My Articles - My Blog - Video - Poker Work - Charity - Downloads - Links - Subscribe
The Science of Straddling
If you’ve ever played poker in a casino or in home games, you will probably have heard the word ‘straddle’ at the table. A straddle is a voluntary extra bet, usually double the size of the big blind, put into the pot by the player to the left of the big blind before they see their cards. So for example, in a $2/$4 game, a player would straddle to $8. Straddles are ‘live’, meaning that the person who posts a straddle has the option to act last before the flop.
The rules for straddling (like other rules in British casinos) vary from place to place. In some cardrooms, a straddle will be a pot-sized raise (to $14 in a $2/$4 game). Usually only one straddle is allowed, but some places allow as many straddles as the players want, so you can straddle, restraddle, megastraddle, and even ultramegastraddle if you like (in my home game, players have been known to straddle all-in!). Others don’t allow straddling at all, and it isn’t allowed online or in most tournaments. It’s important to know what the rules are for straddling in your chosen cardroom – but you will usually find out pretty quickly if your table is even remotely loose.
If you don’t know what how to act when someone throws in a straddle, you’ll find yourself making some difficult decisions in some very large pots. A straddle often affects the play of everybody at the table. Some people loosen up and become extremely aggressive, going after the extra money. Others tighten up and wait for premium hands. Carry on reading, and you’ll know exactly what to do when there is a straddle at your table.
At this stage, I should point out that the advice I’m about to dish out is tailored to the most common cash game scenario – everybody has plenty of chips, it’s a full table, and the straddle is double the big blind in size. If this isn’t the case in your game, you may need to tailor the strategies I’m talking about a little in order to get the best out of them.
First, let’s look at how a straddle affects the pot odds you receive. In a standard game where the big blind is double the small blind, you get 1.5 to 1 to call before the flop as the first person in. Taking our $2/$4 example, there is $6 in the pot, and it’s $4 to call – that’s 6 to 4, or 1.5 to 1. With a straddle, there is now $14 in the pot, and it’s $8 to call. This equates to 1.75 to 1 odds.
What does this mean? Well, it means you should loosen up a little bit. You’re getting better odds to call or raise than you were without the straddle in the pot. But how should you loosen up? That depends on the other players at your table.
By far the most common scenario is that the other players will become very loose and aggressive after a straddle, particularly if they were that way inclined before. They will enter the pot almost regardless of price, determined to see the flop. If this is the case, you should play more hands unless you’re in early position, while being careful not to allow your opponents to price you out of the pot. The ideal hand to have in this situation is something like 7♠6♠ or 5♠5♥ – a holding that is easy to play after the flop because you usually either hit big or miss altogether – but something like 10♥8♥ or Q♥9♦ may also be playable. You should not extend your hand selection to include hands like K♥8♠ or J♥5♥, as these play terribly in multiway pots and you’ll end up with some tough decisions to make.
Against opponents of this nature, you should rarely enter the pot for a raise if you’re first in. The best way to take advantage of players who are too loose and too aggressive is to trap – and that’s exactly what you do in this scenario. If you’re first in, limp and wait for your opponents to raise. Then when it gets back to you, you can reraise (if your hand is strong or you think your opponents will fold) or flat call (to try to catch a nice flop and bust somebody).
Entering the pot for a raise may seem like the right thing to do – after all, the pot is bigger and therefore more worth winning. But in reality, you’ll almost never take down the pot immediately and most of the money won or lost will be done after the flop is dealt. If you raise, you’ll allow your opponents to prevent you from seeing the flop with a hand like 7♣6♣ by reraising.
In the somewhat rarer scenario where your opponents actually tighten up against a straddle, you should become much more aggressive while also loosening up a little. Remember that the straddle has essentially raised without looking at his cards, and they will defend their straddle almost every time. It would be ideal to isolate on this one player, and to play a heads up pot in position against a player who probably has a rag hand.
Therefore, when you play you should enter the pot with a raise. How much? At least 3.5 times the straddle is best, as you want the straddle to make a significant mistake if they call. Any less offers the straddle reasonable pot odds. You should also tailor your hand selection towards hands that do well heads up – like high cards and pairs.
After the flop, you would play your usual strategy, bearing in mind that if the straddle has entered the pot they could have almost anything. Don’t get carried away and bluff too much or call down with ace-high just because somebody has straddled and probably has a weak hand. Play solid, and you’ll get the money often enough.
For a long time, straddling was frowned upon by professionals. After all, you’re putting money into the pot without looking at your cards, and if you’re going to do that, you may as well go play blackjack. But today, you see many professionals straddling on TV shows like High Stakes Poker. They are doing it for a reason – there are some benefits to straddling. So why do it yourself?
First of all, if there is an agreement to straddle at the table, you should do it too. You know the old lecture – ‘If everybody jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?’ Well, in this case, yes. A straddle agreement is just an agreement to raise the stakes, and if you don’t like that, you should find a different table to play at (or learn to argue better). If everybody agrees to straddle and you don’t, you’ll become unpopular pretty quickly.
If you post a straddle, you’ll get position before the flop. We all know the importance of position in poker, and while you’ll still be in poor position postflop, the advantage you gain by acting last preflop is not to be underestimated.
Straddling also gives you a loose image. Often in poker, you want to create a table image which is the exact opposite of how you play. So you may sit there folding every hand for hours, then straddle, and it’s the straddle that your opponents will remember. One well-timed straddle could give you an image that helps you to get paid off on your big hands all night.
However, possibly the biggest reason to straddle is to loosen up the game as a whole. A tight game, besides being no fun, is also not a particularly profitable type of game to be in. Most people know that they should loosen up when there is a straddle, but often they take it too far and play almost any hand in any position. If you straddle, you might find that the guy who has been sat there patiently waiting for aces all night suddenly limps in with 9♦7♦. This sounds far-fetched, but trust me – it isn’t!
Even better, these tight players may not be used to playing marginal hands after the flop, so they’ll be put to some difficult decisions. When that happens, they make mistakes, and mistakes equal money in your pocket! Manipulating the nature of the entire game by straddling once or twice is something that is really achievable, and if you can do it you may increase your profits significantly.
A word of caution however. Remember that straddling is not a profitable play unless you can take advantage of it appropriately. That means you must be one of the strongest players at the table, and able to play well after the flop. Don’t fall in love with your hand just because you have straddled, and don’t chase the money that you have ‘invested’ any more than you would defend an ordinary blind. You’ll still loosen up the game, create a loose image, and force tight players to make mistakes even if you fold on the flop every time.
Oh, and don’t straddle if I am on your left, because a restraddle will be coming!
