Guide to Pot Limit Omaha poker (part 3 of 5): Playing with a maniac

The addition of a maniac to a PLO table can bring about several responses from the other players: With some player’s reveling in their loose/aggressive play; while other players can become intimidated, causing their play to suffer. It sounds odd, but many players simply deplore the variance that comes with a maniac at a PLO table, and are unwilling to get into a raising war without AAxx. Instead of welcoming an ‘action’ player, they grumble and groan about the player’s tactics.

In the following examples I’ll use the following profile of a maniac: A player who raises first in every time or if there are limpers, and almost always re-raises (95% of the time). This type of maniac likes to get it all in pre-flop if he can, and let the chips fall where they may.

How you adjust to a maniac in your game should be done strategically -like any other poker decision you make-you need to discard any preconceived notions you have about loosening up, trying to isolate, or any other adjustments you have heard of, and look at it from a variety of different angles.

There are three factors that should go into your strategic adjustment:

• Your position relative to the maniac
• How the other players at the table have adjusted
• How you mentally deal with large swings

The first two factors go hand-in-hand, and need to be dealt with together.

You have position on the maniac, and the table has loosened its play

When sitting on a maniac’s left the typical way of thinking is to isolate with re-raises. However, if the other players in the game catch on to what you’re doing you’ll have to adjust your play considerably, since they’ll start re-potting and you’ll find yourself folding 10BB’s, or in a 3-way all-in with little equity.

For instance, if the other players have loosened up slightly because of the maniac’s presence you’ll have to tread very lightly with your isolation attempts; or it will be the maniac and you, who are being isolated!

You have position on the maniac, and the table has not adjusted to his presence

If the other players have no qualms about you and the maniac playing pots heads-up, then by all means raise and re-raise to your heart’s content.

Just be wary of another player smooth-calling, or re-raising you. This is generally the signs of a powerhouse hand, and they are letting the maniac do the betting to suck in additional players.

The maniac has position on you, and the table has loosened up

The best way to deal with a maniac who has position over you is to let him do the betting for you; which will trap other players in the pot. This is the best case scenario in my opinion -most people would argue you want position on the maniac to isolate; I’d rather limp-in, let the maniac raise it up, get a few callers because of his table image, and then come-over the top with a big raise to isolate the maniac with a good amount of dead money in the pot.

The maniac has position on you and the table has not adjusted to his presence

If the table has not loosened up because of the maniac’s presence you can go ahead and raise, hoping the maniac will re-raise, which should shut out most of the field. You can then push it in with your powerhouses, or take a flop with a decent amount of money behind.

In Pot Limit games I like to keep my raises, and especially my re-raises, lower than usual in these situations: I don’t want to be flipping against a maniac unless I have AAxx, or double suited KK/QQ hands, I’d rather build a sizeable pot and then get most of the money when I have the best of it post-flop; where I can also let the hand go if I miss completely.

For instance, if I’m playing $2/$4 PLO (assume everyone has $400) and the typical raise is to $14, I might open for $8-$10, or simply re-raise the minimum, to avoid committing to many chips pre-flop.

So, if the maniac opens to $14, I would re-raise to $28, which gives me the ability to let the hand go should a locksmith re-raise behind me, call the maniac’s 3-bet which would be to $90 heads-up, or $118 with another caller -I’d still have about $300 behind–, or re-pop it to $276 heads-up or re-pop it to $300ish, effectively going all-in.

On the other hand if you were to re-pot the maniac’s initial raise (making it $48) you would be committing over 10% of your stack. If a locksmith re-raises you’ll have to fold, and if you want to call the maniac’s 3-bet it will be to $150 which is a large portion of your stack.

Obviously these are just guidelines for dealing with a loose cannon at a PLO table, and every maniac should be treated differently -After all, there are many levels to being a maniac!