So even though your experience is mostly in rooms without straddles, if you played in a room with straddles, you'd feel justified in complaining to the floor against a dealer about a rather common situation that is in no way against the rules?

No, as I said at least twice already, I would feel justified in complaining if it were against the rules (or house policy). If it were not, I would express my opinion that I thought it was a bad policy and leave it at that. You are really beating a dead horse here. Why is it so terrible that someone has a different opinion than you?

A dealer reminding a player to straddle is a common situation?

Even if it's not against the rules, I have to say, I've yet to see a dealer do this.

I , on the other hand, have reminded certain players that the straddle is on them.

What do they say, exactly?

I'm trying to think of other situations where a dealer would extend themselves to remind a player to put $ in the pot without it being a mandatory ante, blinds, or a posted blind in which to be dealt a hand.

As a side note: whether a straddle is +EV or -EV really shouldn't matter when taking chillrob's complaint/stance into consideration. He just wanted to know if it was commonplace and/or if it was even allowed. He felt it wasn't. Let's move on.

If I knew a player wanted to straddle every time I'd remind him myself even if I was the BB. I'd get the first seat change I could but I'd do it anyway. Straddling gooses up the game very nicely, I wish more ppl did it.

Imo
Short: No, it does not violated OPTAH. Why? By definition, you have to HAVE a hand in order to play it, and if you have a hand and the dealer says "Straddle, Sir?", then it's probably too late.

Long: It depends on the context. If the straddle is working around the table and most players are doing it, I'm ok with dealer asking. But if it's just this one jerkoff two to my right who button-straddles my Big EVERY. FREAKING. TIME...I might take umbrage to the reminder.

Sorry, I only referred back to the OP. I didn't review the whole thread to see you had changed your stance, just as you didn't review the thread to see that I generally agree with your basic sentiment. It's your attitude about it with which I take issue.

A player asking me to remind him to straddle is common enough that I don't do a double take.

Reminding someone to straddle, once they have asked to be, is quite common and generally acceptable. It is not viewed as an OPTAH violation by overwhelming majority of players and dealers, nor should it be. (It is much LESS of a problem than asking "No one has a heart?" at showdown.)
And, reminding another player to straddle should be putting money INTO your pocket. (This is not much different than another player's reminding him that he has the option to go allin blind; would you object to that?)

+1

And the way I would remind him every time is,
"You wanted me to remind you to straddle, now is the time if you still want to."

That way the table knows I'm not just doing it in my own.

Ever been at a table where the dealer starts coaching a female between hands? It doesn't go over very well at all with the other players. But technically there's no rule that says a dealer can't give tips and pointers to a player at the table between hands. Doesn't mean 4 people aren't going to hit the floor and ask why the dealer is giving poker lessons to the one bad player at the table. So it's not so much about "it's against the rules". It's more "is it a good idea".

I don't think it's a BAD idea. And I'm really not sure it's not +EV for the dealer. For every chillrob who's going to stop tipping because you reminded a player to straddle, there's a straddler who's going to toss you an extra $2 when he wins the hand because you reminded him.

But it smacks a little of "unprofessional". Not that this is any real concern at a drunk NL1/2 table. And not that professional vs unprofessional makes a hill of beans of difference, anyway.

It is pretty common for players to ask the dealer to remind them to straddle. It's also very common for the dealer to "forget".

Someone ask Mason if he thinks it's a good idea.

Are you kidding? Telling a player something like 'Now might be a good time (or not a good time) to straddle because one or more of the players at the table now................' would be a violation of OPTAH.

Just reminding a player that likes to straddle he is UTG and this is the hand he can straddle if he wants is just good customer service.

I would take issue with strategy advice (never seen a dealer do this). But have no problem with a dealer helping a player by showing them how to protect their hand, look at their cards without exposing them, explaining the oversized chip rule ... etc.....

I think reminding a player to straddle is akin to these types of things ... not strategy advice.


When I forget .... its a legitimate forget.


BTW I think I dealt to OPs brother yesterday.

Omaha game. new player sits down ... says he wants to wait for the button to pass. On the hand where he would be the natural big blind he suddenly puts out his blind. So I say to him "I thought you said you wanted to wait" He takes back his blind and a player (who is sitting out with a missed blind button starts in with "Is that part of your job description?" I told him the player already said he wanted to wait for the button to pass and he says "What does it mean when he puts up his blind?"

How can OPTAH be violated when the straddle must be posted before the hand is in play?

Shocking.

