Adjusting to Maniacs

I had just sat down in a $30-$60 hold'em game at Bellagio when another seat opened immediately to my right. A boisterous, tall fellow, scotch in hand, flopped his buttocks into the seat. He flashed a wad of several thousand dollars and loudly asked if we were ready to gamble.

He immediately posted the blind in spite of the fact that he had only two hands to wait until the big blind got to him. I always like to see this. It's a sign that the player either has no clue about the game or is incredibly impatient and lacking in discipline. Most often, it indicates both things, and I suspected this was most likely the case with the new player.

When the action reached him on his first hand, he loudly announced, "Raise!" and tossed in about 15 $10 chips in spite of the fact that it took only three to raise. He bet the hand down and showed Q-4 offsuit, having made a pair of fours on the turn, and the dealer pushed the pot to his opponent. Then, he hollered for the cocktail waitress to bring him another scotch. As the rest of the lap played out, this fellow didn't miss many chances to raise, and it was pretty clear we had a maniac on our hands.

A player like this changes the dynamics of the game and does so very quickly. The financial swings of the game dramatically increase. Pots are bigger, but you have to pay more to play. The prices of draws change significantly. Not only do you have to adjust to the maniac, you have to adjust to the way all the other players adjust to the maniac. Some people change their play correctly to deal with the situation, and some people make incorrect adjustments. You need to watch how the rest of the field is dealing with the new situation.

You can get pumped up very quickly in these games, but the opposite is also true; you can blow your wad just as rapidly. The style of play required to get the best of a game with these characteristics changes dramatically. When a betting maniac sits down, you need to make precise adjustments to your own game in an effort to compensate.

Your position in relation to the maniac is hugely significant when playing in this type of game. When the maniac is to your left, you have many check-raise opportunities and can also use him to protect your hand. Also, when the maniac is drinking (as this one was), you tend to get lots of tells, enabling you to use his action to define your action. However, due to the certainty of the pots being large and the price your opponents are given to draw, you would rather they fold many of the hands with which you are trapping them. That said, even if they are correct in drawing, you would rather they pay a higher price to attempt to suck out. Notwithstanding that, you are also likely to get action from hands that shouldn't be drawing. If you have a very good read on the maniac and can, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, predict his plays, the seat to the right of him is extremely valuable.

As sweet as it is to have the ability to use a maniac on your left, it's even better to have him on your right, as I had in this case. In this position, you can choose to raise him and attempt to isolate him, or call his bets and let other players in behind you. You want to isolate him with hands that could win without improving. These plays gain or lose value depending on the type of players yet to act behind you. If they are all caught up in the action or are aware of your playmaking and are calling your raises, the isolation play loses much of its value with hands that are strong enough to win unimproved when heads up, but are unlikely to win unimproved against several players. By just calling with hands with which you will probably have to hit the flop to win, you are in position to raise after the maniac bets if you hit the flop. By not raising before the flop and raising after the flop when you think you have the best hand, you reduce the price your opponents are offered by the pot to draw out on the hand you have made.

Most people respond to a maniac by automatically playing looser in all situations. If you are facing multiple raises preflop on every hand, you will want to tighten up your starting hands. Hands that do well when getting in cheaply (for example, suited connectors) lose value due to increased preflop raising. Starting hands that have a high likelihood of winning gain in value for the same reason. If the maniac is generally the only raiser and very few other players are raising, you can loosen up your hand selection, because the action will be magnified if you hit a big flop, thus adding value to your marginal hands. Since the pots are large, you should raise more frequently post-flop and slow-play less. Check-raising if you are to the maniac's right can be a powerful play, but in cases where you read him for a raise or he constantly raises, betting so that he'll raise behind you is often a stronger play, depending on the vulnerability of your hand and the styles of the other players in the pot.

The more vulnerable your hand and the greater the likelihood that your opponent will raise (I am assuming there is a good chance you have him beat), the more inclined you should be to bet. Since action is already available, plays designed to generate action lose much, if not all, of their value.

Adjusting to a maniac is not just a matter of adjusting preflop and raising decisions. Because the pot is large and maniacs have a resolute tendency to pay off, you must bet your marginal hands for value. Also, since the pot is large and maniacs tend to have a tenacious tendency to bluff, you need to pay off more frequently. That said, don't overdo these concepts. Don't get caught up emotionally in the action and start making bad decisions.

It is important to change your play significantly when the maniac is not in the pot. Oftentimes, other players lose interest in the hands the maniac is not in. Their minds are concentrated on picking off the maniac and they are not looking to get involved without him. Therefore, blind stealing and bluffing opportunities are often rich in those situations. Another error many players make is failing to throttle back when the maniac is not in, putting in too much speed and volume against a better field.

The presence of a maniac changes the dynamics of a game by changing the odds of the hands you play preflop and post-flop. Even maniacs have their own quite different styles, and you need to focus on the mindset of the given maniac you are playing with. He will be the most important player in the game to get a read on. I find that most maniacs are emotionally driven, and if you can detect an emotional pattern to their play, that can go a long way in enhancing your ability to read them. I also find that many maniacs are full of physical tells that can be quite valuable during the course of play. That said, it is hard to put most maniacs on a given hand.

An error many players make in these situations is that they lose focus relative to the other players in the field. Don't focus exclusively on the maniac and ignore the other players in the game. As mentioned, they have made their own adjustments to the maniac, and you have to deal with those, as well.

This maniac got drunker and drunker and plowed through his money, and I got my little piece. His mood and style of play changed as his stack size changed. He raised less, and even folded more frequently preflop. After absorbing more blows to his psyche and bankroll than his brain could handle, he announced that craps was more fun and then staggered out toward the pit. I rather hoped that he'd run hot there, get bored, and come back to the poker table. As well as I ran that day, though, I didn't get that lucky.

Roy Cooke played winning professional poker for more than 16 years. He is a successful real estate broker/salesperson in Las Vegas. If you would like to ask Roy poker-related questions, you may do so online at www.UnitedPokerForum.com.