The trouble with maniacs

The trouble with maniacs
by Rolf Slotboom

A while ago, I wrote a piece 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 (i.e., having the maniac on your immediate right). One of the big problems 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 AQ or 99 (you would definitely reraise with these hands to isolate the maniac, wouldn’t you?), and now someone behind you 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 behind you who may or may not have you beat – a not 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.

Before the flop

Situation
The maniac has raised in early position as the first one in. Why is he a maniac? Well, he raises something like 7 or 8 hands out of 10 before the flop, and after the flop he will usually keep driving by bluffing and semi-bluffing, yeah sometimes even by betting with the best hand. Note that I said he will usually bet 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
JJ.

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 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 four-handed.

After the flop

Situation
The flop comes K84 rainbow. Now the big blind bets out, and immediately gets raised by the maniac. It’s up to you. What do you do?

Analysis
This is one of the most common problems 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 that the flop is here your opponents are putting the pressure up. Knowing that the maniac will probably try to bully you out, the big blind bets into him, knowing he will probably raise. The blind knows that if you hold a hand like 99, TT, JJ or QQ you will have a very hard time calling, and therefore he might be betting a relatively weak hand like A8 to make you lay down the current best hand. You know that the blind might hold a hand like this, and you also know that the maniac doesn’t need 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 ace-king, king-queen 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 just a simple king, you will be putting in four small bets on the flop while drawing to a mere two-outer. And that is just the flop: The same type of betting sequence might occur on the turn as well, where the betting doubles. Still, if you decide to fold but indeed you were holding the best hand, this can be considered a catastrophe, 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 with you holding the jacks. If you think that by reraising you might be able to make someone lay down a king then 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 here, but even then you will make the wrong decision every now and then: either folding the current best hand (i.e., the big blind holds A8, the maniac holds a random hand and the cutoff holds something like AQ), or calling or even reraising when at least one player has you beat.

Some final words

Now, this is the trouble with maniacs. If your opponents keep playing their normal game, then having one maniac in the game can be very profitable to you. You can isolate the maniac with your good hands, having good position on top of that, meaning you give your hand the best possible chance to hold up. But usually, your opponents 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 – 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 so 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 after, and with the pots being much bigger than usual, any wrong decision you will make here can be considered a terrible, or even horrible one.