Has anyone here ever attempted to join a table and begin to play like a complete maniac in order to get your bets called later?

For example there is one player I regularly see, who raises by about 8BB once every 30-40 hands or so and doesn't play otherwise. It is easy for me to respect his raises and throw away hands like JJ or AQ.

There are other players who come in seem to play wild, raising hands like Q7s, making huge bets on something like Aces with a 3 kicker or bluffing wildly until caught. Against these players you see people call all in bets on fairly mediocre hands like top pair with an average kicker.

I'm not talking about true maniacs who get lucky by hitting trip 7's all in vs AA, but people who use organised chaos to consistently win money. I think this must take a great deal of skill and wonder whether anyone here ever plays in this way?

I do once in awhile, but it's usually with something of a decent starting hand...I do love busting these morons who arrive on the table and proceed to go all in for 7-8 hands in a row and then leave, I'm just praying for anything semi-decent to call with and send them packing...

Originally Posted by WotaWaster

I'm not talking about true maniacs who get lucky by hitting trip 7's all in vs AA, but people who use organised chaos to consistently win money. I think this must take a great deal of skill and wonder whether anyone here ever plays in this way?

I don't think skill is a significant factor with maniacs at all - just a little knowledge about flops and people. Hitting a flop isn't all that easy - in fact you will miss more flops than you hit - to an overly aggressive and very loose player that is a good thing to know. Players at a real money table may be loose or semi-loose with the cards they play but are generally not that loose with their bankrolls - another very valuable thing for a maniac to know. By playing as if every flop is a hit and banking on the majority of players not willing to risk their bankrolls calling down a maniac, they can run up a pretty good rush - manufactured all by themselves! Add luck and the occational good hand (even a maniac will get good hands) and you have a very frustrating situation (stirring up tilt is another ploy of their's) - unless you can bust him!
Busting a maniac by yourself isn't easy either and it can come at a cost! You have to play extra solid and really take it to them when you have a hand or if they are quick to backdown when shown resistance, then calling them down to showdown to bleed them as much as possible. You won't have to do it too often as most maniacs once they have a buster on their tail will generally move off to another table for fresh meat.
The easier way to bust a maniac is with co-operation from the rest of the table but getting that co-operation can be tough because if you solicite any co-operation, that would be collusion and you could be reported and banned from the site. But, if the table realizes that it's just as hard ror the maniac to hit a flop as it is for anyone of them and that the more players in the pot, the more likely it is someone has him beat, then the maniac is busted very quickly! This will mean loosing up a bit and playing more medocre hands in order to get in more often with more players. Think of a tournament where a player goes all-in and 2 or 3 others call. Generally accepted play is for the 2 or 3 callers to just call down to sd unless they have the nuts or almost unbeatable hand. The same principle applies to busting a maniac - with 3, 4 or more of the table calling down the maniac, at least one of them will generally have him beat most of the time and he will soon leave for greener pastures. It is very important not to piss off your table mates by pushing them off a hand even with the nuts - you should be willing to raise less/not at all in order to keep them in and increase the chance to bust the maniac hand after hand after hand. Once he's gone, then go back to your regular game.

So how to get the co-opertaion without soliciting collusion? Well, I have tried talking directly to the maniac with something like "You're lucky you only had one player against ya playing as loose as you are" or "How do you expect to get away with playing that kind of garbage if you have more than just me to beat?" They usually come back with some smart-ass remark or that they can't be beat but if the rest of the table is paying attention, they may get the message to play more hands against this guy. I've never been accused of collusion but if I ever am, I would just quickly apologize claiming not to know any better and that I have no control over what the rest of the tables plays or doesn't.
At the low limit tables, you'll find lots of maniacs - if busting them isn't in your style or game plan, then you might have to move tables before he does because as long as he's given free rein over the table, he'll hang in there manufacturing his own personal rush and putting you and the rest of the table on tilt.

Anyone else have some thoughts on dealing with maniacs?

Good post/points Aces...it is important info that for every flop that doesn't hit you, more than likely didn't hit your opponents either so I guess a lot of time it's who gets to the pot first or implies the most strength...would be nice to have players pay attention and "team up" on these morons, but unfortunately you are often at a table of idiots who don't pick up on this (but that's probably why we're at this table trying to take their money) and you're forced to sit and wait for a busting hand...although I seem to have success re-bluffing and getting the maniac to fold, you just have to pick your spots/raise properly...

Originally Posted by Aces-o-8s

Anyone else have some thoughts on dealing with maniacs?

I am going to assume NL for this answer.

I use two techniques described by Harrington as the hammer and the rope-a-dope. I use the hammer, which is coming over the top big, when I have a good draw or otherwise somewhat good hand. LAGs usually don't like big confrontations. It is better if you have a good read that the LAG has little in his hand which is often.

The rope-a-dope is used when you have a very strong made hand. You play with the LAG by calling or using small raises much like slowplaying. Try to induce a bluff on the river. Once or twice doing this and getting lots of his chips, the LAG usually avoids you.