Quote:
Originally Posted by LifeNitFL
Yeah I hate that button straddles are allowed lol. I believe I was UTG+1.
Flat calling to back raise is really interesting since the aggro button was taking his option like 75% of the time. Hadn't thought of that.
The room I play in most often only allows for a UTG straddle, but there's another room I sometimes play that will allow anyone to straddle from any position, with action starting from the left of the straddle, but where the earliest position has a priority for the decision of whether or not to straddle (like a first right of refusal based on earliest position, so UTG has the first priority, then going in order from his left).
So, there's a lot of button straddling in that room. And I've seen it a lot on live streams/vlogs. I agree with Bart Hanson that it just ruins the game.
The BTN straddle creates a weird dynamic, where players struggle to adjust, especially in the blinds and EP. So some will have a limp-3B range. I'm not sure if that's the best response to the BTN straddle, but it makes some sense, if the game is loose.
Like, here, you open EP, and get 2 calls from LP, in a spot where the BTN might not have come along if he hadn't straddled, in which case you'd be going to the flop heads up, Or maybe CO calls, BTN folds, and one or both blinds come along, but you wouldn't be OOP to them, just the CO.
Alternatively, if you limp here, maybe the CO raises, the BTN calls, and you can back-raise. Or CO limps, BTN raises, and you back-raise.
As played, when you open and get called by CO and BTN, and see this flop, I think it somewhat forces us to either play our QQ very aggressively, or play it like a bluff-catcher.
The way the action went, it seems to me that the CO and the BTN could both have really wide ranges here, to include some flopped straights with QT or T7, but also some sets, 2P, 1P + a draw, or just a draw, or just two overs, etc.
Some reads would help. Like, does either V seem competent enough to realize they shouldn't be calling your $45 open very wide when you're only starting with $450? What sort of hands would they have when they call that raise pre? What's BTN's range to bet here? What's CO's range to call?
The 6d is kind of a brick, inasmuch as you were already behind T7, and neither should have much 96, 86, or 75 in their range. When CO doesn't check-raise flop, we probably have him beat, so this somewhat feels like a good spot to jam, even though I don't love it.
This goes back to our debate in that other thread, about starting out by checking flop as the PFR when OOP and multi-way. We could have check-raised the flop when the pot was smaller, and had a lot more fold equity.
Now, on the turn, we have less, and can get looked up lighter, by some hands that might have folded, but which still beat us, like J6 and other random nonsense the BTN may have. With QQ, there isn't a lot we can target for value that we're actually beating. It's mostly Jx, 77, and some draws.