Hi all,
I wanted to hear about your general approaches to straddles. I feel pretty confident that there are significant leaks in my game when it comes to straddled pots. How do you all adjust your strategies when your at a deep 1/2 table that essentially becomes 2/5 with everyone straddling. If you feel that you generally crush a table that does this I'd love to hear specific open raising, open limping, overlimping, limp-reraise, limp-call, raising limpers IP, straddle squeeze ranges etc..

I feel like my general approach to straddle pots so far where I basically play my normal 1/2 strategy at a one half stack depth has not been optimal. Reasons for this.. There seems to be a lot of value to just getting into these pots against loose fish and whales, even at the expensive of playing OOP against a competent LAG or 2.. My style is a tighter than most TAG style and I generally do not open limp with the intent of calling a raise from a good LAG, but it seems that I should potentially be widening the range of hands I do that with?? As well as widening my limp-reraise range which is also pretty narrow. I'm considering opening these pots even tighter than I have been since I just tend to get 4-5 callers everytime OOP at competent tables. I'm considering an open range as tight as QQ+ AKs with perhaps more speculative hands than I usually would include to get those hands to a large pot multiway well disguised. Then I would drastically widen my limping range to say suited broadways, AJ+?, 22+, A2s+, some of my QQ, KK, AA when there is a greater chance of being re-raised. I'm definitely very unsure on where to draw the line on these ranges, obviously as more loose fish/whale types enter the pot and position gets better the ranges should widen. Any help/specifics from people who are confident at a LAG table straddling every hand is greatly appreciated.


I also think a leak in my approach to these pots is assuming the LAGS are wider than they actually are at times. That seems to be part of the beauty in a straddle happy "Action" table that induces lots of loose play. Any insight into what sort of ranges a competent lag is punishing the limpers with out of the straddle or IP is greatly appreciated. The dynamics here get even more complicated when the tight players start limping from early position.

Are players also committing post-flop more loosely than they would be in un-straddled pots? Obviously yes, because SPR is much lower but I feel like I just need to accept a drastic increase in variance If I want to play these pots more profitably.


I have a couple hands to share where I think there was a significant leak..

1st hand, end of the night typical regish LAG table. Competent LAG immediately to my left. Brief history: I sit down, an orbit goes around 4-5 people straddle. next orbit, I straddle, LAG blind raises to 10$?, folds around to me I call with Q6o checks through to river. I stab with Q high he calls with K high. Next hand LAG straddles, 2 limpers, SB folds, I call in BB QJdd. LAG checks, AcTd4d, I lead for 20$ LAG calls, rest fold.. turn is 6d, I check LAG bets 50$, I tank jam for 100$ more he says ace no good? and folds.

OTTH:

LAG on my left straddles, another reg limps in MP, folds to hero in BB with 99

Hero (~300$) raises to 25$? I thought this was a decent spot to raise even though we are OOP against 2 good players, I could also get behind limp calling..

LAG calls, MP folds..

flop (56$) 833

Hero leads for 55$
Villain tanks, looks genuinely frustrated and the says "**** it" all in. Tells me he will show after I don't snap call. Trying to put him on a range I was thinking he probably had either TT, JJ, or flush draw combos like JTs KQs QTs etc.. he could also have 88, and maybe some A8s?? bottom line I'm not doing very well against this range even though it was a great flop for me.. I ended up leveling myself into a call after thinking he was playing a wider range defending his straddle, playing aggressive etc.


2nd hand: brief history: at a different table, LAG straddles, Tight reg limps UTG, another limp, Hero has 99 CO makes it 30$, folds to UTG who calls, Kxx rainbow. Villain has around 130$, I thought he could have JJ TT and fold, I bet 35$ and he jammed. I folded, someone said he probably had AK, I think his limping range was pretty tight here and I made a mistake.

OTTH:
At this same table which is now 7-handed and straddling 100% Hero has a very tight image, LAG straddles, tight UTG limps, Hero (335$) has JJ CO makes it 25$, B seems on tilt calls, straddle calls, UTG calls,


Flop (103$) Q97

checks to hero... damnit idk what to do here.. check folding seems best but possibly there are enough draws and middle pairs to get value from, I don't want to bet and then check turn and then face a bet on a likely much worse board. At the same time, my range pre is so much stronger than theirs that It makes me sick to give up on this pot. I check, B bets 50$, straddle and UTG fold, I call..


