Straddling - good/bad/has its place?

[mmcd]

In pot limit cash games straddles are often used to raise the stakes. A lot of times players will agree and all or most of them will straddle every hand.

[Kirkrrr]

Well, I only play NL (badly) so I don't see how I can "cap" the flop; but it does seem to be a good strategy if the table has gotten really tight and you're willing to invest 2xBB to liven things up a little bit in the hope that you'll get paid off later on your image. Okay. Thanks for the responses, everyone.

Kirk R.

[MrPoker]

"I promise not to call if you straddle" is my usual comment, and I have never CALLed a straddle.

Works for me.

[BlueBear]

It may be ok if you want maintain a loose, aggressive and somewhat maniacal image in the table. Keeping this image may be advantageous in certain ways because some players may not respect the straddler for having the goods when the straddler has a very strong hand.

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
"I promise not to call if you straddle" is my usual comment, and I have never CALLed a straddle.

Works for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

By "never called," clearly you don't mean "I'd never call," right? IOW, if you look down and see something like KQs in LP and someone has posted a live straddle, are you folding?

[pudley4]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"I promise not to call if you straddle" is my usual comment, and I have never CALLed a straddle.

Works for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

By "never called," clearly you don't mean "I'd never call," right? IOW, if you look down and see something like KQs in LP and someone has posted a live straddle, are you folding?

[/ QUOTE ]

The emphasis on the word CALL leads me to believe he's done plenty of RAISING...

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[dfscott]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"I promise not to call if you straddle" is my usual comment, and I have never CALLed a straddle.

Works for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

By "never called," clearly you don't mean "I'd never call," right? IOW, if you look down and see something like KQs in LP and someone has posted a live straddle, are you folding?

[/ QUOTE ]

The emphasis on the word CALL leads me to believe he's done plenty of RAISING...

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting -- so you'll always assume that the straddler has junk (probably a pretty good assumption) and just assume that anything worth calling vs. a raise is now worth raising? I never really thought about it that way, but that's probably a good strategy.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Straddling occasionally has it place. If you can change the dynamics of the game enough, it might be worth doing once in a while. I like to do it occasionally to fire up the game. I do it once, make a big deal of it, then everyone's doing it. They never seem to notice that I quit doing it.

It's even better when something like this happens...

In a no limit 1-2 blinds game, I straddled. I got 62o and no one raised. I flopped a straight, and someone had A5 and hit an ace on the turn, thus I busted them. This spectacular bit of luck kept the whole table straddling for hours, even tho I only did it twice all night.

Now of course I repeat the straddle story lots of times, but that doesn't mean I am straddling while telling the story!

Mostly tho, it's just an obviously bad play, so I rarely do it unless the situation is perfect.

[MrPoker]

My outlook is....

I only play fixed low limit games. (15-30 max, I prefer 4-8)

Players who straddle are usually gamblers, weak, on tilt, or just plain bad. If I have the best hand, or perhaps second best pre-flop, don't I want to get as much money into the pot as possible?

The chips they win when they drag a monster pot after a straddle, well, I know those chips are 'just visiting', and 'the loan' will be paid back with lot's of interest.

IF there is a straddle, the word 'CALL' is just not part of my vocabulary pre-flop except when - if a pot is already capped when the action reaches me.

Gosh, I hate when that happens. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Big Country]

I don't remember where i read this, probably here on the boards, but I believe the standard play is to raise a live straddler, especially if in early or late position. if in early and you ahve a good hand, you are making players call 3-cold to play, if in late, there are usually less players involved as they were faced with 2-cold, so a raise is a way to isolate the straddler.