poker essays

[elindauer]

(At the risk of incurring the rath of the mods, here's another essay. I lost formatting think it should still be readable)

What makes a maniac? Although this article has useful concepts for handling a merely loose and aggressive player, keep in mind that it is focused on beating a true maniac. This is a rare player, the kind of guy who seems to do nothing but press the raise button, no matter how many players are in or what he has. You don't encounter these birds very often, but they are extremely profitable to play against, if you know how to handle them.

Key #1. Value raise! This is the single biggest mistake I see made against a true maniac. Most players figure fairly quickly that they shouldn't be folding anything of value when the maniac shows aggression... but they still play FAR too passively. There's just something about putting in 8 big bets postflop with 1 pair that they can't get behind.

They are giving up a lot of value with their passiveness. The true maniac is going to give you a ton of action with 1 weak pair, and often times with hands that are even worse. The maniac is also likely to call the river with very weak hands, paying off in situations where a normal player would have figured long ago he was behind. You MUST value raise these guys! Imagine that your opponent is playing essentially random cards. Are you the favorite against him? If so, a raise for value should be strongly considered.

Key #2. Embrace the variance. You can't play proper poker against a maniac without losing a few hands. You are certainly going to be outdrawn. You're going to give 7 big bets of action with one pair, and run into a set. That's ok. Keep at it. You will come out ahead later in the night. Failing to value raise a decent but non-monster hand can cost you many big bets against a true maniac. Grab these bets when your hand holds up, and you won't need to worry so much about the occassional outdraw. You'll be paying him with his money anyways.

Also, by giving the maniac plenty of action with your good but not monster hands, you'll find that you are the most likely player to bust him. There is nothing more painful than going into a shell waiting for aces so you can play the maniac, only to discover that he just been busted by your looser playing opponents. Get involved!

Key #3. Risk bets to win the pot. Many players are aware of the idea of risking an extra bet or two to win a big pot. It's the foundation of hold 'em strategy in big multiway pots. In fact, most players vastly overestimate the value they pick up for an extra bet vs the cost in a typical pot (see the articles on small pot play for more on this!). Yet these same players go limp and passively call down when faced with a true maniac. His total aggression intimidates them... "sure, he's a maniac, but he just capped the flop and bet the turn against 3 opponents!"... you must get over this fear to really make big bucks against the maniac. If the maniac has capped the flop against 3 opponents, then the pot is huge. If you have a hand worth showing down against the maniac, you must seriously consider raising his turn bet. Note that you are using his aggression to really put pressure on your opponents... it's very difficult for them to call down with 1-pair at this point. Using the maniac's aggression to knock out the best hand is a key strategy in these games.

Key #4. Know your opponents. Before settling on the best course of action, it's critical to know how your opponents are going to play. The best opponents are tight... you should then frequently use the maniac's aggression to knock them out and take your chances against his random cards. But beware overusing this strategy... if you acquire a maniacal image yourself, you'll have deprived yourself of a great weapon. Every time you fold you're building up a little tight equity... wait for just the right moment to use it!

Also critical in your strategy is knowing whether your opponents are going to showdown 1 pair in the face of multiway aggression between you and the maniac. If they are tight and can be pushed off all non-monsters should you and the maniac get in a raising war (and most players are this way), then you have a golden opportunity to make a boatload of cash. Remember though... we're talking about the true maniac here, who will bet and raise with anything! Basically anytime you are the favorite against his range, you can use this move (and sometimes even when you're not... maniacs sometimes produce really big pots).

Key #5. Know yourself... or at least, know what your opponents think of you. along with Key #4... if you make a few moves early and show down a weak hand, be prepared for your opponents to notice this. I generally go through distinct gear changes when playing a maniac... play tight for a while, then get aggressive, play tight, play aggressive... trying to judge when you've folded enough to make a move on a guy takes practice, but half the battle is realizing that you need to be thinking about this to begin with.

