Poker Lesson #7: Playing With a Maniac

Poker Lesson #7: Playing With a Maniac
by Oliver Butterick

ma·ni·ac
n.

1. An insane person.
2. A person who has an excessive enthusiasm or desire for something: a sports maniac.
3. A person who acts in a wildly irresponsible way: maniacs on the highway.

(courtesy of dictionary.com)

It seems like this definition was written with maniacal poker players in mind, for frequently, they are insane, have an excessive desire for bluffing, and act in a wildly irresponsible way with their chips. Playing with a maniac at your table can be stressful—it requires quite a bit of mental (and intestinal) fortitude.

One problem with playing with a maniac is that there is not one cookie-cutter style of play exhibited by all maniacs. I will reserve the term "maniac" exclusively for loose-aggressive players (not to be confused with "passive-aggressive," which is something else entirely). Their play is characterized primarily with a high frequency of bluffing/betting with a weak hand.

Once you have identified an opponent as a maniac, then your real work begins. First, you have to determine whether he is predictable or unpredictable. What? I thought that being unpredictable was a trademark of all maniacs!! As logical as this seems, it is more frequently the case that maniacs are predictable, and, in fact, the more
unpredictable that a maniac is, the less he should be considered a maniac, for he has a lot more in common with a sophisticated player than he does with a true maniac.

In evaluating a maniac's play, it is invaluable to pay attention to everything he does, especially when you are not involved in a hand—which should be easy, since you shouldn't be playing very many hands and the maniac will play nearly every hand. One tell-tale sign of a maniac is that they will not be able to resist the urge to show their cards. Sometimes, they will want to brag that they got away with a big bluff, and other times, they will show that they had a legitimate hand, in an effort to get you to lay down more hands to their frequent bluffs.

The Unpredictable Maniac

This opponent is the most dangerous of the maniacs, but also the least common. His play is unpredictable because he makes the same moves with a bluff as he does with a strong hand. By keeping his betting pattern the same with different hands, he makes himself very dangerous, because even if you are able to identify his betting patterns, you will still have a hard time figuring out what he has. For example, let's say that this maniac has the following predictable behavior:

When everyone checks to him on the flop, half of the time, he will make a 1/2 pot sized-bet when he has nothing and the other half of the time, he will check. Also, if he makes a pair, he will check and if he makes two-pair or better, he will bet 1/2 the size of the pot. When there is a bet in front of him, he will make a large raise with top pair or better and make the same bet 25% of the time with a bluff. He'll also call with a middle or bottom pair or ANY draw. 75% of the time, he will fold if he has nothing. Let's say that he follows these rules exactly—predictable, right? Wrong. Predictable is not the word I'd use; dangerous is much more accurate.

For example, let's say that you flop middle pair, which, in a heads-up situation, will often be the best hand. You have to decide whether to check or bet. If you check, you will not gain any knowledge of his hand based on his action. If he checks, he could have nothing, or he could have a pair, AND he'll get to see another card for free, (and against a maniac, there ARE no safe cards!). If he bets, he'll be bluffing more often than not, but what do you do if he checks? Do you call and offer him a cheap card to make whatever draw he might be on? Or do you check-raise and risk a large amount of chips when he might be holding a big hand, hoping that you will fall into his trap.

Maybe you decide to make a pot-sized bet, figuring that you have the best hand. If he calls, you know that he's on some sort of draw, but you have no idea WHAT card he's looking for, so, again, any card on the turn that doesn't make your hand better could be making his better. If he raises, then you are stuck in a dilemma. You know that he bluffs sometimes, but most of the time, you're beat, so you have to lay the hand down, at which point the maniac will surely show you that he bluffed you off your hand.

My advice in regards to this player—and it will ring true for all maniacs, but more so for this one—is to play extremely tight and aggressive. Unlike most maniacs, this opponent is not one that you want to try to become involved in a pot with. One mistake against him will often bust you out of the tournament.

The All-In Faker (The Basic Maniac)

This maniac is very predictable: when he thinks you have nothing (because you checked), he will frequently move all-in with a bluff, and when he has a legitimate hand he may make a normal-sized bet, or more likely, he will trap you with a check-raise.

