Why straddle?

[Bibigon]

I make a point of straddling or limping in blind whenever there's an influx of new players at the table. I also throw in a check in the dark from the small blind occasionally.

The reason is simple. I'm a tight player, I don't fool around very much without having hit the flop, but I want action. I subsequently give off the impression of being somewhat of a goofball, who's just there to have fun. I suspect I get paid off a lot more on my value bets as a result. It costs a bit of money in the short term, but my theory is that it's worth it in the long run.

[youtalkfunny]

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If you are in a game wehre you can straddle on the button you shoudl do so.

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Why should I? If I wanted to put my money in before I saw my cards, I'd play 21.

[RR]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you are in a game wehre you can straddle on the button you shoudl do so.

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Why should I? If I wanted to put my money in before I saw my cards, I'd play 21.

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You are on the button. You want to play for more when you have the button. The blinds now have to act on their hands without having an idea of who would like to raise. Straddling on the button is a strong enough move that in the old days you were not allowed to straddle in a threee handed game becasue it was consisdered grossly unfair to let the same person have last action pre and post flop.

[KenProspero]

I will generally straddle in two situations --

first to 'change my luck' -- basically, if I've taken a few bad beats, or hitting a bad run of cards and see myself starting to 'fume' which is a sign that I may be beginning to tilt. I straddle a hand, just to calm myself down and get it out of my system (yes, I know it's -ev, but it works for me). Recently, I both straddled, and then played the hand blind (it was a VERY bad night before then). Got a player to fold pair of A9, with an A on the board, he didn't realize that I hadn't looked, flipped up his cards and said, "you've been playing tight, so I know I'm outkicked, what do you have." As the chips came to me, I flipped up my cards, and said, don't know, I haven't looked. The REALLY funny thing was that I had AJ, and Did have him outkicked. Anyway, I had a cheerier disposition (though not much better cards) for the rest of the night.

Second situation, if I'm at a table with rocks and I'm trying to shake things up. It tends to upset them to (their words) "be playing at a different level than what they sat down for". To be honest, I don't really do this much unless they're also annoying.

[VOX]

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cuz its fun

about a year ago there was a post (bisonbison maybe) abour the rules of the straddle that was hilarious. if someone found that, i'd be forever in debt

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you owe me

this is the first thing i thought of too.

[Clarkmeister]

+Fun EV

[surfinillini]

why not?

[lmcjaho]

[ QUOTE ]
cuz its fun

about a year ago there was a post (bisonbison maybe) abour the rules of the straddle that was hilarious. if someone found that, i'd be forever in debt

[/ QUOTE ]

Ask and ye shall receive:

JSD and bisonbison explain straddling...


EDIT: oops - somebody already had it... oh well... [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[flawless_victory]

ITS FUN

[PokerFink]

That post is [censored] gold.