Dealing w/ a maniac
 

First time post. So be kind please.

Neighborhood home game. $40 buy in NL Blind at $1 and $2
My first question: Does the buy in in relation to the blind amounts seem a little askew. It seems to me that with those blinds the buy in should be in the neighborhood of $80-$100.
This coupled with a total maniac that plays with us that will routinely raise to $15 pre flop with any two cards. I will limp or raise 3x bb and and he will come back over the top for $15-20. He does this to everybody. I play good cards and try to wait for a time to trap this guy but after playing and not winning a hand or two I find myself down to about half of the buy in. Then it comes down to finding a hand and just moving in with it and hoping the maniac calls and doubles me up.
I would really appreciate any advice on how to better deal with a total maniac.
Also, any opinions on the buy in in relation to the blinds would be helpful.
Thanks in advance.

Re: Dealing w/ a maniac
 

$40 buy in is to small.

Here is how I look at it.

Typical hand probably has a bunch of limpers. Lets sayyou have 4 limpers when it gets to the button (who has just bought in). Button looks down and finds a hand. Decides to make a pot sized raise (this is pretty standard for me) that would be a raise to $15. Now lets say the blinds and 2 limpers fold the other to call (this is pretty common in low buyin NL games so I'm not stretching to find an example). Pot size is now $52 and the button has $25 left. Bottom line is that after making a pot sized preflop raise at an unraised pot the player who just bought in does not even have enough money left to make a bet that is half the pot. Even if there was only one caller of the $15 bet, the pot is still $39 and that is more than the button has.
This is not a playable situation.

If you play this game with what you call a total maniac (your description of his play does not necessarily make me believe he is a maniac), it seems the solution is to wait for a hand and then when he bets you put it all in. Unless you have already increased your chip stack, this structure will not allow you to outplay anyone after the flop, so you may as well get it all in with the best before the flop.

If people don't want to play for more money, then you might suggest playing a tournament. This way you can play with bigger stacks but no one is putting up more money than they feel comfortable with.

Many of the rooms here in Vegas started there 1/2NL games with a $100 max buyin, most have raised it to at leats $200. Personally I prefer no cap on the max. I know that scares some people off, but the concept of being bullied by a bigger stack is really a tournament concept, and if you think about it, in a cash game a guy with $10K has no more advantage over you and your $50 stack then a guy who has $51.

The only advantage I see to have a cap on the buyin to a NL game is that there are players who just don't get it and are afraid to play in game where players have more money than them and will not play without a cap.

Another suggestion on the buy-in ratio
 

Use tournament chips with expanded values for this cash game.

$40 gets you T4000. Blinds can now be $T15/30 and give everyone some play without requiring a bigger investment.

At the end of the night, cash out for 1/100 of your chips.

Re: Another suggestion on the buy-in ratio
 

[ QUOTE ]
Use tournament chips with expanded values for this cash game.

$40 gets you T4000. Blinds can now be $T15/30 and give everyone some play without requiring a bigger investment.

At the end of the night, cash out for 1/100 of your chips.

[/ QUOTE ]

Keep in mind that one problem you can run into with this system is that if someone leaves with chips and brings them back at another time when you haven't cut their value your host may find himself with a loss. If you have a $5 chip that you actually use at $.05 value and then have a game next week where the same $5 chip is worth $5 you can have a problem if you have a player who is less than honest. (this can be a problem in tournament play as well so always make sure all the chips get returned at the end of the night.

Re: Dealing w/ a maniac
 

Thanks for the replies.
I think I will suggest a buy in amount of $40 to $100 at each players discretion.
It is not the money that is an issue. Rebuys are plentiful and some will rebuy 5-6 times. The maniac(and he is a maniac, 90%pf, raising about 1/2 the time) will not hesitate to rebuy 10 times if needed. The table has anywhere from $1000-1800 on it by the end of the night.
They consider me to be very tight but with the buy in amount I don't feel I can really play poker I just need to move in with a strong hand and see how it plays out. Maybe with the higher initial buy in we can start to play poker and make it less of a crap shoot.
Thanks for the input and maybe they will accept the recommendation. Thanks also for the tournament recommendations.

Re: Dealing w/ a maniac
 

[ QUOTE ]
I would really appreciate any advice on how to better deal with a total maniac.
Also, any opinions on the buy in in relation to the blinds would be helpful.
Thanks in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]

Either raise the buy-in, or better yet, lower the blinds. Usually 100 BB is a good starting stack. .25/.50 with $50 buy in works, so does .50/$1 with $100 buy in.

Against a maniac, your variance will increase a fair amount. Just wait for a hand and re-raise whenever you enter the pot after the maniac. This will make you money, and/or make the maniac rethink his strategy a bit. "Fight Fire With Fire"

Re: Dealing w/ a maniac
 

tell them to set the mex buyin to 200, and tear it up

Re: Dealing w/ a maniac
 

[ QUOTE ]
First time post. So be kind please.

Neighborhood home game. $40 buy in NL Blind at $1 and $2
My first question: Does the buy in in relation to the blind amounts seem a little askew. It seems to me that with those blinds the buy in should be in the neighborhood of $80-$100.
This coupled with a total maniac that plays with us that will routinely raise to $15 pre flop with any two cards. I will limp or raise 3x bb and and he will come back over the top for $15-20. He does this to everybody. I play good cards and try to wait for a time to trap this guy but after playing and not winning a hand or two I find myself down to about half of the buy in. Then it comes down to finding a hand and just moving in with it and hoping the maniac calls and doubles me up.
I would really appreciate any advice on how to better deal with a total maniac.
Also, any opinions on the buy in in relation to the blinds would be helpful.
Thanks in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]

The buy in is ridiculously small. I play in a 1/2 NL homegame and I typically buy in for 150. I don't think anybody is buying in for less than a hundred and some for much more. I'd buy in for two hundred, except that I typically bring 300 bucks and want to have a decent size rebuy if I stack off.

--Zetack