[pzhon]

Poker is a battle for the dead money. When everyone plays tightly (rare), the main source of dead money may be the blinds. In other games, the main source of dead money may be bad limps in early position and bad calls of raises. When there is a maniac at the table, the main source of dead money may be the maniac. If so, then generally, you don't want to chase the maniac out of the pot, and you should either learn how to beat him (which is much harder out of position than in position), or else find another game.

With stacks that short, out of position, you can limp-reraise, check-raise, and slow play a lot. If he floats a lot of flops, you can fire second barrels with nothing more frequently, and check-raise the turn more frequently. Don't wait until you have hands that would be strong enough to do this against a passive player's bets and raises, but which hands you use should depend on how he reacts to your aggression. An aggressive player who bets has a much wider range than a passive player, which means much more of the time a hand like TPGK or a pair between top pair and second pair or even just ace high will be good against him, and it is much less likely that he will have a quality draw if one is possible. Accept that sometimes he will have a hand and you will get your money in with the worst of it.

For example, when you have AQo or 99 in EP, try limping to induce a raise from the maniac. If he makes it 8 to go most of the time, try reraising to 30, then pushing any flop whether you hit or not. It's very hard for him to find a profitable way to play against that on average to recover from raising too often and too much. If he folds preflop, you win 10 with hands are are normally worth about the blinds, and if he mistakenly calls, you average even more.

Don't forget that missed overcards have about 25% equity on the flop against a low pair, and more with a backdoor flush draw or backdoor straight draw, and your hand is often still good. If you put even 1/3 of your stack in preflop with AQ (even less against a maniac), you should be willing to put the rest in on most flops.

After you double up, you may have to play differently. Someone whose flop and turn play may be maniacal may not be a maniac in large pots on the river.