A 'Maniac' in Poker

A maniac is an aggressive player that plays a lot of hands, get's involved in as many situations as possible - these players also have a tendency to bluff. They inherit their name as they don't appear to be constrained by the boundaries of logic or risk. They just raise, raise and raise some more.

It is not a complimentary style of play as these players often lose money. They appear to want to take on the odds with any two cards which is a recipe for disaster. The opponents of a maniac often don't take long to figure out a winning style against these players as they are very predictable. Using plays such as the limp raise or check raise and slow playing or trapping with big hands will often maximize the amount won.

A real maniac is not really concerned with playing good poker, instead choosing to play any two cards and gambling. Some advantages to playing like this is that from time to time when they actually have a big hand, players will call their raises giving them no credit (due to their reputation as a wild player). Additionally, this type of play can often frustrate opponents into making bad decisions by putting them on tilt.