I don't understand the point of straddling...

[*TT*]

In NL Hold'em your playing for your opponent's stacks, its not just to win the hand. The true goal of a straddle is to inflate the size of the pot, while placing your opponents out of their comfort zone - all while showing that the hero is willing to gambool (of course this is a false perception because the hero's investment for image and post size inflation is minimal). The key is you must know when to get away from your hand when playing out of position.

Alternatively there is the Mississippi straddle which is on the button. If your card room allows it and your a strong post-flop NL player than this can be so ideal that to pass on your straddle oportunity would be -EV if the conditions are right.

[garcia1000]

Straddling halves effective stack sizes. Many people don't adjust properly.

[mikesh]

Hmmm I never thought about trying to create a (false) loose image. The action was insanely loose even without the straddle so I don't think it was to loosen up the table. The problem in this case with them straddling to inflate the pot is most of these guys were getting stacked left and right, so pretty much all they were doing is creating a nice big pot for guys like me who waited for decent cards. Mind you, it was only one night, and my first time playing live, so obviously I have a pretty small sample size to make judgements about their skill, I suppose, but for the most part they tended to call any raise pre-flop when they straddled so I'm guessing the main reason for them straddling was just to gambool. (BTW yes there are lot of Asians here but at this particular table I didn't have one - it was actually white guys and one East Indian fellow who kept straddling. I was at Cascades casino - the Riverrock is the casino where a lot of the Asian players play.)

LOL @ JSD's guide. Good stuff.

TT: How common is the Mississippi straddle? I didn't see it when I was playing so I assume it's not allowed, since this would make much more sense than rasing blind under the gun.

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]
TT: How common is the Mississippi straddle? I didn't see it when I was playing so I assume it's not allowed, since this would make much more sense than raising blind under the gun.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have only seen this at the WSOP, my understanding is they allow it in Tunica but I haven't gone yet.

[MicroBob]

Yes, they have the Miss straddle in Tunica.
You are allowed to straddle from any non-blind position and the pre-flop play begins to the left of the straddler.

So if I straddle on the button then preflop it's up to the SB right-away as to whether to call or not.


While the ideas in here are correct regarding why a good player might want to straddle it only answers part of the question.Why he should want to do this is to inflate the pot, have a loose image, etc.
Why most others are doing it is because they like to play a little bit crazy and gamble it up which includes such things as live-straddling and checking or betting in the dark, etc.

[Nate.]

[ QUOTE ]
In NL Hold'em your playing for your opponent's stacks, its not just to win the hand. The true goal of a straddle is to inflate the size of the pot, while placing your opponents out of their comfort zone - all while showing that the hero is willing to gambool (of course this is a false perception because the hero's investment for image and post size inflation is minimal). The key is you must know when to get away from your hand when playing out of position.

Alternatively there is the Mississippi straddle which is on the button. If your card room allows it and your a strong post-flop NL player than this can be so ideal that to pass on your straddle oportunity would be -EV if the conditions are right.

[/ QUOTE ]

*TT*--

Indeed.

Also, you get last action preflop. As much as we all love to consider ourselves postflop experts, today's games are crushable before the flop, and having a good sense of hot-and-cold equity, fold equity, and the occasional Sklansky-Chubukovish consideration can make you lots of money. Having last action only amplifies that.

Also, in many games people will limp loosely but raise a straddle tightly. Or, in games with people who think in absolute dollar terms, they will still open for $20 or $25 in a $2-$5 game after I straddle for $10. Those are obvious mistakes that the straddle induces. (I know you're a pot-manipulation guy, TT.)

These pot-manipulation effects also propogate. Against absolute-dollar-number opponents I just want to bump up the stakes, and I'm willing to pay extra blinds to do it. They bet $100 into $500 pots (when they would also bet $100 into $200 pots) so often that I'm willing to invest the extra blinds. Even a simple bet flop + bet turn bluff sequence, that costs me roughly $30 on the flop and $60 on the turn, can be enormously effective against opponents who can't see past the "big" (or even "medium") $60 bet in that same $2-$5 game.

And, of course, the image effects are great, though I tend never to have trouble getting people to think I'm an action player.

--Nate

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]
What's "West Asian"?

[/ QUOTE ]

Looking at the graphic's properties, it came from a Wikipedia article on Vancouver demographics.

This section of the article lists Iranians and Afghanis as examples of West Asians.

[BrianBigNFun]

I've honestly seen more straddling at the tables since High Stakes Poker came on the air, most of the donks dont even know why theyre doing it and probably do it because they think they're being cool. I even had one guy ask me recently if I wanted to run a turn and river twice when I had a huge 90/10 lead- I just looked at him funny and said "no thanks".

[Bogeysave]

Recently i was playing in a 1/2 game and it was mixed as players came in and out as far as loose or tight. Then a guy who is loose that i had played with before sits down to my right. After about 30 minutes he drops the straddle. I make a big deal about it before the cards are dealt saying "uh oh the straddle's on now boys and girsl". Now i'm under the gun and wake up with pocket kings. So i raise his straddle from UTG and get a couple of callers and he "must protect his straddle" and re-pops me. I ended up stacking him and he rebuys.

So the next hand i'm having a good time and for the first time in my life decide i will straddle on purpose (did on accident before but thats another story). A raise and a couple of calls in front of me and i wake up with Aces! I re-pop it and get three calls - Ace on the flop!

I straddled the rest of the night!

The thing is because the straddle was there - nobody believed i had a big hand as the common thing for the straddler is to pop the heck out of the pot no matter what he has if the action in front of him was standard (limpers or one raise with callers). Going with this it is a great way to win a huge pot if you were to wake up with a big hand in the straddle as it will be disguised as a typical straddle play. Before that night i had never really been a big fan of it.

As for "is it standard for 1/2 players to raise 10-12 times the big blind? In the casino's i play it usually is a raise anywhere from $10 - $25 for the initial raiser at the 1/2 tables. Especially if they are not spreading many higher limit games at the time or if the higher limit games are full. The higher limit players will play 1/2 while waiting for their table and they play 1/2 as if they are at a higher limit table pushing the pot size.

[Ghazban]

This is a bit of a hijack but...

In places where a straddle is permitted from any non-blind position, what happens if multiple people want to straddle on the same hand? I'm not talking about straddling and re-straddling (as is not uncommon in rooms where the straddle(s) are always directly to the left of the big blind). Is there a priority of who gets to straddle first? Also, are restraddles permitted with a Mississippi straddle and, if so, can they also be from any position?