Key #6. Know the maniac. Most people have very little trouble with this, as he is the center of attention. It's worth mentioning though, that you really want to know the maniac's game. This let's you notice deviations from it... for example, if he checks in a spot where he would normally bet, that should peak your interest and you should be less inclined to give huge action with a good but not great hand. Watch for gear changes and tempo changes... anything that suggests that the maniac may be playing this hand a little differently. Even maniacs take a few hands off, and anything you can do to sense when he's slowing down a bit will really help your results.

Key #7. Don't trap! Being able to represent a big hand by simply raising the maniac's bet is crucial... you can steal huge pots by knocking out tighter players with constant aggression from a good but not great hand. To keep up this image, you must let your opponents know that you will be fastplaying all strong hands. Don't fear knocking them out... most of the time, you are happy to have them fold and let you play the maniac heads up.

This is why the best place to be is on the maniac's left... sure, when you are on his right, you can check and try to trap the field, but you rarely have hands that are strong enough to want extra action. The few bets you gain in that position are easily lost to a wise player on the maniac's left who uses the excess aggression to push you off a weak made hand and steal a huge pot.

Key #8. Throw him a bone. Don't be a super-nit against the true maniac... you want to get involved with some weak hands, and then give up if you don't improve. You shouldn't be waiting for monsters against this guy... flop just a pair and you have a very profitable situation!

When you do fold, give it a little thought. Let the maniac know that you believe him, and he's made you fold a little bit of a hand. You should also be thinking just a touch when you are in call down mode, even if you have no intention of folding. Don't overdo it... we don't want things to slowdown. Keep him in rhythym. But pause just enough to let him know that you thought about it. That's all the encouragement a true maniac needs to keep trying to bluff you all night long.

A few example hands. Here are a few hands that I've actually played against maniacs in the past...

Hand 1 - value raising a mediocre hand

The maniac open raises the CO and you 3-bet AT on the button. You are fortunate to catch a good flop:

Ts 6c 2s

The maniac bets into you, you raise, he 3-bets. You obviously think you have the best hand at this point, but still this is a good spot to just call, planning to raise the turn no matter what comes. When you can, let the maniac stay in the lead, giving him as much room to bluff you as possible.

Turn: Kd

The maniac leads. Don't get timid! Raise! Your hand is a huge favorite against his range. You raise and the maniac 3-bets. You should STILL think you have the best hand. Crazy? Remember, again, that we are talking about a true maniac here. My favorite play here is to just call, planning to raise the river.

River: 2c

The maniac leads... raise! These turn and river raises are the kinds of value bets that most players miss in these spots, and it really costs them a lot. Sure, you might lose, and you're certainly going to be 3-bet if you are behind. But that's just it... you are probably going to be 3-bet even if you are ahead, and you are a big favorite to have the best hand, so you WANT to be 3-bet!

I played exactly this hand the other night and just called the river 3-bet. Frankly, I probably should have capped it, as this was just one of many hands I played just like this where my hand is good. The maniac held a missed flush draw here.

You know how long it took you to make all those super-thin heads up value bets, where you, say, value bet pocket deuces unimproved because you're expecting ace high to call you? This is exactly the same way. It takes a little getting used to, but boy is it profitable.

Hand #2 - pushing a player off a better hand

A tight player raises in early position. He's been sitting and waiting for cards all night. The maniac calls in the CO, I call with 77 on the button, both blinds call and we see the flop 5-handed:

flop: TT5 rainbow

EP bets. Maniac does what he does. I 3-bet! hoping EP has, perhaps, AK or AQ, but also setting myself for a big steal. pfr calls 2 cold. Yuck. Maniac caps. EP calls again... but I'm getting the distinct feeling this tight player has a pocket pair, and is not enjoying this raising war!

turn: 9

EP checks, the maniac bets... I raise! I'm planning to keep the pressure on the 3rd player, since my hand is a favorite against the maniac, and the pot is pretty big. If I can only knock out EP, then all my raises are for value. EP thinks a while and folds, and the maniac... folds! A truly rare fold. In fact, he left immediately after this hand, almost broke.

