Quote Originally Posted by littleogre
i hate players like the utg player for so many reasons. For one they always bloat the pot. I mean they aren't that dangerous when you face them hu. The problem is they are a real nuisance in 3 way pots. I mean how many times has the following happened to you . You lead out on the flop and another player reraises. At this point he has over 1/2 his stack in the middle. Then some dude shoves all in. You think to yourself he's giving the raiser 3-1 to call and they raise has shown strength. He has to know he has almost no fold equity. Surely he understands this is a terrible spot to bluff. You fold your tpwk. I mean we aren't suppose to stack off with such hands. Then the player player in the middle calls all in. He shows middle pair. Then bam the lagtard turns over 9 high with no draw.
A couple of points on this.

First, what I don't like about maniacs is how they screw up my reads. OK, the maniac might have anything-- that's bad enough. But what about the decent player who is calling him? What does that player have? I guess I could raise to try and find out-- but the maniac's going to re-raise me!

But that said, in the end, maniacs simply create a profitable expected value situation with a heck of a lot of variance. You have to get on in there when you have a good hand and then ride the roller coaster, understanding that the maniac could show you down with nothing but could also show you down with the nuts.