NEWS:

• CRANBROOK, B.C. -- The poker faces at Cranbrook's Royal Canadian Legion turned to anger last week when it was announced the branch had decided to fold its popular Texas Hold'em tournaments rather than face a hefty fine. The Legion recently received a heads-up from the liquor inspector informing them that their tournaments could face the ire of the B.C. Gaming commission among others. The Legion had been hosting upwards of 80 people on Wednesday nights since late September with some people driving more than an hour from other communities to play.

• It's official: Jennifer Tilly has completed her metamorphosis from poker-playing actress to poker player, period. For the first time in 15 years, Jennifer Tilly was nowhere to be seen at the Academy Awards or at any of the post-show hoopla. Instead, Tilly was in Las Vegas at the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship.
 

ARTICLE:

You know as well that there were plenty of times you wished you had left a game before you did. This whole article is about "not" pushing your luck when it’s starting to run dry. Most poker players have a little voice that tells them when they’re headed for a bad night. That little voice tells you: "Get out of this game; it has no future for you." There was a time I rarely listened to this voice. Over the years I learned to listen very carefully to that little voice. It has saved me a great deal of money, but I still don't listen to it 100% of the time. When I start to hear that warning, I start to evaluate the game I am in to see what is wrong with it. The important part is that I usually know before I evaluate the game, what's wrong with it and why I should move to another game, or leave altogether. The problem is that I get too comfortable, complacent, and too lazy to move. Here are some different ways to evaluate a question regarding games we should quit.

QUESTION
I just completed a 15-hour losing session playing 10/20 hold'em, losing 3 big bets per hour. I was exactly even after playing about 3 hours. I got back to even after taking a beating at the beginning of the game, and clawing my way back up. My gut feeling told me, or I should say it pretty much screamed at me in its subtle way to quit, go home, and get them another day. Of course I decided differently, and paid for it. 

Once you've become the main course for everyone at the table, you must tighten up considerably for a variety of reasons. The tendency to win back quickly what you have lost affects your starting hand requirements, and you start playing more hands than you normally would. You may also be on an emotional tilt as well, thereby affecting your decisions as the game continues on. This is a bad sign, and one of the first steps toward going on tilt. 

Here's something important to think about. By playing tighter than normal, you give someone else the chance to become fodder for the other piranhas. Get up and take a break that lasts at least until the button comes around a couple of times. There are times when even your attempt at trying to play tighter can also work against you. By taking a break and maybe taking a little walk, you will get a chance to simmer down. If you are really mentally on tilt, get up from the table, grab your chips, cash out and leave. Do something else for the day, something you enjoy as much or more than poker. 

Forget all that fairytale BS about wanting to play against good players, and the honor of the glorious professional poker player. Most of the successful players are predators out to exploit every weakness they can find. They want their opponents as live and as dumb as possible, up to a certain point of course. They want the proper mix of tight players and live ones. The bottom line is that poker is a game of control. If you have to have the skill to control the other players in the game better than they can control you, that's great. The problem is how can you control the game when everyone else is feasting off your plays no matter what you do? You are losing and not only do you know it, but so does the rest of the table. I don't care if you are the best player in the game, if you are running bad, even the poor players will start taking shots at you. Poker is one of the few games where the best player does not always win. The old saying, "Let your conscience be your guide," has a lot of merit. If everyone listened to and obeyed their conscience they most likely would not drink, smoke, overeat, do drugs, or stay in bad poker games. There are a lot of things we can have a problem controlling, but one of the easiest we can learn to control is getting our butts out of the chair in a game we can't seem to beat, and move to a better one. It's easy, just go to the floor and say, “I would like a transfer to another game." Is that simple? Yes it is, but do we do it all the time? No we don't. It might just boost your profit. It sure as heck can't hurt. 
 

JOKERS IN THE PACK

Picture this. A man brings a brown grocery sack to a game, takes a seat and then dumps the entire contents of the bag ($25,000) onto the poker table. Bundles of $100 bills tumble onto the green felt creating a big, sloppy pile. The man has everyone in the game covered, and by at least five times.