My advice for this maniac is simple: wait for a hand and snap him off. Don't bet into him. Wait and see what he does. When he goes all-in, call him if you have a legitimate hand. When you do, you will double-up or bust him out of the tournament. It might be frustrating, since you may get tempted to play more hands (since you don't want someone else to snap him off before you do), but be patient. If you don't get your chance, then you haven't lost anything by trying to chase him down and get involved in too many pots with him.

The Action Builder

Unlike the All-In Faker, whose actions are logical (big bet means he doesn't want a call and a small bet means he wants a call), the Action Builder uses the opposite philosophy, hoping that you won't notice the difference in the size of his bets. When he has a legitimate hand, he bets big, and when he bluffs, he makes a standard-sized bet. He is hoping for you to catch on that he bluffs a lot, so he will often show his bluffs. He knows that when he bluffs, he is only risking a small amount of chips and when has a hand, he could win a lot.

My advice for playing against an Action Builder is to play more hands against him. When he bets all-in, fold unless you have an ultra-premium hand. When he makes a standard bet, reraise. Most of the time, he will fold, but he might be sophisticated enough to make a standard bet with an ultra-premium hand. Also, don't reraise too often—this concept will be discussed later in the "Advanced Play" section.

The Short-Stacked Maniac

This maniac has one move: All-In, and he uses it often. Basically, he wants one of two things to happen: either he will double-up, or he'll get busted out and be free to go gamble elsewhere. In short, he wants action. Even a solid player can become a short-stacked maniac immediately after losing a lot of chips, often if he has just been given a bad-beat, so be aware of that. When someone suddenly becomes
short-stacked, evaluate whether or not it might put them on tilt, making them a short-stacked maniac. Be careful, however, as good players might only pretend to be a maniac—after losing a lot of chips, they will disgustedly throw all of their chips into the next pot, but not because they're on tilt. They have been dealt a good hand and they're hoping that someone will call them with a mediocre hand, thinking that they are on tilt. Likewise, this is a move that you should be prepared to make. If you suddenly get short-stacked, you can start to act upset, hoping that very soon you will be dealt a big pocket pair or AK and be able to get action
when you go all-in.

My advice for playing against the short-stacked maniac is complicated, because it has more to do with the other players at the table than it does with him. For example, let's say that you have A-9. When the maniac goes ill-in, you might have a difficult choice to make. Although you are likely to be a favorite against the maniac, if there are several players yet to act behind you, you should use extreme caution, possibly folding this hand, hoping that you will get a better opportunity to snap him off. On the other hand, if you are on his right and everyone else folded, you should feel safe calling with a hand like A-9, any two face cards, or any pocket
pair.

Third Man In, Revised

I recently found myself on a table with a short-stacked maniac, who was two seats to my right. He went all-in, and was called by the player between us. I looked down at pocket 10's and went into the tank. Here I was, in a classic "Third-Man-In" scenario, and I know that NORMALLY I shouldn't get involved with anything less than pocket kings. However, I had to get inside the middle player's head. I knew that the maniac probably had nothing, and I knew that the middle player knew that
he probably had nothing. Therefore, the middle player was probably willing to call with a wider range of hands than he would against a legitimate raiser. So, I ultimately called. The middle player had a weak Ace, and I didn't even need the third ten that came on the flop to beat both of them.

The lesson here is to recognize when you are not in a traditional third-man-in scenario. In the example I gave above, I would call with a wider range of hands than if the original raiser made a standard raise (and wasn't a maniac) and the middle bettor made a decent sized reraise, even though the amount of chips would have been smaller!

Advanced Play Against Maniacs

The key to playing against maniacs is that you don't want them to stop what they're doing, so you don't want to do anything that will discourage their behavior. First off, don't chastise their bad play or inadvertently teach them to play better. In fact, my favorite phrase when I catch someone else trying to "teach" someone not to play poorly is, "The great thing about this game is that everyone plays differently. If we all played the same, how fun would that be?" By saying this, I'm telling the maniac that it is ok to play like a maniac, while giving a subtle message to the teacher that he should SHUT UP!

Likewise, you need to encourage the behavior by letting them get away with it. If you reraise every time the Action Builder makes a standard raise, he will soon learn not to make that move any more, effectively changing his maniac status. This is especially important in tournaments—if you let him get away with his standard raises during the early and middle stages of a tournament, you will be able to take
advantage of him later in the tournament, when his bluffs will cost him a lot more chips.

Oliver can be reached at oliver@babblog.com.