make a stand against a maniac, we will get shown aces, a flopped set or some other hand, that beat us. And this does not nessesarely mean, we made a mistake. It just mean, we ran into the top of his range this particular time. So while this is admittedly a bit annoying, its important to not let it tilt you

Luvepoker said:

Just remember, even the maniac can wake up with aces.

Click to expand...

This is an important point. Sometimes when we decide, its time to make a stand against a maniac, we will get shown aces, a flopped set or some other hand, that beat us. And this does not nessesarely mean, we made a mistake. It just mean, we ran into the top of his range this particular time. So while this is admittedly a bit annoying, its important to not let it tilt you

Patience and play aggressively with strong cards

My tactic is to let him win his hands with billiard chips on the table so the maniac thinks he's always beating me and shooting mercy with all in whenever I have the certainty that I'll take my hand.

It can get frustrating but you just need to be patient and pick your moment, and don’t be afraid when your moment comes, you only need to catch them once to slow them down

Almost no MANIAC came across it any more.

If not liking, there is also a way to do table leaving.

Most of them start limping when they got lucky and lot chips, so wait for good hand and then take his chips, as he will bluff anyway

Fold and play premium hands, bet enough for him to call and not to fold. And as much possible try to see cheapest flops to hope you hit and then check and act like you didnt hit anything and let him try to bluff you and take his chips that way.

StephanJR said:

Do you have any tactics against maniac? Please share with me

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Enjoy the maniac, you'll make chips if you play a solid game! In general I would want to have strong hands OOP so that I can call (or trap) more frequently. In position I still want to have a stronger range that I am able to navigate the pressure with.

Enjoy the maniacs chips!

its also tuff to play against them because they will beat you some crap hand and it the flop turn or river

My latest video is all about how to crush a maniac

StephanJR said:

Do you have any tactics against maniac? Please share with me

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Hi.
My tactic is to wait patiently for a good situation. If the opponent is a maniac, sooner or later he will definitely make a mistake, so your task is just to wait patiently.
Good luck.

Waiting for the good hands is really important, as some has said. For me, if there is a player at the table that raises the pot every hand pre-flop, I like to re-raise just to see what he/she will do, and I'm not talking about a big raise. Many times they will fold, and if I do that a few times, they will slow down, or stop completely for awhile. But players like that are good marks to steal some money from. At least that's how I see it. GL you all

Hi.Just be patient, and wait for a nice hand to play against a maniacs, and to hit the best combination.

In general, most of these players have a short life in tournaments, you just have to be patient and wait for your strong hands where you are not afraid of having to go with all your chips to the center of the table. You have two paths; attack it directly with good cards and eliminate it, or wait for your strong hand with the possibility that another will eliminate it, or in any case it will reduce its bank and thus be able to attack it without so much risk that your bank suffers it.