Dealing with a maniac

[djshawk]

I'm trying to recover from yesterdays bout of crappy poker and started pretty well up about 25BB. As my table started to go sour I looked at the other ones I had open and saw one with a maniac at it. 10 hands played, VPIP 100% and PFR 100%. All the other people were loose passives, so I thought I'd give it a go.
Obviously I knew each hand was going to be at least raised PF so limited my hands to high PPs and suited connectors/1 gaps.
I got my ass kicked.
The thing I found was when I got to the flop with these hands, the pot was sooo huge that even with just a couple of backdoor draws I had to stay in.

Has anyone got any advice on how to play in these tables? Its easy to say just dont bother but they must be super profitable.

Here is a hand:
Everybody is loose passive, except the maniac who is the button.

Party Poker 0.5/1 Hold'em (9 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J/images/graemlins/heart.gif, T/images/graemlins/heart.gif. CO posts a blind of $0.5.
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP1 calls, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, MP3 calls, CO (poster) checks, <font color="#CC3333">Button raises</font>, SB calls, Hero calls, MP1 calls, MP3 calls, CO calls.

Flop: (12 SB) 5/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 3/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="#0000FF">(6 players)</font>
SB checks, Hero checks, MP1 checks, MP3 checks, CO checks, <font color="#CC3333">Button bets</font>, SB calls, Hero calls, MP1 calls, MP3 calls, CO calls.

Turn: (9 BB) 2/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(6 players)</font>
SB checks, Hero checks, MP1 checks, MP3 checks, CO checks, <font color="#CC3333">Button bets</font>, SB calls, Hero folds

should I have called this?

Party Poker 0.5/1 Hold'em (10 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 8/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 9/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, UTG+1 calls, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+2 raises</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 3-bets</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero folds

[EliteNinja]

Your play on those two hands look fine.

Since the variance of when you play with a maniac goes up, you should know that you must have the mental ability to weather the swings. Having a huge bankroll helps your mental state.

[jskills]

Good fold in both hands. No way to play it better.

Pick your spots with maniacs and reraise preflop to isolate. Both of the hands you posted are usually fine in an unraised pot, especially in late position, but once you're expecting to get raised, you've got to limit it to very premium hands.