Where to sit against a maniac?

[PokrLikeItsProse]

The conventional wisdom is to try to sit to the immediate left of a maniac. In my experience (playing mostly on-line, small-stakes no-limit hold em), I am not sure this is always correct.

A maniac often affects other players. This effect is usually strongest on the players to the immediate left and right of the maniac and weakest on a player sitting on the opposite side of the table.

If it can be arranged, it seems best to sit to the left of a maniac with two or three seats between you if those seats are filled with players who may go on tilt or are already tilted. If you are a player who is prone to tilting and who is self-aware of that weakness, this creates a buffer between you and the maniac.

It is also good to fill up the seats between you and the maniac with calling stations. The you can use the maniac to help you whipsaw these players as the maniac raises, they call, and you reraise.

Finally, assuming that you are a solid tight-aggressive player, you may find that other tight-aggressive players are also seeking to zero in on this maniac and get money from the ATM. It is preferable to give them a seat between you and the maniac rather than sitting to the immediate left of the maniac and finding that another solid player has taken the seat to YOUR immediate left and you find yourself in the same situation that I suggested trapping a calling station above. I think this last part is most applicable to on-line play rather than B&M.

[BugSplatt]

Poker author John Vorhaus suggests to position yourself a few seats from the maniac. If there is a player directly left of the maniac continually trying to isolate by re-raising, his idea is to three bet when entering in this situation. I think his strategy has some merit.

Bug

[Al Schoonmaker]

The crtical issues are the maniac's reliability and/or tendency to telegraph his moves. If he ALWAYS bets or raises, or if you can tell when he is going to bet or raise, the best seat is to his immediate RIGHT.

If he will always or nearly always bet or raise, the seat to his right is "the permanent button." You get last action almost all the time. That last action is particularly valuable when he bluffs. It is very painful to call a maniac for a bluff, but get overcalled.

If he telegraphs his bets and raises (and many maniacs do), you want to be to his right. You are then "the button" when and if you can spot his bets and raises.

If he is unreliable or does not telegraph, the conventional wisdom is correct. Sit to his immediate left.

Of course, if you tend to go on tilt, you should completely avoid games with a maniac. If you are a tilter, it does not matter where you sit. Sooner or later, you will go on tilt because maniac games are full of outrageous beats.

Regards,

Al

[Al_Capone_Junior]

[ QUOTE ]
It is also good to fill up the seats between you and the maniac with calling stations. The you can use the maniac to help you whipsaw these players as the maniac raises, they call, and you reraise.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is particularly good for limit games.

However, unless the maniac is extremely reliable in telegraphing his intentions AND he is not a "near 100%" maniac, then I prefer him on MY right the vast majority of the time. A maniac who raises 90%+ of the time preflop is pretty useless if he telegraphs his intentions, because he is going to do it nearly all the time anyway. It's your "50-60%ers" that telegraph reliably you want on your left.

I generally don't worry too much about other TAPs in the game with me, nor their position relative to the maniac or me. If they are really TAPs, then they will be doing the same thing you are, which is mostly waiting for strong hands, thus they won't be in many pots, and you won't tango with them very often. What you should be more worried about is the situation where there is another LAP in the game, and you are inbetween the maniac and that player. Now YOU are the one who may be whipsawed, a very undesireable situation.

If there are several very aggressive and loose players in the game, it may be better to just not play at all. In those situations, you must be extremely tight, and even then you will still wind up getting lots of terrible and expensive beats. This type of game (common in cali) CAN be beaten. However, after playing in these games for years, I was only beating them for about the same rate I was beating normal games, but with much higher fluctuations.

As a general rule, I almost always want the maniac on my right, as this creates the most profitable situations, mostly because you save so much money preflop, and can most effectively isolate them postflop.

al