Hi all,

First things first, I've just registered with this forum today, specifically to ask this question, so hello to all of you.

As a newcomer, please have patience if I've posted this in the wrong section.

I've been playing poker very infrequently since the age of 18, up until three years ago when I started playing a weekly poker tournament in the local hotel (2-3 tables max each week with max $40 buy-in). I've never done so well in tournament style play and only placed first once, although finished second at least ten times and probably have a 50:50 ratio of placing in the top 4.
More recently (last month or so) I've turned to cash games, which I feel I am better suited to and this has certainly translated into positive results.

The cash games are normally held at the local casino, but the group that plays have an usual rule (at least I've never seen such a rule) when it comes to straddles, specifically that no-one after the straddle can raise i.e. placing a straddle effectively blocks anyone else raising at pre-flop.
Straddle must always be 2x BB and there is no option for UTG+1 to place another straddle.

Straddles often viewed as a gamblers bet, but I wonder if, with this specific take on straddles, whether it can actually be an advantage?

Would welcome your views on this.

Thanks.

Thats a weird rule, but I still dont see straddling as being a winning play. No one wins money out of the blinds in this game. If it keeps the game friendly and keeps you getting invited it can be long term +ev, but for that hand you are taking the worst of it.

That's one of the dumbest rules Ive ever heard of.

I often read on here that people say straddling is a losing play but i dont seem to agree. I think bringing up the blinds and playing with shallower stacks gives the advantage to the better players (hopefully us). Not to mention when we have a big hand we get to be the last to act pre and not have do deal with opening utg with AA or KK and going 5 or 6 ways to the flop.

What do others think?

Very unusual dumb rule you have there. I never played in such a game before. So, I really don't know what to say. In Vegas where I live and play we have straddle UTG or OTB. The UTG straddle has priority over the OTB but is a sucker play. On the other hand straddling OTB is a good play. You can raise and steal the dead money the suckers called the straddle and if you get called you still have position postflop. The OTB straddle is like a small check-raise where you let the fish come in and you raise them in position. When straddling UTG you still need a very good hand to raise them after they called your straddle and still be out of position postflop.

That's exactly backwards. The better players will win more money the deeper everyone is because the mistakes are magnified.

They shouldn't even be allowed to call that a straddle. They should come up with a new term if it caps all betting pre. I'm sure the side effect is that those pots go super multi way and big hands like KK will have to limp. Going 5+ ways to a flop you will need super strong hands to continue profitably vs any significant action but many players may not realize this and still treat top pair as a monster. I hate the rule but depending on the players it could be exploitable.

Straddling is great when OTHER people do it. You will not be a long term winner from the straddle position though.

I straddle if everyone straddles, otherwise nope. I play 2/3 in Sydney, where the stradddle isn’t live...so yeah a blind raise UTG with no option to repop if you somehow luck into a hand and get callers. Tempting.

It is actually an interesting twist to the game. Bobby Hoff believed that the best game of poker would be one that was limit pf and no limit post flop. The reason is that someone with a monster pf can't just make a shut down bet to avoid seeing a flop. With the straddle on, calling with connectors would be automatic in a 100 BB game. It would place a premium on post flop hand reading. The limp happy regular would love it since they could see lots of flops.

However, the main advantage is to the house. Since flops are going 4 ways+, rake will be collected. More people, more challenged pots, and rake will increase. In addition, money will pass around more keeping players in the game.

If I was a second tier poker room in LV, I'd want to see if the person who came up with this was available.

This is just a "bomb pot" where one gets to see one's cards before putting in any money.

Yeah, exactly. They recently outlawed bomb pots in my room due to the fact it is a form of preflop collusion that would invalidate BBJs.

Very weird/dumb rule, and would really put an emphasis on postflop skill in bloated awkward SPR pots (although not as awkward as very low SPR pots that are created in normal sized bomb pots).

For my type of style / skillset I would hate this rule and likely attempt to find a normal game, but that's me.

GgoodluckG

Specifically where does UTG straddle have priority? Literally everywhere I have played that has btn straddle, it always has priority? This include me the handful of lv rooms I have played.