All-in maniacs

I've been watching this board for several months and just wanted to give kudos to all the frequent contributors. Very interesting and helpful site.

Started out with at the play money tables, I would highly recommend this approach. I've only played PP, and after a slow start have gotten upto +$125 overall(including Bonus). I was playing some 1/2 limit at first, which I realize I have no patience for, and this cost me a considerable amount as I was trying to play the required hands for the $100 Bonus. Now I play only NL. In the last several weeks, I believe my game has really improved and I'm more comfortable laying down 2nd best hands and pushing strong ones.

The last few sessions, I've come accross quite a few all-in maniacs. I LOVE these guys, especially if I have position on them. I just play a fairly tight game and wait for them to go all in with JTs(or sometimes even worse). They'll sometimes create a pretty impressive stack but usually crash and burn within 10-20 hands. Sometimes they'll even get other players to go in with marginal cards. This is a great atmosphere to win some huge pots. I just hate when I'm not the one to relieve them of their cash lol. You just have to have patience to not go get crazy and play too many marginal hands.

I'm sure others have come accross these players. What strategies do you use with them?

Exactly what you mentioned. Try to sting them with a solid hand. I also lower my expectations on the quality of their hands. I won't fold my top pair weak kicker to a decent sized bet unlike my normal play against a solid player.

But the thing about these players, they are very good at putting me on tilt. They have big chip stacks because they just plain get lucky, and usually against me. One maniac went all-in on 85 non-suited, I'm seated to his left with Pocket Rockets. He makes a straight and wipes me out, LOL!!

So, the one thing about these maniacs is that you can win a lot, but you have to risk your stack. The swings are much wider, and when I'm not on the winning end, I get pissed and go on tilt. But, more times than not, they pay off, so good players to play against.

Yeah, you're definitely going to lose big sometime, but I'll take AA all-in preflop anytime. So far I've had pretty good luck, staying out of the way for the most part then nailing him on a bluff. It's hilarious when they go all-in 3 or 4 times in a row pre-flop. Definitely have to watch out for going on Tilt if you they luck out at your expense

Overall though, I like having these players around(when I have position on them)

Love those maniacs, wait for a good hand and nail them with it, but also be willing to play some hands you normally wouldn't, because for one you could hit a nice flop and kill him, and also it keeps them from thinking you are a rock who will only call with strong hands.

Came across 2 of these guys last night, one went all in, after betting pretty crazy, I called with AKs for $22, he showed 86o. He won. Does anyone see the point of risking so much of your money just for $0.75 blinds? He then proceeded to give me a big "Hahahahhahahah". Nearly on tilt.

Put another $25 on the table, got it up to $80, then called another all in with AA this time. Beat him for $160.

Another was raising $5 just about every hand, and managed to get from my initial $20 to $80.

Quite a good night in all. But I did notice that these guys both left the tables with massive pots, bigger than mine.

My favorite way to take down the all-in maniacs in NL ring games is with a set. This only works if you can see the flop for a reasonable amount. Outplaying an idiot is much easier after the flop than an AQ vs 85o situation where these guys seem to get lucky.

A recent example: I'm holding 33, the flop comes AJ3. Prett much a perfect situation. I check, the guy makes a huge bet, I pretend to think about it for a while before finally raising all-in, he calls in a hearbeat, I clean him out. His hand was mucked so I'm not sure what he had.

The thing about this is that you've got to be at the table long enough to know who the fish are. If one of the solid players had made the exact same bet, I would have folded immediately, figuring him for pocket jakes or even AA. You gotta know who the idiots are to take their money...and even the idiots get good cards...but even if he had two pair AJ I had him...

>Why? If you're not willing to go nuclear with a set, then why bother >playing small pocket pairs at all?

We're talking about playing the player here, right? If you don't play differently vs. a tight player than vs. a maniac, what's the point? In the situation I described, I figure the maniac has maybe a ten percent chance or less of having pocket aces or jacks and thus having me beat.

But a tight player betting the same? He's not going to go all-in and risk all of his chips for nothing...if he goes all-in against my raise, I figure my set of 3s is toast to a higher set and fold.

Only go nuclear when you're pretty certain you're going to win, is what I say. Everthing is situational in this game- there's no rule that's going to be true 100% of the time.

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