Advice on playing with a super LAG at the table.

I play exclusively live 3/6 and 4/8. Looking back over my notes that I take after each session, I notice that I tend to have difficulty against the MAJOR LAGs (I love the Minor LAGS). It's as if I try to "outLAG the LAG" I get looser PF (when LAG is in the pot), I re-raise much lighter to try to isolate. And I get overagressive post flop because I have no respect for his bets (or raises even). I have several sessions of notes that look like this.

"Major lag at table and again I lost focus trying to get into the action."
"... then maniac came and I lost focus trying to get into a pot. I lost with A2s twice big when I NEVER should have been in the pot at all"
"Major LAG at the table influenced the passive table to come alive. I got overagressive on some weak made hands and paid for it"

What is the strategy with one maniac at the table? I mean this guy last night was raising middle pair with weak kickers. I was salivating to take his money and that ain't what happened.

LLL

EDIT: I did try to search but "Against a LAG" had tons of hits that seemed more certain HH specific

i just hope the cards allow me to get a significant chunk of his stack... at those limits (especially in person), it will largely be multiway pots, and blinding yourself because you want some of this guys money can be costly... in the past i have lost a good chunk of money when these guys sit down, not because of them, but because i paid less attention to others in the pot... you'll usually need to show a hand against them, but you can use them to your advantage, check raising for isolation etc, knowing youre goind to get a bet out of them with as little as an inside straight draw...

[Borodog]

I've had to deal with this a lot in live play. I've played with the super-LAG that will cap any hand he will play. He's not raise or fold; he's cap or fold.

The first trick is not to loosen your isolation standards to a point that leaves you exposed to other players behind you, as they can secondarily take advantage of you taking advantage of the LAG. So you can loosen up a bit, but not much. Also, you still need to not cold-call or isolate with easily dominated offsuit hands and weak aces. If the rest of the table is conducive to coming on in when the water is fine, start cold-calling your suited broadway hands to generate big pots when you have a big-pot-plays-well-with-others type of hand.

The second trick is to push your edges early, pre-flop, and on the flop, but not put in a ton of bets on the big streets when you don't know where you are. Sometimes the uber-LAG can shift gears on the big streets on you, and you find him shutting down when you are ahead, while you are still giving him maximium action when he has outdrawn you.

A famous hand I had against an uber-LAG went like this. I raise AA UTG. uber-LAG in BB 3-bets, which is automatic when you raise his blind, I cap. Flop is TT2. He bets, I raise, he 3-bets, I cap. Turn is a 7. He bets. At this point, I am either majorly ahead and he will likely finally give up and fold if I raise, or he has outflopped me with a T. So I just call. River is a 7. He bets, I call. UberLAG shows 75o for 7s full of tens. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I don't mind, because this is the same guy that doubled me up in limit when I had the nuts and he had like the 4th nut flush. He just kept raising until I was down to the felt. It was beautiful.

to more specifically answer your question... in pots that already appear to be multiway, i don't broaden my range of starting hands by too much against a PF raise from the maniac...
if theres only one or two passive limpers in front of his raise PF, and i'm in position, i will often isolate by 3 betting with any KJ or higher hoping to play heads up... problems arise sometimes because any monkey maniac can wake up with aces, and theres no way to differentiate his play from AA to K2s besides physical tells... (often physical tells don't work against these players because they are just as excited with K8s as AA)

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in the past i have lost a good chunk of money when these guys sit down, not because of them, but because i paid less attention to others in the pot...

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I absolutly do this. The pots can end up so protected with everyone taking a shot that if you call pre flop you have odds to call and sometimes odds to raise to protect all the way.

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you'll usually need to show a hand against them,

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I understand this. The problem for me is when HU against this guy, I have no idea what a showable hand is. He can now value bet me to death cause I will now call with middle pair good kicker (Hell, I'd value bet that FOR HIM).

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but you can use them to your advantage, check raising for isolation etc.

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I think I do this a little too much. If I can't read the LAG, getting HU with him gets tricky, I almost do better when someone else is in the pot because it seems to make more sense to me.

LLL