What to do when card dead vs maniac

[teteatot]

this is a situation i'm sure we're all familiar with. NL sng, some guy is betting hard every hand, not folding to occaisional bets from you, and you're getting dealt garbage and missing every flop. what do you do? i tend to just keep folding, but this feels very weak. do any of you have approaches that you like more?

[Bad Beat Maker]

First I'm assuming that you're speaking of a Headsup NL SNG. Anyways, when going card dead in these (especially against a maniac) I think the only thing you can do is fold, unless you just have it set that you're going to try to run off a pure bluff, which again, against a maniac isn't too smart.

All you can wait for is connected cards and for the bad spell to fade.

[highpass]

A few thoughts on this, some stuff to possibly try.

Tightening up your requirements, the old thinking of 'playing the opposite style to how your opponent is playing' can be very true.
Playing a more trapping style, playing deceptively when you have it and letting your opponent bluff off their chips or bet into you with an inferior hand.
Calling them down with 2nd/3rd pair occasionally to find out what kind of strength of a hand you need to beat them in a pot.
Trying to see lots of cheap flops (if possible) with a lot of hands, ideally you want your opponent to missplay/overplay their hand into you when you flop a monster, and in heads-up that could be with any two cards.
If they're playing so aggressively that you can't get to see a flop at all, then just waiting for a hand to go with is about all you can do.
Remember they won't have a hand every time, maybe even after you've played back at them a bit, or managed to win a sizeable pot from them they will slow down some and play more solid poker.

[Bad Beat Maker]

[ QUOTE ]
A few thoughts on this, some stuff to possibly try.

Tightening up your requirements, the old thinking of 'playing the opposite style to how your opponent is playing' can be very true.
Playing a more trapping style, playing deceptively when you have it and letting your opponent bluff off their chips or bet into you with an inferior hand.
Calling them down with 2nd/3rd pair occasionally to find out what kind of strength of a hand you need to beat them in a pot.
Trying to see lots of cheap flops (if possible) with a lot of hands, ideally you want your opponent to missplay/overplay their hand into you when you flop a monster, and in heads-up that could be with any two cards.
If they're playing so aggressively that you can't get to see a flop at all, then just waiting for a hand to go with is about all you can do.
Remember they won't have a hand every time, maybe even after you've played back at them a bit, or managed to win a sizeable pot from them they will slow down some and play more solid poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well put.