How to play against a maniac in poker is the question that comes up every time someone sits down and raises every hand, bets every flop and re-raises whenever you bet. You win a pot and they take it back two hands later, and you start doubting your game. Relax: you are facing the player who gives away more chips than anyone else at the table, as long as you do not try to beat them at their own game.
What a maniac is (and what they are not)
A maniac plays most of the hands they are dealt (more than half: a VPIP above 50) and almost always with aggression: raise preflop, bet flop, turn and river, with a made hand or with air. Their bet size tells you nothing, because they bet the same with nothing and with the nuts.
Do not confuse them with a LAG, the loose-aggressive player who also plays many hands but picks their spots, knows when to fold and targets specific opponents. The LAG has a plan; the maniac has one button. If telling them apart is still hard, the guide to types of poker players is the place to start.
The read is quick: if they entered five or more hands in one full orbit, nearly always raising, you have enough.
The number that changes everything
A range holding 60% of all possible hands flops at least a pair only about one time in three. Read it backwards: when the maniac bets the flop, two times out of three they do not even have a pair. They bluff far more often than theory allows, and that turns your medium-strength pair into a much stronger hand than usual.
Adjustment 1: call more, bluff less
Bluffing is the worst tool against someone who never folds. If they raise with everything, they also call with everything. Knowing when to bluff depends on the opponent having a fold button, and this one does not.
Your value comes from modest made hands: top pair (pairing the highest card on the board), second pair on a dry board, even a medium pocket pair when the board brings no high cards. Calling three bets with top pair against a maniac is not a hero call; it is the standard play.
Preflop, do not tighten as much as instinct tells you. You want hands that make big pairs: aces with a decent kicker, K-Q, pocket pairs from 8-8 up. What you should cut are speculative hands out of position, such as low suited connectors: they will charge you to see the flop and, when you miss, bluffing does not work. The right starting hands against them are the ones that make pairs, not the ones that make draws.
Adjustment 2: put the maniac on your right
You want them acting before you. With the maniac on your right, you know what the hand will cost before you decide, you can 3-bet for value with hands you would normally just call (A-J, K-Q, 9-9), and isolate them in position.
If they sit on your left, every call you make gets raised and you end up playing big pots out of position. That is where table selection takes over: change seats when one opens, and if you cannot, consider another table.
Adjustment 3: let them bet for you
With a strong hand, do not take the initiative away from them. Check-call the flop, check-call the turn, and raise the river or whenever the board turns dangerous. It is one of the few spots where slow play pays: they are going to bet anyway, so every street you let them bet is a bet you do not have to make.
The exception is draw-heavy boards with vulnerable hands. There, check-raise the flop right away: they will call with anything and you collect your edge before the card that erases it arrives.
Adjustment 4: accept the variance
Against a maniac the decisions are simpler, but the pots are bigger. You will lose 100-big-blind hands with top pair, and if the decision was right, it was not a mistake: it was variance. Buy in for the full stack so that when you connect you can take everything.
And protect your head. Two coolers in a row against the most annoying player at the table is the fastest route to tilt. If you catch yourself wanting to get them back, stand up for five minutes.
Mistakes we see every week
- Bluffing them because "they raise with everything". That is exactly why they call with everything.
- Turning into a maniac to hit back. They have played this way for years; you have for five minutes.
- Folding top pair because the bet was huge. Their sizing means nothing.
- Playing bad hands out of position to "get into" their pots.
The lesson
A maniac is a machine for handing chips to the patient player. Three adjustments: call more and bluff less, put them on your right, and let them bet for you. The fourth is accepting that every hand is decided with more chips than usual. Whoever does all four ends the night with the maniac's stack.
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