[Wolffink]

I play Holdem but in that game, maniacs can be a real problem. You always see articles "How to Play When a Maniac is in the Game" for Holdem.

It's even worse if it's a player switching gears. If you get raised on the turn, how many winning hands have you folded to someone who might be in a "5 minute maniac mode"?

I was playing Razz last night and with a board of (2-3)-8-7-T-5 faced something like a: 5-8-T-T. I bet, he raises. Since the best he has is a T-low, I raise. He re-raises all-in. He doesn't draw out. The raise by him was a stupid play because I had a board lock. Even if he draws out to his eight, I still might win.

Razz, even more so than PL08 in some situations, punishes people who play too aggressively, who bully, who bluff too much, and who call too much. Bad play is obvious in Razz. It's not obvious in Holdem because you can't see their hole cards. They could *always* have trips even if the board is totally rainbow and innocent-looking. A pair isn't easy to make and when I do make Top-pair, it's also easily beaten. There's a NL quandry that you may bet your top pair, top kicker, but on the river, if you're re-raised all-in by a semi-maniac---it's still a tough call to make.

Phil Helmuth tells a story of playing Holdem, low limits for him, I think it was like $10/$20 and raising every hand, every card and betting , that at some point in the night he'd be up $1000. He was. If someone tried that in PL08, I'm hoping I can get a hand before someone else does and take his stack away from him.

The Steve Badger site has the well-known quote that PL08 between good players is incredibly boring. The Ray Zee book says that in PL08, bad players get cut up much too quick. In 7 stud, bad players can chase. In Holdem, they can play crazy and still have good nights. In fact, crazy-aggressive is a pain in Holdem to play against since you're rarely holding the nuts to confidently take them down.