Is it OK to cold call in this situation?

[jat850]

I'll expand on what some people have implied - raise to isolate or fold appears to be the concensus opinion. Part of that is paying attention NOT to the maniac raiser, but to the limpers. THEY ARE YOUR MAIN CONCERN while the maniac gets what he wants, which is to be the center of attention. It is your position + your review of the limpers play that should determine whether you raise, fold and/or tighten/loosen play at the table with the maniac. If your limpers are folding a lot and only playing quality hands, you must tighten up, too. Since you mentioned lots of players, if their standards are looser, you can loosen up selectively, i.e. with position, but reads will be more difficult.

I love it when a table kind of tag teams the maniac by only playing quality hands. If the table does that, its does not take long to bring the maniac to his financial knees and the table gets to split the proceeds.