Knowing Your Way in Pot Limit Omaha Part 3: Confronting a Maniac

A maniac in a PLO table can create quite a stir among the players. Some will find the addition amusing while others will resent having that kind of person in their table making them play badly. Maybe it’s strange that some players don’t welcome a maniac on the PLO table and they are not to risk their chips unless they have a strong hand like AAxx. Mostly players will complain about the maniac’s strategy than receive him to the game easily.

I’ll be using the following profile of a maniac in the subsequent examples: A maniac who raises and re-raises most of the time including the first round of betting. He only wants to win it all before the flop shows that’s why he’s showing such kind of aggressiveness.

Adapting to a maniac should be planned carefully just like any other poker decisions you’ll make. You need to throw away all the defined notions you had about isolation, loosening up and everything you think you know about adjusting to a maniac – you need to evaluate the situation at all sides.

So far, there are three aspects you need to consider to make a better adjustment:

Your position relative to the maniac
How the other players will adjust
How you deal with the large swings mentally

The first two aspects should be dealt together because they are relative to each other.

You have preferable position compared to the maniac and the table has already adjusted

Whenever you’re sitting on a maniac’s left, you assume that the usual way to isolate him is to re-raise. But if the others will know what you’re up to, they will adjust their play and it will be not good for you. They will start re-potting and you will see yourself folding or in a 3 way all in with little benefits.

For example, if the other participants have loosened up their play when the maniac is around, you’ll have to be careful on attempting any kind of isolation tactics because you might catch yourself and the maniac isolated instead.

You have preferable position against the maniac but the floor has not adjusted to his presence

If the occupants of the table don’t mind that you want to go head to head with the maniac then it’s your advantage to raise and re-raise as you pleased.

Just be watchful if someone other than the maniac smooth called you or re-raise the pot. They might have a very powerful hand and they might be letting the maniac to bet and bet in order to suck in more players to the pot.

The maniac has preferable position over you and the table has adjusted

The best thing to do in this position is to permit the maniac do the betting for you which will add more players to the pot. This is the best case in m y evaluation – though others will dispute that it will be preferable to have position over the maniac to isolate him is best; but for me, it’s better to limp and let the maniac raise up the pot, get more callers and then come out on top with a huge raise in order to isolate the maniac with a lot of dead money in the pot.

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

In the case that the occupants of the table has not adjusted due to the maniac’s presence then it’s better to come up and start the raising and anticipate that the maniac will re-raise that will allow most of the field to fold their hands. If you have a powerhouse then it’s better to bet all in or take a flop with enough money behind.

In PLO games, it’s better to keep your raises and above all your re-raises lesser than the usual norm in these circumstances: better not flipping against a maniac except if you have a powerful hand like the AAxx or double suited KK/QQ, it’s better to create a big pot and then take the money post-flop but you can still let go of your hand without regret if things go wrong.

One example would be playing in a PLO game with stakes of $2/$4, with a buy-in $400. The usual raise in this game would be $14 but yours will be lesser like $8-$10 or just re-raise the minimum in order not to gamble a lot of your stacks before the flop were shown.

When the maniac opens up with $14, you would be re-raising him with $28 which will give you the chance to fold your hand if for instance a locksmith will re-raise after you, or you can call the maniac’s 3-bet which would be $90 head to head or $188 with another player – you will still have $300 of your chips left – or you can re-raise the bet to $276 or push it all effectively.

But if you are going to re-pot the maniac’s initial bet to $48 you would be gambling more than 10% of your stack pre-flop. Then if a locksmith re-raises the bet then you have to fold but if you call with the maniac’s 3 bet then it you will gambling $150 of your chips which is not good because it’s huge.

These are only rules on how to deal with a maniac on a PLO table. Just bear in mind that each maniac should be treated differently - simply because they are of varying stages of being a maniac.