[Pete Chestna]

I could use some advice on a particular hand and in general about playing against a maniac.

I play in a weekly tournament and usually go very deep so I never play in the side game, but I had heard that there was a maniac that could care less about his money and really only comes to play the side game. Last night the deck was ice for me in the tournament and I was out before the first break so I decided to play in the side games. I bought in for $60 in a 1/2 NL with 10 people. At that time the maniac wasn't seated yet. In about an hour and a half I had over $300 in front of me.

The maniac sits down at me table. A little about his playing style:
a. He loves to see flops and will call almost any raise.
b. If he gets any piece of the flop, he almost cannot get away from the hand.
c. He usually calls every bet hoping to catch or hoping that the opponent is bluffing. For instance, there was a hand last night that a 3 flush came on the flop and a 3 straight on the turn and he continued to call his money off with second pair.

So anyway, I am in the SB with about $380 in front of me. Full table (10) and get 8 limpers to me. I have AKh. With $17 in the pot, I raise to $25. I get 2 callers. One is loose agressive in seat 4 and the maniac in seat 5. The flop comes K52 rainbow. I figure that I am in great shape and lead out for $50. The LA drops out and the maniac calls. The turn brings another blank and I lead out for $100 and again the maniac calls. The river is a Q and again I lead for $100. This time the maniac moves over the top for another $60 all-in. I make the call and he flips over Q5 and his two pair take the pot. In my opinion, even if I bet stronger, say $100 on the flop, I suspect he would have called. He may have even called an all-in. I saw no reason to risk that many chips and the texture of the flop was very favorable to my AK, so I figured myself as a 4-1 favorite at that point. No scare cards came to make me think that he had any legitimate draws.

Opinions? Commentary?

Thanks,
Pete