Summary. Playing with a maniac can be a really fun and profitable experience. Most of the time you should be playing pretty straight-forward, waiting for good hands and then raising them. Sometimes though, you get the opportunity to really outplay your opponents. These opportunities will only occur a few times in the session, but play them correctly and you'll pull in extra monster pot or two that your passive opponents would have lost. Embrace the variance, get maximum value out of your good hands, and you'll be well on your way to a big day.

[private joker]

Take it easy, guys. I didn't lock this thread, did I? I locked the last one because people complained about having to put in credit card information, PayPal, etc. -- all kinds of spam-related stuff. I was PMed by a user who was worried about the thread. I locked it.

This one I didn't lock. I like all kinds of discussion on holdem, of course. But we mods are told time and time again in the mod forum that links to blogs are considered spamming, and cutting and pasting of articles is something that's frowned upon and that's why I recommended he publish these in the 2+2 magazine.

Believe me, people have been suspended in other forums for less. I don't make the rules, I just try to enforce them since I agreed to be a mod. Please don't make it even harder on me by bitching at the messenger. And Wesley, the last thing I need to hear from users is "stay out of his way and let him do his thing." Come on, dude. Being a mod is a voluntary, thankless position. I have to enforce rules I don't even agree with sometimes. Cut me a little slack, please.

[disciple]

Great thread. I just want to say that I have had lesson from Eric before and it was great. I learned a lot from him.

Thanks for doing this, Eric.

[rafiki]

ya agreed, thanks. Maniac one is good also.

[ILOVEPOKER929]

[ QUOTE ]
And Wesley, the last thing I need to hear from users is "stay out of his way and let him do his thing." Come on, dude. Being a mod is a voluntary, thankless position. I have to enforce rules I don't even agree with sometimes. Cut me a little slack, please.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah I may have been a bit insensitive to your predicament PJ. Im sorry about that. I just think that whatever the rules are, you should allow Eric to break/bend them. I realize that things arent always that simple, Its just that I feel very passionate about 2+2. I think its the best website in the world and I strongly believe that 2+2 is that much better when Eric is posting anything about poker.

[James.]

hey eric,

very nice content.

fwiw, i feel as if you've put pj in a tough spot given his position and the stance 2p2 has on links/posts similar to this. i've actually had to tempban users for similar actions in small stakes.

that said, the content would certainly be helpful to the SStakers. IMO, i think the benefits you offer might outweight the spamminess, but it's really close just based on the website policy alone. i've always appreciated your input in the forums and would hate to see something like this damage that. i know it doesn't seem important, but in the grand scope of things it actually is. exceptions set precedents, and precedents can dictate enforcing policy.

take care,

James

[elindauer]

Good points James. pj has removed the links to my site which should remove any lingering concerns about 2+2 policy. Consider my offer to be simply to be the free content here and that's it. I'll take down the free membership page later this evening.


And on that note... I'll add another essay!

-Eric

PS. Thanks for all the kind words of encouragement in this thread. You guys are too kind. Tonight I'm going to go through and post a comment in every thread of whatever is on the front page of both the mid-limit and small stakes forums for you.

[elindauer]

(Here's a more speculative article attempting to explain the success of players like DERB. Enjoy.)

The current standard. Poker players make all kinds of mistakes. The most common one though is being overly passive. Passive players tend to check and call when they should bet or raise. This mistake manifests itself in many expensive ways. First, they miss bets with strong hands. Second, they fail to drive out players who then get the right odds and draw out on them, costing them pots. Third, they fail to bluff out players who have them beaten but would fold to a show of aggression, again costing them the whole pot.

Aggressive players, on the other hand, almost always limit their mistakes to the bet they are firing into the pot. Very few pots have ever been lost because a player played too aggressively.