I personally wouldn't like a dealer to remind someone to straddle. A straddle alters the game. And I don't care about the +/-EV aspect of it. I'm referring to things like if I'm playing 2/5 and bought in for 100bb, and a guy straddles, I'm now playing that hand as a 50bb short stack. I know other players that just hate it when someone straddles. Where I play, any player other than the blinds can straddle, so some 5/10 players will straddle every hand to turn the game into a 5/10 game. So while of course anyone can straddle, and you live with it if you don't like it, I just don't think it's appropriate for a dealer to remind someone to take a voluntary action that affects the game. If the guy can't remember to do it, that's too bad for him. IMO the dealer should stay out of it.

It seems to me it should be simple enough for a dealer to say something like "you've got to do that yourself" or "sorry, you're on your own on that one" or something along those lines, in a light-hearted way,and just nip it in the bud without it becoming a big deal.

So my feeling is that it's not a big giant thing if a dealer does it, but I don't think it's actually appropriate for a dealer to do it.

I've played with chillrob (doubt you remember, but about a year ago you accidentally outed yourself at a table by talking about something I had just read in a 2+2 post only you could have written) and he's quite good at pokerz. And a nice guy at the table, too. This thread has completely derailed.

Point is, it doesn't matter whether or not a complaint/suggestion/rule is valid or not, I'd trust OP to handle it in a friendly, unobtrusive manner. Congrats on the prop job, hope you get it.

IMO, it's kind of silly to try to enforce a "one player to a hand" rule before the hand has even been dealt.

A straddle isn't a "play" it's an extra optional blind. And you know what, as a player, I'm perfectly happy with other players giving up their money.

It's also kinda silly to expect dealers to not do little things like this in the name of customer service. They want tips, so they're going to do little things to help players that are looser with their money, like reminding them to straddle. It's not like they're making strategy decisions for that player...

say what you will you are probably a losing nit if you are upset that someone voluntarily puts money under the gun in the pot with a random hand.

and there are people who ask the dealer to remind them to straddle because they forget, i see nothing wrong with that.

ive also played games where everyone at the table agrees to straddle and im happier when the dealer goes out of their way to either enforce the straddle or remind them fairly strongly.

its just common sense.

Well, I guess you have magic powers to determine my style of play and whether I am a winning or losing player by what I wrote. I certainly can't determine that about you from what you wrote. What I can determine about you, though, is that your reading comprehension leaves something to be desired. I wrote in my post that where I play, people straddle from anywhere except the blinds. That means anywhere except the blinds, not just UTG. In fact, few people straddle under the gun. Most straddle on the button, cutoff, and hijack. Others straddle every single hand except when not in the blinds.

And I didn't say anything about being upset about it; what I said was it's no big deal, but I don't think it's appropriate. So if you want to attempt an analysis of my play, which by the way has nothing to do with my opinion on whether a dealer should remind people of a straddle or not, you really should at least base your comments on what I wrote, not what you imagined I wrote.

If everyone at the table has agreed to straddle, I see nothing wrong with the dealer reminding them of that, as in that case it's no longer really an optional straddle, but a required third blind, since all players committed to it.

It's fine that you and I have a different opinion on the role of a dealer in reminding people about straddles. That's the whole purpose of threads like this--to get people's opinions. But please spare me the poker analysis of my play or a determination of my emotional attachment to this issue based upon an extremely failed comprehension of what I wrote. It doesn't add to the validity of your opinion on whether the dealer should remind people of a straddle or not. It just makes you look petty and stupid.

Perhaps inappropriate in theory, but definitely common and generally accepted in practice.

grunch:

I think it's different to advise/remind a player of action before any cards were dealt (i.e. straddling)

But the bottom line is: why on earth do all these people oppose to others straddling?? Apart perhaps from button straddles (Mississippi or 3-handed game) where there can be an edge.

How about this: "it's your big blind sir, and you wanted me to remind you again not to fold since that guy on the button tries to steal your blind every time". No cards have yet been dealt.

If a player specifically asked dealer to remind him when it's his time to straddle, then I have no problem with it.

What I do hate is when I'm UTG and dealer looks at me and asks: Svizac, wanna straddle? Even though I rarely straddle and noone else at the table is straddling. Makes me want to get up and slap the dealer.

I think you are equating "Sir, these are your options ......" with "Sir, Of your options I think you should choose ......"

Reminding a player that they can straddle is reminding them of their options. Reminding them not to fold to the guy who tries to steal their big blind is advising them which of the options to take.

One thing of course is that I have never worked or played in a room which allowed a player to straddle from any position. If I were in such a room and a player asked me to remind them when they could straddle, out of shear annoyance I would probably just tell them to assume they could straddle every hand and I would remind them of each time they couldn't straddle.

Yeah, reminding someone that he can straddle has about the same effect as reminding him that he is UTG this next hand. You are making him aware of his position and the options thereof.

So your button steal analogy is an attack on the formation of a statement ("You told me to remind you when you can straddle.") as opposed to its intent ("You are UTG this hand.").

By your logic, every reminder for the BB or SB to post is a violation of OPTAH.