Loose Aggressive Player:
How to Tame a Maniac
Maniacs are crazy poker players who can really upset a game with their loose aggressive play. You must understand how to spot and then cope with a loose aggressive player. If you do, you will win tons of money. If you don't, you'll get beaten when you shouldn't--and in Texas Hold'em that's always a bad move.
Loose aggressive players are a problem precisely because they upset everything. Maniacs are certainly not great poker players, but their sheer bravado makes you think twice. However, if you can correctly adapt your normal poker playing strategy to them, they provide you with a great opportunity to make serious money. If you see a loose aggressive player for what he is before
others at the table do, you have a great advantage over them.
Maniacs are loose and aggressive...that means, they are LAGs.
HOW CAN YOU RECOGNIZE THE LOOSE AGRESSIVE PLAYER?
When they are at the table game changes in ways that you never expected to see, and find yourself ill-prepared for.
- More pots are raised and re-raised pre-flop than is typical.
- You find yourself paying multiple bets on every street, playing hands you would rather not play.
- When you win large pots, you do so with unlikely hands; when you lose you lose with hands that you normally fold.
- Suddenly your normal game seems worthless, and you can't get a handle on how your opponents are playing as you normally can.
THE TROUBLE WITH MANIACS
The biggest problem with a loose aggressive player is that they aren't all the same. So you should become astute at seeing the different nuances of the different ones.
- The Lotto Maniac. He's in on the vast majority of hands, with little care for what he actually has, and is just playing with the hope and undaunted expectation that he'll hit the big one...at some point.
- AA (Addicted to Action)--this is a maniac who is a maniac only because he loves being in on the ac-tion. This type of player actually has sound ideas about poker playing, but he lets his emotions carry him away
.
- The Bully--you faced his type back in middle and high school. He poses tough and flexes his stronger hands, but stand him down (raise him) and he's almost assured to fold, because he usually ain't got what he pretends to have.
- The Specialist--this guy only turns into a maniac at some certain point in the game. It may be the flop, on the turn, or on the river. It is rarely pre-flop, though it could be. This is a guy who has read many writings about poker, and believes he has mastered a certain strategy when in fact he's just an overblown one-trick pony.
- The Hidden Shark--This is actually a good player who knows when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em. They will not come along too often, but when they do they will raise aggressively but fold often, too, after the raises. If you don't recognize them, they will cost you a tremendous amount of money--and it won't always go to them.
- Emotionally out of control guys--these guys might be drunk and losing their sense of judgment, or they may be angry at a certain player at the table and always trying to be against him or scare him. Be very careful with these guys, but don't take them seriously. At least, not when it comes to poker playing.
HOW CAN YOU PLAY AGAINST THE LOOSE AGGRESSIVE PLAYER?
- The best time to play them is when you're in a late position--because they will do anything
.
- Use an aggressive poker strategy against a maniac--even more than usual. Let them put money into your pot. Assuming you are playing tight, you will have a good chance of beating them when you are in.
- Raise to try to go heads-up against a maniac.
- Use value betting strategies. You will lose some hands, since you both have equal odds of being dealt a hot hand to start the game, but you'll win in the long run.
- Always be mindful of the circumstances you find yourself in. Don't let the maniac rope you into loose aggressive play and make you forget about your other opponents.
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