The year is 1996. The place is the Resorts International in Atlantic City. The game is pot-limit Texas hold'em. The man posts his $5 blind and receives a hand. What happens next defies the imagination. He becomes an instant legend in poker circles by raising on each successive round of betting. This wouldn't be unusual save for one crucial detail: he never looks at his cards.

The man is an eccentric, a freak, a supreme risk-taker, and/or an oddball. He is the quintessential maniac, playing without any fear of losing and displaying an apparent lack of regard for money. He is a godsend to a poker game. Incredibly, he wins a few hands early on and busts two players at the table before meeting his inevitable destiny. His $25,000 stake lasts 25 minutes. His fate sealed, the man toddles out of the casino, never to be seen nor heard from again.

While this was an extreme example of how a maniac can impact a poker game, it serves to epitomize the grave risk and tremendous upside potential of having a maniac sitting at the poker table. The maniac is certainly capable of breaking his opponent(s) with a combination of good hands and reckless aggression. However, in the long run, the maniac always meets his doom when confronted with an appropriate counter-strategy, one specifically designed to neutralize the maniac's hyper-aggressive tendencies. In fact, crafting a counter-strategy to deal with a maniac is the intent of this article.
What is a maniac?

General poker theory suggests there are four basic types of poker players:

Weak-tight players who play very few hands and surrender pots too easily 
Tight-aggressive players who play few hands but bet strongly when involved in a pot 
Loose-aggressive players who play many hands and bet strongly 
Loose-passive players who play many hands but surrender pots too often.

I'd like to add another group of players: 

Maniacs they deserve a special category. What separates maniacs from loose-aggressive players is that maniacs play even more hands and tend to bet, raise and re-raise to the point where the game is played for significantly higher stakes. Therefore, the dynamics of an ordinary poker game are altered radically due to the presence of the maniac. 
In short, a maniac usually displays the following characteristics and tendencies:
He has more than an average number of chips on the table 
He often posts a live straddle (when permitted to do so) 
He plays far more hands than a typical player 
He raises and re-raises far more often than normal 
He bluffs frequently 
Major impacts of a maniac in the game
A maniac presents a unique set of challenges for any poker player. In fact, the maniac is not always at a disadvantage. For instance, a maniac might fare well in heads-up play against a passive opponent. In short-handed games with multiple passive opponents, the maniac will also enjoy an edge. 

The maniac's demise usually comes in full-ring games (comprising at least eight players), where he is up against just one or two opponents in each hand, at least one of which (or even both) holds a stronger hand. What takes place is all the players become more disciplined. They tend to play technically-correct poker. They wait for strong starting hands with which to confront the maniac. Hence, the maniac often faces the one or two best hands at the table, thus is usually at a disadvantage. Because opponents observe the maniac playing many hands and paying off better hands with a flurry of raises, they realize they can simply wait for strong cards and let the odds work against the maniac.

Unfortunately, this poses a serious problem when these players are not receiving good starting hands. Some undisciplined players see chips flying around the table and can't contain themselves. They begin relaxing their own starting hand requirements. These undisciplined players notice the maniac is occasionally winning with garbage, and they react by betting or raising with marginal cards. This plays right into the maniac's intent  to generate action, put opponents on tilt and create a wild poker game with multiple players and lots of chips in every pot. 

Most games with a maniac usually fall into one of two categories. They are either very tight (most pots are contested heads-up or three-handed) or, conversely, very wild (multiple opponents calling raises in every hand). The maniac's behavior inevitably causes every player at the table to modify his strategy.

Basic strategy for playing against a maniac
Keep in mind that seating position in poker is absolutely critical. It is almost always advantageous to sit to a maniac's immediate left. The worst seat at the table is usually to the maniac's immediate right. So, in such a situation your first goal should be to select a favorable seat. If a maniac moves in to your left, request a seat-change, if possible.