In limit hold 'em, the size of the pot is usually quite a bit bigger than the size of a bet. It stands to reason then, that if aggressive mistakes tend to cost a bet, while passive mistakes can cost you the pot, you should strive to make all your mistakes aggressive ones. Simple, right?

Once a good player understands this, he starts to play more aggressively. Faced with a bunch of calling stations at low limit poker, he simultaneously tightens up, waiting for good cards and then betting them. He becomes tight and aggressive.

Virtually every poker book written these days extols the virtues of the tight / aggressive mentality. It makes sense, and you can definitely win with it, so there must be something to it. It's a fairly easy style to learn for a reasonably patient and intelligent person, and as such, an entire army of low limit TAGs has been spawned in recent years.

Yet the data suggests that these TAGs are not advancing up the poker food chain the way they should. Mid and high limit games don't seem to be dominated by these tight players... in fact, the best players seem to be much closer to the loose-aggressive maniac fish then they are to a TAG! Mind-boggling as it seems, these guys keep winning. How do they do it?

The poker evolution. I've become convinced that "TAG", the way it's currently viewed, is not the final stop on the poker journey. The final stop is, I think, slightly-loose-hyper-aggressive. Let's call this style, the "slag".

The big picture. Let's back up a second and take a look at the big poker picture. Poker is a game of probabilities. The goal of the game is to play in such a way that when the average bet goes into the pot, you have a better chance of winning it then the other guy. That's not to say that you have an edge on every bet that goes into the pot... just that on average, you're farther ahead when you're ahead, then you are behind when you're behind. We're looking for an overall advantage in the probability game.

One simple way to accomplish this is to simply sit back and wait for good cards. You can feel confident that, given decent postflop skills, you are getting an edge on the bets you put in. Provided your opponents are not overly tough or observant, this strategy is very effective, and it's no wonder that so many low limit winners play this way.

As you move up though, your opponents start to catch on to this. They get better at getting out of the way of your big hands, while punishing you severely when you are unfortunate enough to be dealt a good-but-still-second-best type of hand. When faced with competition like this, the "good" players complain that they can no longer beat the game, wondering why they are breaking even or losing despite their "good stats". They try to figure out whether they are calling down too much, or folding too much... never considering that the answer may well be both! They complain about how their opponents seem solid, but then always "get there" when they do decide to get out of line. They don't notice all the other times their opponents get out of line and take down the pot without a fight.

A no-limit example. There is a classic problem in no limit, that goes something like this: your opponent makes a big raise before the flop. You estimate that he either has AK or a big pair, AA, KK or QQ. Being the excellent student of poker that you are, you know that it's 4:3 that he actually just has AK. You also know that your hand, 22, is a small favorite against AK. Should you call?

The answer is clearly no. Even though you will be the favorite more than half the time, you will only be a slight favorite. The rest of the time, you will be a huge underdog. The amount you lose when you are up against the big pair more than makes up for the amount you gain by calling against AK.

Applying this concept to the slag. The way to beat good players in limit (and probably no limit too, for that matter), is to convince them to constantly call you in the situation described above. You want to put them in a situation where they are frequently putting in their money either way behind or slightly ahead. How do you pull this off?

Well, you're going to need decent cards to put your opponents in the position of being way behind to begin with. It's pretty hard to get way behind 72o. So the general theories about playing tight are generally correct. That gets you 90% of the way there. More on that final 10% in a minute...

The way you get your opponents to call down way behind or slightly ahead, is to get them to check-call down their unimproved ace high, even king high, while encouraging them to stay passive. And how do you do that? Well, you need to develop an image of being a wild, reckless player. A player who is constantly bluffing. You want your opponents to think you are a maniac.

Avoiding the problems of actually being a maniac. "But"... you say ... "maniacs always get crushed. Why would you want to be a maniac?". Ah. You don't want to be a maniac. You just want your opponents to think you are a maniac. Then you can wait for good cards and value bet them to death!

