My favorite position against a maniac/LAG

[bernie]

2 to 4 seats to his left.

Especially if their are weak players in between with at least average chipstacks. The bigger the chipstacks caught in between, the better. This allows a nice wide range of hands I get to play, plus being able to use the other players to read him better at times. Let's face it, it'd be nice to sit on his direct left and isolate him all day. That just isn't going to happen. Eventually others will be coming in and/or 3 betting/capping behind you. Leaving you out of position many times.

Tonight, the guy was initially about 3 seats to my left. We have a little history with each other so we sling chips(usually preflop) when we get into it. He absolutely hates losing to me. Takes it somewhat personal, actually. I think he's fun to play with as he really gets my noggin working. Where I was initially seated there was only 1 hand in the rotation where I'd have great position on him to 3 bet him and all that fun stuff. It sucked. So I slowly moved around to my right. Took 2 seat changes 'til I ended up 2 seats right of where I started. One guy jokingly accused me of playing musical chairs and moving around the bend. (I started in seat 8, then went to 7, then 6. LAG was in seat 2) Another wondered why I made my 'final' move since I just won a nice pot, why not stay in that seat. :rolls eyes: She took my seat when I moved to my final seat. Kinda funny. Also, judging from listening to the reactions from many to me moving, they really had no clue as to why I was doing it. Since I wasn't moving that close to him, I don't think it appeared like he was my objective.

Anyone else find this as a little seat in heaven? It was tonight.

b

[MarkD]

It all sounds reasonable. I know that I have found recently that I hate when i have the maniac directly to my left.

[Dov]

It's ok, I guess, as long as the players between you and the maniac are not too aggressive and tenacious as well.

I just played a hand yesterday in this exact spot, where I ended up folding a winner when the maniac bet the river and the caller just called him down with A high.

The board was J high with a 4 flush on it and I had JT without the flush. The river goes Bet, Call, and I Fold.

Maniac shows J5, no flush and caller shows A9o, no flush. This is after the maniac and I cap the flop with the caller in the middle.

This hand made me sick. (lol)

In short, sometimes the bad players in between you can really screw with your game when you can't get him isolated.

BTW, I actually had to quit that game soon after that hand because I started to feel that subtle tilt and couldn't kill it.

Good Luck Bernie

Good Post

[stigmata]

I allways wandered about the ethics and wierdness of changing seats whilst playing live.... How do you do it without looking totally odd or obvious what you are doing? It's not like they are going to believe "hmmn, this seat is uncomfy too..."

[Oblivious]

People are morons... they assume youre moving to "change" your luck. They cant imagine theres some strategic purpose to moving.

[Oblivious]

I like having him immediately on my left. I can checkraise after several loose victims call him.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
It all sounds reasonable. I know that I have found recently that I hate when i have the maniac directly to my left.

[/ QUOTE ]

Depending on the rest of the table, this isn't a bad spot to be. You can really get alot of value on draws.

b

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
I allways wandered about the ethics and wierdness of changing seats whilst playing live.... How do you do it without looking totally odd or obvious what you are doing? It's not like they are going to believe "hmmn, this seat is uncomfy too..."

[/ QUOTE ]

After a hand or 2 no one cares. Do you remember after a few hands players that have switched seats? Sometimes it does look obvious. Like when you move directly to the left of the LAG. But, so what?

b

[MarkD]

Yah, it's tough though because it costs you a lot to enter the pot and if the rest of the table is fairly tight (typically party 15 game) you can't play many pots against him when he is on your left.

Maybe this is all anecdotal and results are skewing my perspective, because I completely understand my ability to check raise this guy when he is on my left, but I have had a number of sessions recently where I was doing poorly and attributed those results to the maniac to my left. I feel much more comfortable when I am on his left.

In this game what happens is you are out of position, without the initiative, against a tricky agressive player. I don't consider that a fun spot. If lots of pots are multi-way this effect is much less and having the maniac on your immediate left probably isn't as bad.

[Jezebel]

but the real trick is to move only two seats at a time to avoid having to post /images/graemlins/grin.gif It can look like island hopping as you gradually move clockwise around the table.

[PokrLikeItsProse]

It more or less depends on the table. If they fold too much, I like being somewhere to his left to isolate, while if they call too much, I like being somewhere to his right to charge people multiple bets. if I am too his left, I don't like having someone who tries to make isolation raises between us, but I do like an overly tight douche bag who quotes his pre-flop raise percentage to be to my left if I can isolate him out of the hand.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
if I am too his left, I don't like having someone who tries to make isolation raises between us,

[/ QUOTE ]

If you know someone is isolating, Especially with lesser hands, you re-isolate. You use the same gap theory concept. This can really slow them down knowing they may get capped behind. It could also spark a wild action table with the players behind you. Pay attention to how they react. However, you will be capping with lesser hands than you normally would to do this. Which is one reason that sitting on his direct left doesn't always pan out. You aren't usually going to be able to isolate him forever. Especially in loose games where you will likely be called behind.

b

[PokrLikeItsProse]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
if I am too his left, I don't like having someone who tries to make isolation raises between us,

[/ QUOTE ]

If you know someone is isolating, Especially with lesser hands, you re-isolate. You use the same gap theory concept. This can really slow them down knowing they may get capped behind. It could also spark a wild action table with the players behind you. Pay attention to how they react. However, you will be capping with lesser hands than you normally would to do this. Which is one reason that sitting on his direct left doesn't always pan out. You aren't usually going to be able to isolate him forever. Especially in loose games where you will likely be called behind.

b

[/ QUOTE ]

If I am playing a 6-max table, it gets really annoying trying to re-isolate because I end up doing it out of position way too often for my comfort. Of course, I have capped with Q9s in the small blind before just to send a message to the player to my right that I wasn't going to tolerate his crap. He was very unhappy when I flopped bottom two and he flopped TPTK and called me many, many names. The induced tilt was very, very profitable.