Maniacs

[Eman885]

This guy is a true maniac. it is heads up and it is a tourney. if you go all in and he has a picture acrd or ace he thinks wow i have a good hand. reraises dont force him out and i have never seen him fold pre-flop. How long should i wait for a hand? in heads up it is mano e mano(is that right) good hands dont come too often. Maybe today will be lucky.

[PShabi]

I'm not familiar with these tourney set ups, but you obviously can't let yourself get blinded to death. Seems like if you can make 2 hands against this guy, you should be able to get him. If you don't catch ANYTHING, or if he draws out when you get the money in with a better hand then you just shrug and say that's poker.

[nutbag]

It all depends on a maniacs preflop raise for me here. If it's greater than 4 times the blinds, I'd follow the push in strategy. Calling a maniac with non-premium hands is a horrible move in a tournament in my mind. You're putting yourself, and sometimes your whole tournament on the line against unknown cards. And unless you have a high pocket pair or AK, it's too risky to put in more than 20% of your stack(of course this number varies depending on time and number of player left); so in this case there's nothing to do but push when you have a big edge. But I disagree with pshab on the lower raises, if he is more of a light raiser 2-3 times the bb, then you have much more leeway with your cards(especially in late position when you act after him. Here you might only be risking up to 10%, and pushing on a suitible flop would be advisable(and much less risky comparatively).

[Zybomb]

Maniacs can be both the most annoying players and the best (when you catch them) Heads up its difficult , because you have to play more hands, and less than premium hands. If he is both a maniac and a calling station (as it seems he is) the best thing you can hope is to catch cards, and then slowplay the hell out of them. Let him bet at you big, and finally raise him at the end and apparently he is likely to call. If he is just a maniac preflop and then turns into a calling station post flop, just play straight up poker. Imagine you're going to have to showdown the majority of the times, so try and make the hands you win expensive for him, while giving him cheap pots.

Another good strategy against maniacs heads up, and Im gunna steal a bit from David Sklansky, is once the flop hits, imagine that the top card isnt there , or turn it into a duece... Which means play your mid pair as if its top etc. , and since he will be check raising with 2nd and 3rd pair at times, be smart enough to know when to check back and when to bet...PS maniacs dont check raise much, they just bet...lol

Finallys if you do get a huge starting hand and he makes a unrespectable raise (minimum...which by the way I will never fold my BB to a minimum raise, and no decent player will either, unless the blinds are literally out of this world) then make a reraise but not a monsterous one....unless you believe he's likely to call regardless, then push it in. If he respects your reraises, then reraise frequently...with any decent hands even those such as QT, J9, K10, 10,8s etc .... if he doesnt and sees every flop regardless of your raise or reraise, then just be patient.... when you catch cards preflop just bet ridiculously...he'll call and call all the way to the river.

I was in a game one time heads up where this one player was just the defination of a calling station...saw most of the flops, and called with K high or better because "i dont wanna lose a pot to a bluff" etc. I caught pocket Kings, normally at that stage in the tourny Id lead out for 3x the BB...instead I raised 11x the BB he called with a jack 6 suited. it flopped 10, 8, 6 rainbow. I went all in on the flop (another move Id never make) and he called with bottom pair...I looked at him funny, he just said, the flop helped me, how do I know if it helped you? I just shook my head and took the tourney down, wondering how this guy made it past the first 10 minutes.

The lesson is, yea you wont always catch cards, but when you do burn them for a huge pot. When they win try and make their pots small....If hes a maniac then slowplay to perfection....if hes a calling station, wait till you have something then just keep betting....he'll call you!....hope it helps