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What is a maniac?

Symptom

Maniacs are extremely loose-aggressive. They bet, raise and love to bluff. Their bluffs are too frequent to be effective, because they lose their credibility. A lot of maniacs run their head against a brick wall and bluff in situations where they have no chances of success at all.
All maniacs are not equal, however. Some of them have a VPIP of above 90% and others of 50%. And there is a difference in aggression as well. Some of them bet, raise, 3-bet and cap whenever possible, others are only very aggressive pre-flop and become more judicious there after. There are blind and selective bluffers. The latter are tough to read and are way better poker players. These kind of moderate maniacs can be called semi-maniacs and are the most popular maniac.

Sooner or later you will discover a maniac by his style. It is very important to identify them if you want to play profitably against him. Otherwise you play him as a “typical player” and run danger of getting bluffed out of too many hands.

In an ideal-situation you already have PokerTracker data material. You can identify them by their high VPIP (50+) and PFR (30+) rates. If you don’t have any data on this player you should analyze his style with observation. His low raising standard is a good indication. Another sign can be: If maniac joins a table he posts his blinds automatically not waiting for the big blind (or cut off for fr games). A main characteristic of a maniac is his impatience and lack of self-control. It is not unusual that he is quite noisy in the chat and tries to annoy his opponents. Sometimes he takes the seat with an extremely high bankroll to satisfy his craving of recognition.

Maniacs win big pots but loose them as well. Anyway, he gets lots of action, but in the end a financial loss is inescapable.