Been lurking for a while, but created an account to post this question.

A casino that I play at in Black Hawk, CO has the Mississippi straddle available at all tables. This means that any player can straddle from ANY position on the table, and the pre-flop action starts to the left of the straddler allowing the straddler to act last. If the same player is straddling to 3-5x BB on EVERY hand, what is the best seat to be in relative to this player.

If I'm on this player's left, I have to act first pre-flop on every hand, but I'll have position on the straddler post-flop on every hand.

If I'm on this player's right, I act second-to-last pre-flop on every hand, but I'm out of position to the straddler.

Or should I try to sit across from this player which would balance my position?

Thanks!

Seems like more of a strategy question...is this player seeing a huge number of flops?

If he sees a lot of flops his hand range is garbage. We can play more marginal hands like KT against him. The concern of course is all the players yet to act. If they're aggressive we probably want to be on the straddler's right. We'll be out of position against the straddler but his hand range is garbage so whenever we can get it heads up we should have an advantage. If the players yet to act are more nitty we might rather be on the straddler's left. We can raise a bit lighter than usual first to act, which looks really strong, so we should get the straddler heads up reasonably often with both a hand range advantage and a positional advantage.

I think generally I'd rather be on his left, but at certain tables on his immediate right, particularly if he's a weak straightforward player. If he's tricky and knows how to use position to apply pressure we may not want to be on his right even with a range advantage.

Interesting question...

I've seen a couple players do this, and typically they are LAGs. They'll frequently, but not always, raise if no one raises their straddle. I'd say the players are competent, decent post-flop players, but they obviously have very wide ranges. They don't typically fold to one raise pre-flop unless their hand is completely unconnected and unsuited.

I think you should always want to be on this player's right.

I don't care how loose he is or whatever; I think there is no way you can win in this game if you are first to act preflop almost every hand. You will have to either play extremely tight, or else limp and fold a lot whenever someone else wakes up with a hand and makes a significant preflop raise, which usually happens often.

What are the stakes in this game? In a lot of 1/2 games players rarely raise, so being on his left you won't get 3-bet much at all and you always have position on the straddler who has a garbage range. If he straddle-raises a lot you can probably limp/call your more marginal hands, planning to fold if a tight player raises after your limp. I just think constantly having position on a player with basically random hands is super profitable, probably profitable enough to make up for the times we have to limp/fold.

But I could be wrong. And being on his immediate right definitely has advantages.

@ChillRob - if you were at a weak/tight table where once this guy straddles, you're only 3-bet with KK+, and most players are rarely raising, you'd still want to be on the guy's right? I find in 1/2 position doesn't matter as much pre-flop in some games as so many people will just limp/call with almost their entire range. I'd rather have position post-flop even if it means giving it up pre-flop, unless I'm at a table where I'm getting raised a lot pre-flop.

I have never played in a game where people are only raising KK+. And in my experience people usually raise more when there has been a straddle than when there hasn't been one.

I said 3-bet KK+. Though I have played in games where most of the table is just raising {QQ+,AK} and there's maybe a couple of wild ones who'll raise {TT+,AQ+,KQ}.

Then you are either playing significantly higher than most of us or in an area where games are comparatively tough. In most games I play, it's more like Shai Hulud described and the majority of players is less likely to raise a straddled pot.

Why does it matter how many times it is 3 bet? If you limp a weak hand right after the straddle and there is any significant raise, you're screwed. I don't play bigger than 1/3.

You limp 97s, couple of others limp before somebody raises. If stacks are deep enough and you know that all the other limpers will call, there's a decent argument for you to call the raise. If you have to fear that one of the other limpers will 3bet a good amount of time after your call, you certainly have a fold here.

If you limp, the next guy raises and a couple people call, you can probably call 97s to close the action. If you limp, next guy raises and somebody 3bets, you have to fold.

If it's unlikely for somebody to raise the straddle and people are bad postflop, you can limp a fairly wide range first to act if the straddle is in middle or late position and you are first to act preflop.

I guess you guys just play different than me then. I would never play 97s utg regardless of how the game is playing. And if the guy to your right is always straddling, you are utg every hand.

I'm usually playing a fairly short stack and looking to either see a flop very cheaply, or put in a significant raise myself if I'm strong. So preflop position means a lot to me, and post flop position not that much. The worst thing in the world to my game is a straddler to my right.

I would -much- rather have the straddler on my left, and act second-to-last preflop every hand. This means you won't have position on the straddler post-flop. But unless the straddler is a crazy LAG and everyone else is a ridiculous nit, most of the hands you play will not be heads-up between you and the straddler anyway.

I see this as a very simple question. In he the most important decision to be profitable is picking which hands to play. So acting second to last on most hands is easily more important than position on one player.

One advantage you do have to his left is you can take away his straddle anytime you want as you will have precedence to the straddle. Try it sometime. Just start straddling every hand and see how he and his play respond. Often he will just table change but sometimes it puts them on tilt and they start handing out money.

I disagree. I rather have position post flop when most of these players make mistakes with CB's etc.

also I'd widen my game up a bit especially if the rest of the table is tightening up. Not go full lag but for use him as cover to play looser and more aggressive

Straddle has no positional impact post flop.

He talks about having position on the guy who by default is in almost every pot postflop if players very rarely raise in that game.

right but the person doing it is most likely lag to mega lag.

I rather act behind that post flop then pre. Best spot to catch there spew bets etc.

The OP didn't say anything about the other players rarely raising.

But even if they do limp in a lot, you're going to be playing a lot of multiway pots with the straddler and several other players.

In this context, if the straddler is very laggy, you've still rather have him on you left, because you can assume he will bet post-flop, and you can then see how everyone else in the field reacts before you act. If the lag is on your right, you have to act on his inevitable bet immediately with very little information about all the other players.

It's not like you are choosing between always having a good position preflop and always having a good position post flop. You are choosing between always having a good position preflop with variable position postflop, and always having a terrible position preflop with variable position postflop.

That's not exactly accurate. You're choosing between always having the best position preflop and the worst relative position postflop vs having the worst position preflop and the best relative position postflop. It depends on the game but generally I'll sacrifice preflop position if I can frquently have position postflop on a donk with basically random hands.

A lot of straddlers will raise every time there's limps and most limpers fold so we can just limp marginal hand and frequently end up heads up or 3 way. This won't work at wild tables. I think it just depends on the stakes and table conditions and also how you play. If one's strategy is to nit it up you probably always want to be on his right as your hand range advantage somewhat negates his positional advantage. If one plays very aggressively postflop, much better to have position frequently with a slight hand range advantave

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Since when is being to the right of the person most likely to bet post-flop considered to be the "Worst relative postion"? Being to the right of the preflop raiser is usually considered to be the best relative position post-flop.

No. You generally want to control the action. I want to have him act first since if he checks I can check behind or bet knowing he has a wide range of check raise hands most likely.

And what do you do about all the other people in the hand?

If there is very little raising going on, it's very rare that you will be playing headsup with the staddler.

Most the time if someone is straddling all the time. There will be less limper's since the straddler will use his option at least half the time.

Which also means you can limp with your premiums and repop him when he opens up action etc.

So the the plan is this? You call the straddle with a weak hand, several other people call. Straddler raises, you call again with your weak hand with all those people behind you just hoping no one else calls or reraises, even though they may be closing the action and have better position than you? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

Wonder where you guys are playing that people actually play like this. The only part I agree with is that if someone is straddling there will be fewer limpers. But that's because they will be more likely to raise, trying to pick up the extra dead money.