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PKR Combating maniacs in heads-up play

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Combating maniacs in heads-up

play
When you find yourself playing a maniac at a heads-up table you have to be
prepared for two things: big bets and big swings
By Ross Jarvis on Tuesday 27 Apr 2010 16:30
Part of the following series: Heads-up masterclass
3Recommend

Aggression is vital in heads-up cash games but some players take it

too far. These maniacs may be intimidating to play, but with a little
patience you ll be the big winner
In any poker game the toughest players you ll face are those who are
relentlessly aggressive, constantly putting you to tricky decisions where you re
unsure if they have the nuts or are running yet another multi-street bluff.
Aggression takes on even more importance in heads-up cash games. With
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PKR Combating maniacs in heads-up play

only two of you in the game you have to make more decisions, the importance
of position increases and relative hand values go way down. So if you find
yourself up against a thinking, aggressive opponent it s going to be hard
going, as they will pile on the pressure preflop while also firing second and
third barrels on later streets.
In this situation the first thing to consider is whether it s even worth continuing
against a strong opponent it s often better just to sit out and find another
game. However, just because an opponent is hyper-aggressive doesn t
necessarily mean they are good. A lot of aggressive heads-up opponents are
just fishy maniacs who think they can hammer their way to victory. Massive
overbets, irrational bluffs and a willingness to gamble preflop are all signs that
you ve located one of these and, given the right tactics, they can be an easy
source of big profits.

Big-ball poker
When you play against maniacs heads-up you have to throw small-ball tactics
out the window and be prepared to play big pots. I came across one such
player on PKR at the $0.50/$1 no-limit heads-up tables recently (we ll call him
Mr. X to preserve his dignity), who routinely opened to $5 or $10 preflop from
the button. This means that if you re going to three-bet a wide range of hands
from the big blind, as you should be doing, it gets awfully expensive to do it
with anything but a pure value range.
This particular player didn t fold once to a three-bet preflop so it became clear
that three-betting hands like 8-9 suited was a mistake and that I should narrow
my three-betting to a 9-9+ range and be prepared to get them all-in if I had to.
As he wasn t folding it also made sense to make larger three-bets than usual.
While a standard three-bet from a $5 open might be to $17, if you are raising
for value against a calling station it s better to make it much more, around $26.
Once he calls there will be $52 in the pot so you can confidently continuation
bet and easily get the rest of your stack in by the river if you think you still have
the best hand.

Le hem bl ff
Maniacs love to call but, more than anything, they love to bluff. On a few
occasions in our match Mr. X made me fold second and third pair by putting in
pot-sized bets on the turn and river each time gleefully showing a total bluff.
If he was a thinking player who also did the same bets with his strong hands
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PKR Combating maniacs in heads-up play

then he would be tough to play against but he wasn t. His bluffs didn t make
sense and he played them very differently from his big hands, where he
usually tried to string me along with small bets.
To take advantage of the player s propensity for bluffing I quickly realised that
the best strategy wasn t to fight fire with fire in the small pots but just wait for
him to make a big mistake in the large ones. After folding to his raises for a
few hands I picked up J-J in the big blind and knew I was going to go with this
hand. Making matters more complicated was that our effective stacks were
now a huge $243. The villain raised to $5 and I three-bet to $24 which he
quickly called. At this point I knew I was ahead he would have simply pushed
or made a reraise with bigger pairs but he could literally have any two cards.
Waiting to see a low flop where I could trap him, it came down 7-T-9 rainbow,
meaning that not only was my overpair likely still good but I had picked up a
gutshot to the nuts too. I checked to Mr. X to let him hang himself and he duly
shoved all-in for $228 into a $48 pot! I called and he tabled 5-2o and the river
and turn blanked to gift me the $485 pot.

Word of

arning

Even if a player is as terrible as Mr. X, it s still difficult to come out on top if

you re having a dry run of cards. Because heads-up maniacs play so
aggressively, you re forced to trust your reads and play big pots with marginal
hands, meaning the variance becomes huge. However, don t be afraid to play
the bad maniacs. As long as your bankroll can sustain the swings, simple
tactics like playing your big hands fast preflop, letting your opponent bluff and
having a little patience will ensure that you re the one who ends up with the
money in the long run.
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Commen
Sorry that you didn't like the article Laud. The hand obviously gets easier to
play if there are overcards on board but in such a case you may want to pot
control one street by either checking the flop or cbetting before checking the
turn.
Against standard opponents however you do always want to be cbetting flops
like Q74 with JJ etc, both for value and to stop them having the opportunity to
bluff you.
Comment by MrStarch - 07/02/11 (Report)
Errr, an 8 would make JQ the Nuts, not JJ. And what happens if the board is
KQ3/A56/K38/Q46, how do you play it then? Its easy to call with an overpair
but what if you havent got an overpair? this article basically says play Tight
Agg v a maniac - no shit, really? The best thing about it is the 'pointer' that
maniacs usually dont know how to value bet, so its obv when they are, but
overall tbh im dissappointed with it. Maybe have a reread and a rewrite as this
is possibly the hardest opponent to play against for some people, me
included.
Comment by LaudVetinari - 17/11/10 (Report)
Yeah. I'd say the same thing. This article essentially goes over one game with
an easily read opposite better. This is less a maniac and more a rookie. To be
fair, rookies do present their own slew of hurtles to get past. :P
Comment by Furinic - 16/11/10 (Report)
I thought it was pretty good. I often don t know how best to play against super
aggro fish I ll just wait for big hands now I think before I play any big pots. The
best point was about table selection, especially important heads-up
Comment by moose30104 - 29/04/10 (Report)
this article really says nothing, im going berserk next itme, see or this article is
of any sence. I think ist b.,ll shi.t
Comment by mdberends - 27/04/10 (Report)
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