How to deal with preflop maniacs

Should we slow play against them or fight with fire? Dara O'Kearney has a playbook for aggressive players.

One of the biggest things players deal with is how to deal with aggressive preflop players. They often revert to slow playing big hands hoping they will stack off with air. 

A quick answer to the question of dealing with preflop maniacs is that you should expand your value and bluff range, without expanding your total range too much.

That essentially means taking most of the flats out of your range.

Flats do not punish maniacs for opening too wide, even though a lot of players think slow playing is the way to go against them. When you flat against aggressive players, they get to realise equity and exert ICM pressure on you.

Fight fire with fire

The way to deal with maniacs is to raise them, fight fire with fire.

When you are bluffing, they should have a very weak overall range, so they should fold a lot.

When you have value, we give them a chance to make a huge mistake by coming over the top of us.

It's scary to turn the aggression onto maniacs but they have a weak range that should be exploited. If they don't fold against you they are not a maniac, they are a calling station, which is a good problem to have. 

A lot of players hate "bloating the pot" preflop against the maniac, but they are going to be running without the ball a lot of the time. The best way to deal with them is by turning the aggression on them.

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