Blind Straddles

[Ragnar]

I was playing yesterday in a 3-6 Kill Hold'Em game (my third ring game). A player under the gun posted $6 as a blind straddle. I understand what it is, but for other beginners on the forum, it is a blind raise without looking at your cards. The player was also short stacked and ended up folding later and buying more chips.

Why would someone do this? Does anyone have any strategy suggestions when someone has posted a blind straddle? I was in middle position with one or two callers. I had garbage and folded.

Ragnar

[Wake up CALL]

"Does anyone have any strategy suggestions when someone has posted a blind straddle?"

Yes, do not sit directly to the right of this player.

[asdf1234]

They do it because they are there to gamble, not play proper poker. It stimulates action. There's actually a short section about this in HEPFAP. They essentially say to tighten up a little bit because your implied odds are killed and to not steal because they're not folding anyways.

[anatta]

As has been mentioned, if someone is always straddling your blinds, you want to get a seat change. Try to get to the left of the gambler so you can make it 3 bets. When I see someone staddle, and a guy cold-calls, its an indication that he doesn't understand poker (cold calling raises in general is bad, but this is worse). You should strain to find a re-raise of the staddler particularly in tight games.

[Easy E]

Don't sit to the right of a loose player, who you can use to trap the table for extra bets, AND when you know they'll be raising?

I'm not sure about that.

[Easy E]

[ QUOTE ]
When I see someone staddle, and a guy cold-calls, its an indication that he doesn't understand poker (cold calling raises in general is bad, but this is worse). You should strain to find a re-raise of the staddler particularly in tight games.

[/ QUOTE ]
While I agree with the second part, the first part can't be assumed that quickly. If I have a volume hand, I'd only cold-call if I was up front.

[rkiray]

It's interesting that no one said you should never do it. I've seen many people advise this in the past and in general it's a bad play. But like anything else in poker, it's a tool and it occasionally has it's place. I very rarely do it. But I remember one time when it worked great. I got into Mesquite NV around 7 PM on a Friday night. I got immediate seating because there were two empty seats at the only game going. Played for about an hour and it was a terrible game. Everyone else at the table was a local and they all knew each other. Total rock garden. I play fairly tight, but was by far the loosiest player at this table. So I decide to post a stradle. It's amazing how the action took off. Everyone suddenly started betting much more aggresively and we finally had some big pots. Even better about two rounds later two people who just arrived from Utah showed up. They were really live ones. Both of them posted stradles every time. They were bugging the rest of us to do it also. So I started stradling about every thrid round just to keep them in a gambling mood. Two of the locals did more or less the same thing. It was amazing how quickly a really bad game became great. Played about three more hours and made a killing. That was over a year ago and I haven't posted a stradle since.