How do you beat a maniac who bluffs often in heads up?

[EvanJC]

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[Alexthegreat]

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Also, be careful that you're not actually identifying a skilled heads up player as a maniac, because it's possible that this guy is just very good.

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[Shawn Keller]

I wanted to clarify my last post, when I said you have to almost play like a maniac to beat a maniac in headsup no limit, I simply meant that you're going to have to play back at the maniac some of the time to keep them from running over you. The term maniac is really too vague in a headsup no limit situation to describe a soft opponent I think.

If the opponent is paying you off really weak and making horrible bluffs then he is probably a good spot. However if he makes huge bluffs, but also can make decent laydowns then he may actually be a tough headsup opponent. In summary if I'm going to play headsup no limit I prefer an opponent who is conservative and predictable because then I can be the one making the big bluffs and the good laydowns, and they'll be scratching there head wondering how they are losing to a maniac.

Hope that helps,

catchoftheday

[KSOT]

First I'd just like to start by recapping our games tonight, then I'll respond to some posts. Again, thanks for all of your advice, it's extremely helpful to me.

Tonight I had just about the worst melddown against the villain since we started playing NL hold 'em. Unlike the 3 dollar debt games we usually play every night, tonight we had two guests and did a $10 buy-in tournament. I DOMINATED it for the first hour or two, promptly taking out the two newbie guests. We had each started with $10 in chips and I was up to about $42. Villain takes out Neutral (other housemate) and we go to the dreaded heads up. He starts his horrifying routine of pushing all-in every three hands and finally I make a gutsy call to his all-in after pairing up my 2s on the flop. The kid has nothing but a flush draw, but naturally he gets it on the river >_<

After that I go on tilt like NEVER before and follow the advice of people here who said I have to push back with mediocre holdings if that's what he's doing, so like an idiot, I catch Q9s and decide to go for it. He loooks at his cards and flips over QQ. Didn't end the game, but it might as well have. I've never been more upset after a game than that.

A half hour later I asked him to play heads up with me, because I've decided that from now on I am completely and utterly dedicated to learning how to beat him. We played 4 games (for $3 debts which we keep on a dry erase board) and I won three of them by listening to those here who streessed that I play passively. I can't stand the idea of waiting for good cards to trap a maniac because sometimes they never come, but it sure worked out well tonight. I don't know if that would have worked as well in the cash game we'd played, because the blinds were big at that point and still growing, but I will continue to hide in a shell against him and see how it works out in the long run. I'm feeling more confident about it all now though. I just have trouble accepting that I can't beat him at his own game.

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This is easier said then done, though. Good LAGs know to give up when you push back.

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Well, he does go too far sometimes (partially to discourage me from betting), but in general, yes, he knows when to let go of his hand. Probably doesn't matter to him since he knows he'll be stealing my next three blinds with outrageous all-ins. I can't blame him... it's only so often I get cards to scare him out with. A lot of the time I'll try to slowplay something like high pockets if he's betting into me, but he'll hit two pair and I'll be angry with myself for the rest of the night. Once in a blue moon he'll slowplay me and wow... forget about it. How could I ever put HIM on a hand if he isn't betting?

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Start playing passively, checking to him with every hand and letting him bet. Don't spray chips with silly semibluffs because you're just getting raised and then what do you do? The solution is not to just start pouring chips at him. Call him with top pair and ace high and sometimes jack high and don't raise him until the river. If he's truly a maniac he can't beat you because he'll bet himself out of money.

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This is really what I want to hear. As I said, in the second set of games we played I FORCED myself to try it tonight no matter how pissed off I got at his constant bets and it really worked quite nicely. Just takes patience and relatively break-even cards.

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Also, be careful that you're not actually identifying a skilled heads up player as a maniac, because it's possible that this guy is just very good.

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Well, in my opinion he's both, but he's DEFINITELY a good HU player. He plays and wins heads up tourneys on pokerstars a lot and we all recognize him as the heads up master. I'm the best all-around player in the house without question (I dominate the house debt board I mentioned before and I do better online than the others), but he's just got that damn edge on me.

[kurosh]

Note I'm referring to LIMIT. I am not a good NL player.

[garcia1000]

I think that a lot of the 'outrageous all-ins' he makes every three hands may be justified by the high blind structure. I notice that in your original post you didn't even mention the blind structure. You might want to think about the effect of the blinds on correct play.