playing against a maniac

[Swiss Cheese]

10-20 with a player that raises preflop with anything or reraise with anything, the flop and turn and river are the basically the same thing. What he has is immaterial to his raising but he has shown respect for your raises on the turn or river even mucking or just calling. What is the best way to play in this type of game. Where do you want to sit in accordance to him. This is different then the maniac who looks at his cards, you can not read betting patterns with this player.

Swiss Cheese

[Dynasty]

Sit on his immediate right and use his aggressiveness to your advantage.

Limp with your big hands (AA-JJ, AK-AQ) with the intention of limp-reraising him.

If the other players in the game are reluctant to call 3 bets cold pre-flop, then raise first-in with weaker hand such as 44 and A7o so that he 3-bets you. If you get the hand heads-up and miss the flop, check-call him down, including calling on the river with the unimproved A7o.

[Swiss Cheese]

I did not even consider limping with big hands because the other players still will play the any two cards for a raise, but 3 bets does slow them down a bit. A limp reraise just makes pots bigger but will not eliminate players. does this make a difference? thanks for your input Dynasty.

Swiss Cheese

[elysium]

hi swiss
you want to be on his immediate left, and reraise with ATo and KTo type hands, and anything better. QTo is ok, but that's about the bottom. also AX can be ok, but you would like him to be strong up front and fold on the turn or river. if he bets or calls the river with nothing, then don't play the AX. also be very sure your reraise drives the other bettors out. if not, you'll need solid starters. if you can't get HU, then it's better to be on the maniacs right. now he will give you the best relative position throughout the round. you will need good starters on his right.

[Lunamondo]

It seems the other players are also loose, so playing against the maniac shouldn't mean anything much. He will make you pay more to draw to implied hands, but will also make sure your implied odds are better.

[ragedyandy]

I think the problem is that you can easily lose a few racks early, and if the players making the game good decide to leave you end up uncomfortably stuck. I was in a game recently where that happened to me but luckily the loose raisers stayed long enough for me to win it back - I up and left soon after that.

[Dynasty]

A limp reraise just makes pots bigger but will not eliminate players. does this make a difference?

When you've got a premium hand, you want many opponents putting many bets into the pot pre-flop. You don't want your AA's against just one or two opponents.