Playing Against a Maniac

by: Lou Krieger©

While loose, aggressive games generate the most action, they can be frustrating too. A gaggle of players in each pot means more money when you win, but much of the time someone who shouldn’t be in the pot seems to catch a miraculous card and beat you. Sometimes it means there’s a maniac in the game. He’s the player who raises almost all the time, regardless of whether he has a hand or not. But he doesn’t win all the time, even if it sometimes seems that he does. More money is in play on every hand, and it’s going somewhere.

Here are some tips for playing well and retaining your sanity in extremely loose, aggressive, no fold’em hold’em games.

Expect Big Swings: You’ll experience unavoidably big swings to your bankroll in these games. More players per pot means increased chances that good hands will be run down by lesser ones. But that’s offset by the fact that the pots you win are larger. While your win rate in these games should be more than it would be in tighter games, the standard deviation — that statistical measure of variability — will be much higher. Because of this, many players believe they are doing worse in these games when they are simply looking at a geometrical increase in the game’s short-term variability. In the long run, you ought to make more money in loose games, providing, of course, you have a bankroll that can withstand bigger fluctuations.

If you can’t live with that degree of instability, or if your bankroll won’t sustain extreme fluctuations, you’ll have to seek out games that are not as loose, and not as aggressive.

Hands Change in Value: In loose, aggressive games certain hands increase in value while others fall. Suited connectors have more potential because you’ll probably rake in a big pot when they win. And you can easily release these hands if you miss the flop.

Big, unsuited cards go down in value. Hands such as A-10, A-J, and Q-K, do not play well against a big, aggressive field. With hands like these you have to limit the field if you play them at all.

Sit to the Maniac’s Left: When a maniac is in your game, position yourself to his left — so you act after he does. That enables you to reraise when you have a good hand. When you are able to do this, you stand a good chance of playing your best hands heads-up, and his hand figures to be a lot weaker than yours.

Don’t Call If You Can’t Raise: From early position in a loose, aggressive game don’t call with a hand that you wouldn’t ordinarily raise with. One of the worst feelings imaginable is being trapped for two or three bets in a loose, aggressive game with a hand that may be worth a call, but not a raise. When you’re playing in a game where the majority of pots are raised, you simply cannot afford to play “bargain basement” hands like T-9s from early position. Hands like these are only worth playing if you can see the flop for one bet. When the cost of these highly speculative hands is two bets — or sometimes three — it is unlikely that the money in the pot will exceed the odds against making you hand.

If you can stand living life on the edge, if big swings can be absorbed by your bankroll, and if you are comfortable with a high level of risk, you’ll do well in loose, aggressive games. If it’s the only game in town and you feel compelled to play in spite of yourself, be sure to restrict the hands you play from early position and be willing to reraise whenever you want to thin out the field.