Part: Part Two - Playing Styles & Starting Requirements

Adjusting to a maniac

Pre-flop
Blinds 100 / 200Pot 1,100 (5.5 BB)BTNA♥K♥● 20,000 (100 BB)YOUto actCO● 17,000 (85 BB)Maniac (LAG)raises 800 (4 BB)SB● 20,000 (100 BB)posts 100 (0.5 BB)BB● 20,000 (100 BB)posts 200 (1 BB)D

A wild, loose-aggressive player - raising far too many hands - makes it 800 from the cutoff. It's on you on the button with A♥K♥.

A maniac raises to 800 (4 BB) wide; you hold A♥K♥ on the button. Best play?

WhyA player jamming this many hands into pots is opening a range A-K towers over, so this is a build-the-pot spot, not a pump-the-brakes one - the odd monster he holds doesn't change the math. Three-bet and make him play a big pot with junk. Folding a premium to a maniac is precisely the fold he prints money on; flatting lets the blinds in and wastes your edge.
What happensYou three-bet to 2,600 (13 BB). The blinds fold; the maniac calls. Pot: 5,500 (27.5 BB).
Flop
Heads-upPot 5,500 (27.5 BB)A♦7♣2♠BTNA♥K♥● 20,000 (100 BB)YOUtop pair, top kickerCO● 17,000 (85 BB)ManiacchecksD

Flop: A♦ 7♣ 2♠ - top pair, top kicker on a dry board. The maniac checks to you.

You flop top pair top kicker and the maniac checks. Best against this opponent?

WhyTop pair, top kicker on a dry A-7-2, and a maniac who's just checked to you - bet, and make peace right now with calling his aggression later, because a player who barrels this wide will represent far more than he holds. Checking wastes the street; the real error is betting and then folding the best hand when he comes over the top.
What happensYou bet 2,600 (13 BB); he check-raises all-in.
Decision
Heads-upPot 22,500 (112.5 BB)A♦7♣2♠BTNA♥K♥● 20,000 (100 BB)YOUtop pair, top kickerCO● 17,000 (85 BB)Maniacall-in 14,400 (72 BB)D

He check-raise jams over your flop bet on A-7-2. You have top pair, top kicker.

The maniac check-raise jams all-in. With A-K on A-7-2, do you…

WhyLine up his check-raise-jamming range here - worse aces, flush and straight draws, stone-cold bluffs - and top pair-top kicker is ahead of the great bulk of it. You're not calling because you're sure you're best; you're calling because the price is right against everything he'd do this with. Folding TPTK to a maniac is exactly the trap he's laying.
What happensYou call - and this time he tables a set of deuces. It stings, but the chips went in good: against the range that takes this line you're a favorite, and you'd make the same call every time. Right decision, wrong result - and if losing it once tempts you to fold next time, the maniac has won.
You three-bet your premium and got it in ahead of a wild player's range - and this time he'd backed into a set. That doesn't make the call wrong: against a range stuffed with worse aces, draws, and air, folding is the real leak. You win that spot far more often than you lose it, and the chips going in good is what matters.

A maniac's bluffs are your profit: against someone betting and raising far too wide, you don't tighten up in fear - you three-bet thinner for value and call down lighter, because you're pricing his whole range, not his best hand.