help me resolve this discussion i had with a friend. one of us argued that in a shorthanded plo game, btn straddle increases action, the other of us argued that it decreases action.

4 handed live game, 200bb stacks, 2 different possible formats: 25/25 or 25/25 with mandatory 50 button straddle.

all of the following percentages are estimates and could be slightly too high or slightly too low, but are intended to represent an average players vpip in an average game.

as for the 25/25 game, when folded to our co vpip would be somewhere in the 25-30% range, when folded to our btn vpip would be somewhere in the 50-70% range, and when folded to our sb vpip would be somewhere in the 20-25% range. bb vpip would vary a ton.

one of us argued that the 25/25 with 50 btn straddle game kills a lot of the action bc when folded to our co in that game it's a similar spot (with slightly more dead money) as when folded to our sb in the 25/25 game, which means when folded to our co vpip should be around the 20-25% that we would be playing if folded to our sb in the other game. our bb and sb vpips should logically decrease from our co vpip down to like 15-20% when folded to our bb and 10-20%'ish when we open the action from sb.

in conclusion, in the game w/o btn straddle our vpip from the three positions other than bb is like 30%/60%/20%, and in the game with btn straddle our vpip from the three positions other than btn are like 20%/15%/15% (give or take), meaning that the btn straddle is not conducive to generating more action...is this generally correct?

also, i have use vpip synonymously with pfr in this post, but when btn straddle is on i feel like they're probably far from one and the same, thought i don't have a general idea of what adjustments to make.

I would think the straddle kills the action. BB can't call knowing he's going to be closing the action and SB basically can't call at all with 3 players behind him where normally he can call a decent amount assuning normal BB players who aren't 3 betting a ton.

straddle up front>button straddle. buttons gonna play the hand anyway and other 3 are in the blinds.

button straddle allows pots to get bigger pf but if that's the issue just raise the blinds

general suggestions for adjusting raising (and possibly limping?) ranges w the btn straddle on (where sb=1, bb=1, btn straddle=2 or 4) assuming no dynamics and a readless game starting?

its very simple: in a game with good/competent/thinking players a button straddle kills the game.

in a game with loose/bad/recreational players the button straddle is amazing.

yup +1 as a general rule if you're playing in a game where the button straddle ISN'T a good idea then you are playing in a bad game