The Trouble With Maniacs

A while ago, I wrote a column called, "The Best Seat Versus a Maniac." I explained the trouble you can get into because of highly aggressive players, even – and especially – if you're in the position that quite a few people think is best: sitting on the immediate left of the maniac. One of the big problems you, a good player, will face in this type of situation occurs when the players behind you don't respect you when you three-bet the maniac. Let's say the maniac raises as the first one in, you three-bet with a hand like A-Q or 9-9 (you would definitely reraise with these hands to isolate the maniac, wouldn't you?), and someone cold-calls or even caps it. After the flop, you will find yourself sandwiched between a highly aggressive player who will bet with anything and someone who may or may not have you beat, which is not a very enviable position to be in, to put it mildly. This is especially true if the flop has not helped you, but may in fact have helped your opponents.

Let's analyze a concrete example of this type of situation, and look at the betting patterns and possible thought processes before as well as after the flop.

Situation: The maniac has raised from early position as the first one in. Why is he a maniac? Well, he raises something like seven or eight hands out of 10 before the flop, and after the flop, he usually keeps driving by bluffing and semibluffing; and, yeah, sometimes he even has the best hand. Note that I said he usually bets after the flop, but not always. This maniac does change gears every now and then. He knows how to put pressure on people, senses weakness very well, and just feels when the opposition may not be that strong (meaning that he might be able to bully them out of the pot).

Your hand: J-J.

Analysis: You have a very good hand that is almost certainly better than the raiser's. In fact, you should probably give the raiser credit for not much more than a random hand, since he raises before the flop so frequently. In this case, you have an almost-automatic three-bet. If the people behind you fold, you will be able to play heads up, in position, with a hand that is likely to be the best by far.

Actions: The cutoff cold-calls behind you, the big blind calls, and the maniac caps the betting. Everybody calls, and you take the flop fourhanded.

Situation: The flop comes K-8-4 rainbow. Now, the big blind bets out, and immediately gets raised by the maniac. It's up to you. What should you do?

Analysis: This is one of the most common problems you'll face when there's a maniac in your game. You have invested four small bets before the flop with what may very well – though not necessarily – be the best hand, and now after the flop, your opponents are putting on the pressure. Knowing the maniac will probably try to bully everyone out, the big blind bets into him, knowing he will probably raise. The big blind knows that if you hold a hand like 9-9, 10-10, J-J, or Q-Q, you will have a very hard time calling; therefore, he might be betting a relatively weak hand, such as A-8, to make you lay down the current best hand. You know that the big blind might hold a hand like this, and you also know that the maniac doesn't necessarily have to have anything in this spot. On the other hand, there is someone behind you still to be heard from (someone who has cold-called your reraise before the flop, and who might very well hold A-K, K-Q, or some other hand that has you beat). Plus, if you call – and thus show weakness – the hand may get three- and four-bet to put even more pressure on you, and if someone does have a king, you will be putting in four small bets while drawing to a mere two-outer. And that is just on the flop; the same type of betting sequence might also occur on the turn, where the bet doubles. Still, if you decide to fold but indeed were holding the best hand, this can be considered a catastrophe, with the pot being so big and your opponents willing to go all the way to the river with hands like middle pair or even ace high (in the case of the maniac).

Actions: It is hard to tell if folding, calling, or reraising would be best in this situation. If you think you might be able to make someone lay down a king by reraising, this might be your best choice. However, this scenario is highly unlikely, considering the amount of money in the pot and the fact that people know you may simply be trying to isolate the bully. So, it is imperative to know your opponents, but even then you will make the wrong decision every now and then: either folding the best hand (that is, the big blind holds A-8, the maniac holds a random hand, and the cutoff holds something like A-Q) or calling or even reraising when at least one player has you beat.

If your opponents continue playing their normal game, having one maniac in the game can be very profitable for you. You can isolate the maniac with your good hands while having good position, thus giving your hands the best possible chance to hold up. But your opponents usually won't be playing their normal game. They will be waiting for the maniac to bet or raise, and will not respect your raises and reraises as much as they usually do, because they know you will try to isolate the maniac whenever you can; and they know you won't need aces or kings to do that. If you're in this type of situation, you may well get forced into making the wrong decisions after the flop, because people know how to use the maniac's tendencies against you. This is even more true because of your position: You will often find yourself sandwiched between the maniac, who will bet into you with anything, and the players behind you who are also in the hand. And with all the bets you have paid before the flop and will pay thereafter, and with the pots being much bigger than usual, any wrong decision you make can be considered a terrible one.