Adjusting your play when straddle raises 50% of hands after others limp
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 232
Let’s say we are in MP2 and UTG+1 and MP1 have folded.
I often limp with a variety of hands here (I know open raising is often preferred by strong players but let’s accept that my normal play is to limp here)
How should I adjust?
I guess the simple answer is to
1) limp less here with hands that I will pass when the straddle raises.
2) start to trap-limp, intending to 3 bet
3) open raise with hands that are too good to fold (that I was previously limping with)
Anything else?
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 232
I guess I could also build a range where I limp and call the straddle’s raise, looking ideally to play HU with V against his wide/weak range IP.
But that will be tricky with LP players more inclined to overcall and have position on me.
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 5,678
You didn't say how deep you are.
Limp 100% of your range that wants to play. Don't limp any hands that intend to fold to a raise from the straddle, obviously. Pretty much all hands that are good enough to limp here are good enough to re-raise against his 50% range.
I'm not sure how many strong players would say you should have a raising range here.
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 232
Thanks that’s interesting
I feel that strategy might be a bit TOO much of an adjustment. It distorts my play quite a lot, so that when he just checks his straddle, I have played sub-optimally (when I hold a strong hand I’ll often have failed to thin the field/get more money in pre-flop/reduce the RIO for other players with position on me). Of course, the 50% of the time that he raises, I can get into some nice spots HU vs straddler when I 3bet.
I guess it’s a question of balance between these two situations.
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 232
Let’s say we’re 70-100 bb deep
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 5,678
Well, if he is truly raising 50% of his straddles, you're making a bunch of extra money the times he raises to make up for the missed value the times he checks. It's not as if you automatically lose the hand when nobody raises, either. After you l/rr him a couple times he'll probably adjust and you won't want to be limping premiums anymore, though.
A play isn't wrong just because it didn't work one time, or even 10 times in a row. The best play is the one that maximizes EV.
I didn't realize this was the Poker Theory section. I think that you would get better responses in the Live Low-Stakes NL section.
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 232
If there’s a moderator reading this, do you want to move this to LLSNL?
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 280
I'd treat my limp range like a polarized 3b range, this gives us a limp fold range and we can keep a good mix of limp/call limp/3bet weighted toward value 3bets. Just come in and open the middle of your range for like 4x straddle. Obviously this changes in the blinds as we won't have position on the straddler post.
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