FACING A POKER MANIAC ONLINE

Facing a Poker Maniac Online

You will run into many different types of players when you’re playing online poker. One of the most difficult to handle is “the maniacs”. These players will play almost every hand, and raise or re-raise with any two cards. The reason for their actions differ – sometimes the maniac is drunk, sometimes he’s on tilt, and sometimes he just wants to create a lot of action and have a good time.

It won’t be easy to control the maniac and dominate the game, but if you succeed the payoff will be great. Usually the maniac’s crazy play will put the whole table on tilt; if you manage to stay calm and play your cards right you can win a lot of money under these circumstances.

The best scenario is to sit to the left of the maniac, and as close to him as possible. In these cases you will be acting after him and can frequently re-raise whenever you are going to enter a pot. You are more likely to isolate the maniac and will hopefully get the pot heads-up with you in the better position. On average you will have a much better hand than the maniac and consequently win a lot of hands. When you’re in this situation you should re-raise wit hands like A-x, pairs and big connectors (JT and bigger). These hands are good to play heads up and certainly so against a maniac who will play any two cards. You will have to play a lot of these hands unimproved to the river, and cannot afford to fold on the flop every time you do not hit.

This poker strategy is applicable as long as the other players at the table don’t start calling or re-raising behind you. When this happens you have to play much tighter game both before and after the flop. If you’re seated to the right of the maniac you should still make a lot of raises if you know that he will re-raise in most cases. You will hopefully be isolated against him, but in these cases the maniac will have the better position at the table.

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