How do you handle a super maniac?

[gabuk]

Last night, I met my first super maniac. He would raise pre-flop with anything, re-raise a pre-flop raise or cap it altogether. You could pretty much count on him raising the flop and turn and calling/raising the river.

He was catching two pairs, baby flushes, etc.

I didn't limp in with anything unless it was 1010 to AA or AKs. I finally get AA and push hard. There was a three card flush on the board but he never re-raised my flop and turn bet. The river drops a Q and he wins with two pair, Q and 6. Please note he capped this pre-flop so when the Q dropped I figured he hit his set.

After that, I didn't catch anything to challenge him.

When this type of player emerges, do you play super aggressive and bet into him or wait back and call/raise his bets?

Thanks!
Gabuk

[Bluffoon]

Isolate him with a preflop three bet or a flop raise and then check and call him to death. If he is a true maniac you will pick up your fair share of pots even when you miss completely as long as your hand selection is solid. Alot of them slow down on me after they see that I am not going to war with them and I am not going to fold either. If they dont then I just bleed them dry.

[bdk3clash]

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Isolate him with a preflop three bet or a flop raise and then check and call him to death.

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You really, really need to pay attention to how the rest of the table is reacting to the maniac. Do they know that the range of hands you're 3-betting the maniac with is bigger than your normal 3-betting range? Small stakes players tend to not cooperate with your fancy isolation/position plays, so keep an eye on who's doing what in relation to the maniac. One player can really alter a table's dynamics.

Also, the notion of check-calling is silly. Why miss bets? If he's willing to 3-bet with bottom pair, you should be willing to 4-bet with top pair...

It isn't comfortable, but it sure is profitable and fun.

[gabuk]

Thanks guys.

Most of the table (usually went to only 2-4 players tops) would either check and call his bets or raise when they had premium hands.

I tried to watch others as well. There were two other good players. One was trapped between the maniac (on his left) and the good player (on his right). I felt bad for him cuz he was having to call two or sometimes three bets.

I had AKs and AQs once but missed the flop and could/did not want to cold call flop/turn bets.

He's on my buddy list and I plan on following him.