How do I handle this Party Player?

[KingSix]

At a 3/6 table and have a player sit to my left. Never seen him, but I can see after about 15 hands that he is a total banana. I became suspicious when I raised with AA and he cold called with T6o and then bet into me on the AT7 flop. That isn't amazing in and of itelf, but I obviously instantly noticed this along with his 78+ VP$IP after the first set of hands I pulled into PT. He also went to showdown about 80% of the time and only won about 19% of those.

As play went on, I noticed this guy would slowplay anything of value and would bet EVERYTHING else.

Flop J88 and he has A3o? BET

Flop all diamonds and he has 7c4h? BET

Flop AKT and he has 22? BET

You get the picture....

My question is this: What is my best play here when I get a hand? My first inclination was to check and let him bet it so that I could trap everyone for an extra bet. This did work once or twice, but eventually others started to notice the fact that this player almost always bet with nothing and were raising and re-raising any bet he made, putting me in a tough situation when it got back to me.

What is my best play here that maximizes my EV? Just bet and hope for the loose call or check and risk facing 2 or 3 bets cold when it gets back to me?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

King

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

Players like this make everyone lick their chops and they often make the mistake of loosening up too much, because they hate to see the chips spilled on the table and get none of them. I'd play my normal tight game and raise when you are getting value for your raises. These games can be very lucrative, but you can also blow your whole buy-in pretty fast chasing draws, and you will be getting odds to chase.

Say you hold A /images/graemlins/club.gif K /images/graemlins/club.gif in LP. Four call to you, you raise, Maniac re-raises, all call, you cap, all call. There are now 6 in the pot for 12BB. Flop comes T /images/graemlins/club.gif 6 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 3 /images/graemlins/heart.gif. You have two overcards to TPTK (6 outs), a backdoor flush and a backdoor straight (each about 1.5 outs). With 9 outs and 12 BB in the pot, you are going to stay in for one or two, maybe even three bets, because you are getting 24:1, 12:1 or 8:1 on your bet. Assuming three drop out, there are now 15BB in the pot and the turn is a 2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif. Your AK may still be the best hand, and you still have 6 outs to what is probably the winner. Looney Tunes ain't folding no matter what, so you check-call (or bet and call the raise). The river brings another 3. Now what? There are 15BB or more in the pot. the one remaining Hanger-on check-folds, Maniac bets and likely was holding 25s, but is just as likely betting with K4o, so you are going to call the bet getting 16:1 or more on your call.

Given the swings, some choose just to not play with maniacs. The games can be wildly profitable because the maniac turns the whole table crazy, but be prepared for a wild ride.

[Blarg]

I usually try to isolate these guys if my hand even has a hope, usually with a check-raise. Players often want to play this guy with most anything, but having to eat a check raise to do it is something different. Other players often don't really think you're changing your hand standards much to play a maniac, so they don't want to tangle with a "legit" hand. But you don't need a very legit hand to tangle with some maniacs. If the regular crowd doesn't call and you isolate the maniac, you can often have a pretty mediocre holding but still be far ahead of the maniac. And hey, if your hand is good, well that's fine too. Either way. A lot of these guys who play too many hands also play them too far, so you can often get paid off even when you have the best hand by a mile.

I was playing a guy like that just last night. His stack went up and down really quickly, sometimes getting huge. Sucked out on me an unreal amount of times too.

They can definitely tear your bankroll to pieces in just the way the above poster says, though. You can lose a lot of money chasing in poker, even when you get the best odds. Most draws don't make it. When they do, a maniac can make you a fortune. But making draws is the exception, not the rule. Plus, a maniac's loose play can encourage everyone to chase YOU when you're in the lead, making the value of your pairs-based hands drop a lot.

Sessions like that present big opportunities, but you need your fair share of luck. Luckily, just a little good luck can get you back to even if you're behind in a maniac's game, though.

[sonarriley]

I ran into one of these the other day. 234 hands in PT and he had a $67.09 VP$IP. The amazing thing is that he would suck out a lot and he ended up over $96.50.

Good news is that it wasn't the one he beat. It was everyone else at the table.