Straddling

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koskesh

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Last night I was playing in a live $1-$3 NL holdem cash game where one guy kept straddling every round and would bet large or raise any other bet on the flop. This behaviour made it really hard to read him and at first I paid him out twice trying to catch him in a bluff. What are your thoughts on this cash game strategy?
 
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mr_kommpa

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Awful, he is putting in money without looking at his cards and then he raises every flop? I think he might have been on some run good, I would call him down light all day if he did raise every flop though. You were most likely unlucky :)
 
terryk

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Run to the ATM and follow that man to the ends of the earth:D
 
deform fedot

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Last night I was playing in a live $1-$3 NL holdem cash game where one guy kept straddling every round and would bet large or raise any other bet on the flop. This behaviour made it really hard to read him and at first I paid him out twice trying to catch him in a bluff. What are your thoughts on this cash game strategy?

Do not pay attention to the behavior of the enemy, if he has such tactics always wait for sure at the map and raise bet
 
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koskesh

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Awful, he is putting in money without looking at his cards and then he raises every flop? I think he might have been on some run good, I would call him down light all day if he did raise every flop though. You were most likely unlucky :)

Being unlucky? What is that? 😉
One question: when you say you'd call him all day, wouldn't that be playing into his game by slowly bleeding away your stack (if you get unlucky more times than not)? Wouldn't it be better to just play tight and wait for the right opportunity to slow play a good hand and take him out once and for all?
 
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mr_kommpa

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The unlucky part were just because you said that you lost when you called him down :)

Well, that stratergy could be good. But it depends a lot on what he will do on the other streets. If he allways dubble / trippel barrels we can happily call down with second / top pair and be good most of the time. If he gives up a lot on the turn you could call on the flop with a lot of hands and steal it on the turn if he gives up :)
 
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koskesh

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The unlucky part were just because you said that you lost when you called him down :)

Well, that stratergy could be good. But it depends a lot on what he will do on the other streets. If he allways dubble / trippel barrels we can happily call down with second / top pair and be good most of the time. If he gives up a lot on the turn you could call on the flop with a lot of hands and steal it on the turn if he gives up :)
Alright mate, thanks for all your thoughts and pointers!
 
Sil3ntness

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UTG straddle seems pretty bad. Like the other posters said, you are playing out of position with any two cards at a bloated price.

Now a button straddle is a lot better option.
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Should be happy that they are playing a UTG straddle each time.
 
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koskesh

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UTG straddle seems pretty bad. Like the other posters said, you are playing out of position with any two cards at a bloated price.

Now a button straddle is a lot better option.
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Should be happy that they are playing a UTG straddle each time.
Thanks for your post. I have never personally used straddling as a strategy but now that you have mentioned button straddling I think I should test it out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the advantage of button straddling would be that everyone (including SB & BB) has to act first so you'll have a pretty good assessment of everyone else's hand at the table (as long as no one is slow playing)?
 
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He's just trying to induce action because he believes he can out play the others on the flop. It can be difficult to put them on a hand but they're not going to have a hand every time.
 
Sil3ntness

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Thanks for your post. I have never personally used straddling as a strategy but now that you have mentioned button straddling I think I should test it out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the advantage of button straddling would be that everyone (including SB & BB) has to act first so you'll have a pretty good assessment of everyone else's hand at the table (as long as no one is slow playing)?

Button straddle is good for loosening up nits... and yes the SB and BB both have to go before the button so it makes the button that much nicer.
 
RidersFan

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Straddling is a good way to get an overly tight table to loosen up. I straddle every round on a table full of players just making hours. If I'm at an action table I'll straddle if 60% of the player are also straddling, otherwise your just giving away money.
 
Aces2w1n

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Hmm youve probably made some hero calls in your favour before in this spot and keep thinking he is bluffing as well.

Just be aware about your assumptions about catching out people.



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Straddle just makes the effective stack sizes that much smaller. Post flop edges shorten and we are restricted with moves we can do.

But it also can create complexed lines which can create mistakes from our opponents which is nice. So if we are comfortable and with a solid plan before we can definetly take the unprepared by suprise.
 
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AjsmenX

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Button straddle is good for loosening up nits... and yes the SB and BB both have to go before the button so it makes the button that much nicer.

I totally agree with this...button struddle has more sense than UTG absolutely..You will much easier steal the blinds from button than utg
 
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The only time I get ticked off and stressed in this situation is when the live straddle enemy is straddling my blinds. Then I am not sure what to do because I can not get a read on him, and because everyone else has entered the pot. The other players all know see he straddles each and every time he is utg so they call his straddle lite. I can sort of understand why. If they connect with the flop it was a good gamble, but all those times they miss the flop it just eats their stack up.

So what do I do as the blind? If I call like everyone else and the enemy is anything like all the loose live straddle enemies I have played with in the past I am totally afraid of massive dead money raise from the live straddle once the action gets to him. No one else has raised so he feels like he can just force most of the people out of the pot. This totally gets to me and puts me on tilt.

If the live straddle is always on my blinds I will change seats as soon as one opens. Then I can simply have patients and wait for the perfect opportunity I wait and wait and wait. Once aagain the live straddle enemy does his thing, everybody has limped in up until it gets to me. "Oh snap I have a big pocket pair in the hole." I quickly do the math in my head. "Ok that is $3 from the blinds. The $4 straddle makes it $7. After the 2 limpers there is an additional $8 in the pot for a total of $15." Now I push $15 into the pot. Everyone folds around to the small blind. Now it doesn't matter. All of the people already in the pot are going to rethink things. They called because they thought they would see the flop and maybe make a hand. Now I have said, "Guess what I already have a good hand." This goes back to the dead money thinking that the live straddle enemy is working off of, but now I am taking advantage of the same theory. Now I hope the live straddle enemy either calls or plays back at me. Score a big pot for me.
 
Acesinthebig

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I enjoy the straddle, with its main purpose to loosen up the game a bit. You just have to get used to it and just adds another aspect to the game that you may have to familiarize yourself with. Nothing better to straddle and wake up with a big hand, try it some time.
 
dimon4ik89

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Against such players is very profitable to play and you can win with the right game

Against such players is very profitable to play and you can win with the right game. You need to wait for a good card and then you will take everything from such a player, but you need to wait a long time for this. In our club, where I play, they are very fond of such players, we call them sweet and very happy when such people come to our club.
 
Vlad symrak

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This risky tactic is justified in the initial stages, but in the middle of the game good players with top pair will win and tactics will have to change or lose all!!!!!!
 
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