Unfortunately, it's very difficult to cultivate the image that you are a maniac when you are sitting back and waiting for good cards. This is where the slag comes into play... the way to develop a maniacal image is to play a little looser than the TAG style would suggest, and then play all your hands, draws and made hands alike, hyper aggressively. Look for opportunities to attack any time you are going to play. Be fearless. Make lots of free showdown raises / 3-bets, even caps on the turn... do not call if it can be reasonably avoided. Assume your opponent is showing down any ace high, and value bet relentlessly. Play back at any player who is stealing often enough to warrant it. Fearless poker.

The result. Most of the TAG-handbook is about finding +EV plays as your opponents present them. You adjust to how they are playing, taking what they give you. The slag-handbook, on the other hand, is about creating +EV plays. Your sometimes crazy-looking but only really slightly -EV plays (after fold equity is considered) are going to produce an image. Many of your opponents will adjust their games to that image, going from reasonably solid to calling stations. Many will become more passive as they fear you'll be quick to make it 3-bets on them. Their passive play makes your bluffs and semi-bluffs more profitable then they would be otherwise... you scoop up all the pots where you both miss, and are rarely charged the full amount to draw.

Some will go on tilt and make truly absurd plays, spewing money on terrible calldowns, hopeless bluffs, or ridiculous action with a weak made hand. Most players have a very hard time avoiding tilt, and being able to induce this state of terrible play in an opponent is a tremendous asset.

Other players will simply get out of your way, tightening up and waiting for good cards. This is also a benefit for you. Any time your opponents pass on a +EV play, there is that much more money available for the remaining players. Developing a fearsome image from the BB is especially beneficial in this regard, as the big blind benefits most from a TAG passing on a steal attempt.

Challenges. This is all great, but there are some tremendous challenges to overcome when playing this style. First, you have to be willing to stomach increased variance. Anyone who has played poker very long knows that there is already enough variance in this game to drive a guy crazy... handling the swings in this style may be too much for the average player.

Second, you have to be very careful not to go too far and become a LAG. It's one thing to give up a little bit on a raise... it's another to constantly over-estimate your bluff equity and spew chips. Walking that line takes tremendous hand reading and situational skills. Jumping right in as a newbie is a recipe for disaster.

Third, you'll probably want to play fewer tables than normal. A big part of effective postflop play is understanding how your opponents are adjusting to you. Some will give you much more action than normal, others will simply call down everything, etc... knowing what your opponents calls and raises say about their hand ranges is critical to walking the fine line between slag and LAG.

What about those other articles? I've written a lot of TAG-oriented strategy articles on this site... are they still valid? Well, yes and no. Yes, they are valid in that they show you how to play a very tough TAG style. If you really understand the small pot articles and the value-bluff raise (and 3-bet!), you'll can get pretty far. This understanding took me right to the bottom edge of the slag range... I was playing about 29/20 in 5 and 6 handed deals before this recent epiphany. With this somewhat-tight-but-very-aggressive style, you'll be right on the doorstep of the slag, slightly-loose-hyper-aggressive style I'm promoting now. Whether you want to take this next leap is up to you... you can a long ways without doing so. I was multi-tabling 30/60 before making this most recent advance in my game!

There is a big difference between the two styles though, and a number of close plays change depending on both your current image and the one you are trying to project. I'll have a lot more information coming on this style, and will be sure to identify which pieces of advice are slag-specific.

A final word of warning. It's sooo easy to misplay this style. I've been experimenting with it a lot recently, and it's been a long time since I've made so many clear mistakes in a session. Yet I'm convinced this is the way to go. You can really dump chips in a hurry if you misplay it, and even playing well your downswings are bound to be particularly brutal.

That said, I've never felt so comfortable playing poker short-handed. Viewing hands as instruments to get the money in either slightly behind or way ahead has me much less concerned about grinding out tiny edges in each hand, and much more comfortable simply reading my opponent's range, and playing my hand aggressively against it. If it doesn't work out this hand, eh, no problem. The next deal is just moments away, and everyone is waiting to see if I have picked up a hand...