Straddle

What is a straddle

omg, if anyone could answer this in a simple way I would appreciate it.
I have been playing for a few years and still cannot grasp what that means.
I have googled it, but still don't really get it.

A straddle is when the player to the left of the big blind puts out a bet of twice the big blind before the hand is dealt. Action continues as normal after whole cards are dealt, except that players who want to stay in the hand have to call at least the straddle bet (double the big blind). The straddle player then takes position of the big blind (last player to act before the flop).

thanks

Oh so the straddle gets to act again? I thought it just acted like a normal bet.

Now I know, thank you very much. Can a player Straddle the straddle? I would do that just to piss the straddler off.

Yes.

Yup, that's called a re-straddle.

It is nice because the person who straddled gets to act last if there are no raises in front of him pre- flop, but as far as the re-straddle goes, its either house/ casino rules, because in the home games I play in and the 2 casino's I go to (Mohegan Sun/Foxwoods in CT) dont let you re-straddle.

Perhaps this is a silly question; but what is the point of the straddle? Are there any legitimate reasons for somebody to do it?

It is basically utg throws up a min raise?

If you get dealt A/Q or better, or pocket 88's or better and hit you get paid off a lot of the time by people calling your re-raise pre-flop from EP because there not going to give you credit for a hand becuase it looks like your trying to squeeze if there are a lot of limpers after your straddle. It's really only good, and works well for live cash games, I have never seen an online site that lets you straddle.

[quote=Clutch346;1633152]Perhaps this is a silly question; but what is the point of the straddle? Are there any legitimate reasons for somebody to do it?
It is really just an attempt to buld the pot and it is typically done by the more agressive players more often than not. I will not do it myself too often unless the whole table is.

Yeah straddle is fun and all in home games, but is it allowed in casinos and such?it seems a bit like changing the whole concept of the blinds...

The point of the straddle is not to build the pot. You're UTG, which means you're going to only have position on the blinds. You don't want to play in big pots OOP generally. And you don't know what your hole cards are when you straddle, so why would you want to build the pot?

The reason people straddle is to loosen up a tight game. It creates more action. Hence why you see it on TV a lot, it creates more action.

Why is there no straddle online? Because if you find yourself in a tight game, you just switch tables. No need to try and loosen up the table.

U explain things very well imo

You say it is to loosen up a tight game, I say its to build the pot.....I understand what your saying, but I should clarify....I play live poker fairly often and in my experience, whenever someone straddles, it inevitably builds a bigger pot.. I agree with what you said though about using it to open up a tight game, although in my experience, the effect it is going to have on the table will vary. I have typically seen most of the table tighten up due to a straddle being put on by 1 or 2 players.

I'm telling you what the purpose of a straddle is. You're talking about the byproduct of straddling.

I was just responding to your last comment.

How many re-straddles are allowed? UTG+1 straddle UTG+2 re-strad UTG+3 re-strad is that possible? and who acts first? middle position+1 ?

Its house rules, and the casinos I play in dont allow re-straddle just straddle

I played at full contact poker a little bit and I think they allowed a straddle.

Playing live sometimes a straddle really gets under players skin. That makes it even more fun. Also when a couple people limp after the straddle and it gets back to you and you put a big raise in. People start squirming. Not sure it's real profitable but it's a lot of fun.

^ this. With regard to there being no straddles online, I'm pretty sure you'll find implementing them online has all sorts of logistical problems as well. It'd eat into your hands per hour pretty quickly if there had to be a five second pause before every hand while UTG decided whether or not to press the straddle button and negotiating a round of straddles could be problematic given that not everybody even has chat turned on or pays attention to it.

Also for those above likening a straddle to a minraise UTG that's not quite accurate since a straddle is a live bet (ie: the player has the option to raise if everybody else just calls). A player making a blind minraise UTG woudln't have that option.

I guess they could put a checkbox with that option and we'd have to have it checked before the hand started to straddle. No time would be lost this way.

There's a live straddle and a non-live straddle.

Non-live straddle - basically means UTG min raised blind, if no one raises preflop, UTG doesn't get a chance to make a raise.

Live straddle - UTG min raised blind, but this bet is treated as a 3rd blind. In a 1/2 NL game, UTG live straddles to $4. If there is no raise preflop (say everyone calls, BB calls as well), now UTG does have the option of raising if they choose.

Quite a few casinos will allow a live straddle UTG, but subsequent "restraddles" will not be live.

There's variations of straddles, such as the "downtown" straddle that Binion's and The Golden Nugget use in Vegas. It's a live straddle placed on the button, button acts last preflop (ie, after the blinds). There's also no limit on the size of this straddle ie, in a 1/2 game you could straddle $5 (a common amount) or more. This is similar to a Mississippi straddle.

if you are straddling to increase the size of the pot, you are making a huge mistake. why would you want to put more money in the pot when you are in one of the worst positions at the table?

winning players straddle to loosen up the table.

Peter Jetten recently tweeted about 4 restraddles in their 400/800 nlhe game at aria the other day...25k+ pot before players looked at their cards...

usually a straddle is just to increase action/build a pot

and yes it is allowed at every casino that i have played at

Straddle is something I see at every cash game I attend. I usually never did it unless I come into the game UTG then I usually do it. Last time I seen it done I was playing a 1/2 nl and the guy straddle for 7 and end up hitting pocket aces lol. Sometimes its a good thing depending on a person style of play.