A Maniac on Your Left
The maniac two seats to your left is the worst seat draw in low-stakes poker: every pot you open, they can raise behind you, and they will. You cannot change seats every session, so you need a playbook for playing into position-holding chaos.
From Poker Ascent: 110,000+ drills across 10 skills, graded against the player type you are facing.
Tighten your opens, but do not stop opening
Cut the bottom of your range: the suited gappers and weak offsuit broadways that play terribly against a 3-bet. What remains, open with intent to continue: if you are not comfortable calling their 3-bet or 4-betting for value, the hand probably should not open in the first place.
Turn your premiums into traps
Flat-calling their 3-bet with kings feels wrong; against a maniac it is often the highest-EV line, because folding out their junk with a 4-bet is the only real mistake. Let them keep the lead. Their flop barrel with nothing is money you cannot get any other way.
Stop defending your opens with medium hands
AJ that opens and faces the maniac's 3-bet is still a call, but hands a notch below (KJ offsuit, weak suited aces) burn money when you peel and face two more barrels. The maniac's edge is making your medium hands unplayable; concede those, collect with everything else.
Worked hand
Worked hand
You open Q♥ Q♠ from middle position, the maniac makes it 4x behind you, the blinds fold. Flat. Flop 8♦ 6♦ 2♣: check, they bet big, call. Turn 3♠: check, they shove. Call. Their range is missed overcards, random pairs, and pure air; queens are miles ahead. The 4-bet preflop would have folded the air that just paid you two streets.
Want to drill this exact spot?
The app deals you hundreds of maniac hands and grades every answer against their real tendencies. Free on Google Play.
The mistakes that cost you
- 4-betting premiums out of fear (it protects you and starves you).
- Opening your normal range and folding to every 3-bet.
- Tilting at the third re-raise in a row; the seat is bad, the response is a plan.
Practice beating the Maniac
The app has a dedicated maniac mission: hundreds of drills where the correct answer is graded against exactly this player type. Same hands, same reads you just learned.
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