Playing against a TOTAL maniac Heads Up

[Cactus Cactus]

I have been playing a lot of heads up lately, and sometimes you run into total maniacs where they raise / re raise everything. In a way this brings about very difficult situations because (1) it is hard to bluff at pots, because you often find your semi bluff attempts getting raised and (2) is what do you call down or possibily raise; bottom pair, ace high?

What is the strategy for a maniac? I find this situation happen to me quite often. I'll be in the BB with A5, he will raise, I will re raise, and he will cap or just call. He either will lead out of check raise whatever the flop. Often I find myself in a situation where I have A5 and the flop is KT9. I couldn't possiblity call down with just A high in this situation can I? What I am wondering is where my profit comes from this person. Would it be calling down on ace high all the time, or is this a losing strategy? Another possible strategy is to wait until you get a flop of your liking. Sure he will be taking a lot of pots, but when I do have a hand, i'll have extreme implied odds.

Any suggestions how to play against these people heads up are greatly appreciated.

[naphand]

Call down your showdownable hands, bluff/semi-bluff less (or not at all, at least to start with), raise and CR your best hands. Don't fold so easily with any hand, his bets mean a lot less and it is important you do not allow yourself to be run over.

[Michael Davis]

Play your aces and kings hard preflop as well as the other best hands made of high card combos. Don't ever fold a big card postflop. Go into calldown mode with highcard and pump your pairs like crazy.

Basically any hand that you raise/threebet preflop you are committing to showdown if your opponent is a real maniac.

-Michael