Playing like a maniac is fun, but can be very costly.

Contrary to what some noobs are thinking, the maniac style is very challenging and requires full attention to every detail on the table. I can not play more than 1 table this way. More than anything we need to understand our villains adjustments- whether they are rational or not.

When we understand villains adjustment we can make counter adjustments. Some of villains adjustments are forced upon them by us. For example, by check/raising more frequently we force villain to either stop c-betting/leading so much, or villain starts 3 betting more lightly. Both adjustments are good, but futile if we are one step ahead.

We force villain to change his game in several ways;

1. His default play becomes EV -, and he can either lose money or adjust. Doesnt matter to us. This we can call rational adjustment. It is all about manipulating frequencies of preflop raises, preflop 3-bets/4bets, check/raises, donk bets, calling etc.

2. We make him emotionally unstable. Playing against a skilled maniac can be gruesome. It seems like you never have fold equity, but yet he folds every single time you valuebet.

When we are maestro of the action, we can manipulate the kind of changes we want. We dont want CO to open raise every time its folded to him- well, we 3-bet very light or call checkraise flop f.ex.

Since hero is the one who is deciding which changes villain must do, hero is prepared and ready to make the best counter adjustment.

I hope to generate some discussion from other maniacs out there, since I am very new to this playing style.