[mvdgaag]

The advice here assumes this is a bad game, but really it's a great game.

I play in a homegame too where there are different people that will sometimes show up. A few are maniacs, always overbetting and taking control of the table even against a couple of real good players there. They feel they need to win every pot and do so by raising and reraising untill you give up. This is where most people go wrong. They do give up. Everyone is off their game because this guy raises and raises like he has the nuts and they can't raise without the nuts themselves, because they are afraid to be reraised.

I think these players are great to play against, if you can stand the variance, because every hand you play is going to be for stacks or at least very big pots.

Normally I buy in short stay very tight... Making some conversation waiting for a hand and trying to figure out if I can spot some tells (obviously these maniacs are not very good at the game and often terrible at hiding their tells).

Once I find a good hand I like to see a flop and go for stacks if I like it. Let him reraise so you can put it all in. You don't need the nuts. Against these players TPTK is good enough to play a big pot. They'll bet and raise with bottom pair or even air as you said. You might loose a couple of buyins where he actually had a better hand or sucked out on you, but these players will often call with worse hands even if you raise big. They'll expect you to be like them and think you are playing back with nothing much. Especially if you are real short and planning to play for a while then play back for everything with nothing and show him. He'll we calling you with crap the rest of the night.
Since he's calling with crap and you're not and his average hand has a lot less showdown value than yours you automatically beat him when you stay tight preflop and have a good hand postflop (TPTK is a monster against him).

You will need to expect huge swings, because these opponents play every hand they like (which is almost any hand) for as many chips they can and as you know noone is ever really much ahead or behind, so they'll suck out and sometimes catch a decent hand themselves.


<font color="red"> Edit: assuming NL </font>