Basic strategic concepts
In tight games (with most pots being contested heads-up or three-handed)
Play very tight in early position 
Play tight-aggressive in late position 
Check and call and/or check-raise more often, since the maniac will usually bet after you check 
Induce bluffs and call more often, even when holding a marginal hand 
Opponents realize they can simply wait for strong cards and let the odds work against the maniac 

In standard games (four- or five-way action in most hands)
Play tight in early position 
Play aggressively in late position 
Re-raise more often, in an attempt to isolate the maniac and get heads-up 
Call down the maniac's bets and raises more often, even when holding a marginal hand 
Don't attempt to bluff

In wild games (six-way action or more in most hands) 
Play suited-connectors, pairs and ace-suited hands more often 
Check and call when pot odds dictate there is value 
Throw away marginal hands when other players have raised or re-raised 
Don't attempt isolation moves (for instance, re-raising pre-flop) since most opponents are likely to call anyway 
Don't attempt to bluff 
 
With a maniac in the game, the ultimate objective is to get in with the best hand, anticipating that the maniac will pay off when you bet and/or raise. In tight games, tight-aggressive play is usually the optimal strategy. For example, in hold'em you should enter a pot with premium starting hands (pairs higher than 7-7 and non-paired high such as A-K and A-Q). Bet these holdings aggressively. The maniac will often try to intimidate you into folding by raising and re-raising. But, since you are playing good cards, you will end up with the best hand most of the time and you will win more pots. 

In wild games, a very different strategy is necessary. Since the maniac has created multi-way action and big pots, drawing hands increase significantly in value. Pre-flop hands like suited-connectors, small pairs and ace-suited are often playable cards. If you have suited cards and flop two cards to your suit (a flush draw), a raise by the maniac actually increases your expected value in the hand, since you will win a much bigger pot when you make the flush (that will happen about 35% of the time).

Check out our Dealing With A Maniac box for more basic strategic concepts to use when playing against a maniac. 

Differences between limit and no-limit games with maniacs

So far, most of the strategic concepts I've mentioned relate to limit hold'em games, but the pot-limit and no-limit variations of hold'em present their own unique circumstances. 
It's important to note that maniacs can dominate a big-money game, especially when flush with large bankrolls and up against timid opponents. Players who are afraid to lose their chips fall victim to the maniac's hyper-aggressive tendencies. In a sense, they are run over. Once the maniac discovers this weakness, he simply launches raise after raise at his helpless opponent(s), and more often than not wins pot after pot, even though he likely doesn't have the best hand or even the best draw. Such a dynamic is simply not possible in limit hold'em games, since the amount of betting is fixed on each round and opponents are less likely to be intimidated by the size of a single wager. This concept is important because it's essential to accept the reality that bankroll swings in pot-limit and no-limit hold'em games will be much more severe with a maniac at the table. In pot-limit and no-limit games, it is far more difficult to 'find out where you are at' with a bet or raise when facing a maniac. For example, with a strong but vulnerable hand such as Q-Q, it is probably best to throw your hand away when you bet out and are raised by an opponent after an Ace flops. In a conventional game, the opponent is likely to have an Ace, which means you are beaten. But when a manic raises in this situation, you are forced to play a guessing game. In short, it's tough to play against maniacs in pot-limit and no-limit games when contrasted with fixed-limit games. 

Accept the reality that bankroll swings in pot-limit and no-limit hold'em games will be much more severe with a maniac at the table

Keep the maniac happy while you fleece him

Poker is as much a game of psychology as card values. Accordingly, there are specific tactics that can be used to keep the maniac sitting in the game, and steadily contributing to your profits. Most maniacs are losing poker players. No amount of talent or experience can overcome playing far too many hands and repeatedly putting one's money into the pot with the worst hand. So, it's important to try and understand why the maniac plays so recklessly. Does he simply like to gamble? Is he a wealthy eccentric playing for insignificant stakes? Or, does the attention he receives at the table stroke his ego? There are a myriad of reasons for maniacal behavior, and identifying the underlying cause of such behavior is generally the first step towards exploiting it for profit. 

Whatever the root causes, most maniacs, and indeed most poker players, want to enjoy themselves at the table. Disparaging remarks and negative comments made by so-called pros towards these players are incredibly detrimental to both the short- and long-term winnings that might be gained from having maniacs in the game.

It might sound a little dubious, but the ultimate counter-strategy to deploy against a maniac is to let the player think he can dominate a game, and that you, his opponent, can be manipulated. Letting the maniac think he can run over you, while you are in actual fact prepared to confront his aggressiveness with proper counter-strategies, effectively sets the perfect trap. In essence, the maniac has committed the worst error of poker - underestimating his opponent. 
 
 

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