Turn (203$) Q974


I check, B bets 110$, I decided that he could fold a Q here against me and had enough semi-bluffs. I bluff-jammed for 145$ more. He tanked with AQ, said he put me on AA KK and AQ and that we could be chopping, he said he couldn't go anywhere "whatever" and eventually called. This seems just like a spew to me, but if he folds KQ and worse it is actually probably ok. But yeah, I think I tend to tell myself that my opponents are wider than they actually are in these straddle pots at loose tables, even though they are showing up with reasonable hands that are doing very well against me JJ, AK, AQ etc.

These might not be the best hands to start a discussion with, so if you have guys have any others that you think are relevant please share. I'm really trying to gain more insight into what sort of ranges good regs are playing these straddle pots with and how I should be adjusting. Any advice is appreciated thanks

Didn't read your whole intro there, but straddles just increase stakes and decrease stack size. When you have ~50-70bb you should really tighten up your pf ranges & focus on fat value. You'll likely be playing in low SPR pots where you have no room to maneuver with bluffs/semi bluffs. Suited cards & connectors go down in value and high cards go up.

In your first hand with 99, this is a snap raise pre imo. I might size up a bit since we're OOP. Straddle should be raising his JJ for value since you're in a prime position to squeeze. As far as calling the shove, I lean fold exactly because people's ranges at this level aren't so capped by their passivity.

Second hand, seems like a standard check with JJ. We're blocking straight and diamond draws. I call flop & fold turn. The second bet lets me know I'm beat & I fold. Seems like a ****ty spot to bluff since we don't have enough chips. We're 2.5x his bet and he's getting 4:1. Hard to fold there.

I agree with this, but I feel like straddles do more than just that. They also change how other players approach the pot. Limping ranges contain more premiums than usual IMO when there is a straddle as opposed to just limping 2$ because people are trying to trap, so maybe we should punish the limpers IP less often? There are some players who raise too often from the straddle, some fish/whale types who limp call too often when the table has a gambling image and I think there is plenty of value to be had by adjusting our strategy more than just considering the change to our effective stack size in terms of BB.

Straddle shouldn't change your basic strategy too much. It reduces effective sizes so you will be playing 50bb in a normal 100bb bi game. Your game should adjust as you normally would to a 50bb game. In addition, you can tinker with your button steal range a bit as well since there are more dead money in the pot.

1) 99 is a standard raise here, your hand is strong enough at almost all stack sizes to enter the pot raising/jamming (when really short). Flop is a pretty clear fold, villain isn't doing this with 77, and rarely ever does this with A8 even with the A of clubs.

2) This hand is quite spewy. Preflop is quite standard, though you can opt for $30 (5x+1), you will have to take game dynamics into consideration.

In terms of the flop, if you do not know what you should do, then you should be doing some combination of both your choices. In this spot, you would be thinking of checking or betting. How we distinguish between our bets and checks depends on the combo of JJ as obviously not all JJ are made equal post community cards. Out of 6 combos of JJ, 3 will have Jd. With the Jd, we are somewhat less concerned with equity denial and can opt for a more pot control option. Thus, if you are tossing up between a check and bet, you can check your 3 combos of JJ/TT with a diamond and bet the other 3 combos without.

OTT, you can find a fold here. When checked to, 9x, TT and 88 are obvious check back spots, the 2 combos of 97s will most likely raise the flop. 9-4 and 7-4 should rarely be an issue. When bet into, hero very rarely has the best hand in this case. Some bluffs the villain should have include KJdd. TJdd, 9Jdd, 8Jdd, T8dd and possibly 86dd and 56dd. Hero blocks most of these combos. Value hands are obviously sets and Qx.

Jam here is extra spewy as hero has zero fold equity. You say that he folds KQ some of the times, but if you were holding KQ here, would you fold getting 4-1? With KQ here it is absolutely important that you call given you block KK, and most AA will have to continue betting here. You are at best getting a 7 or 9 to fold, but those check back and you want them to put their money in!