Quote:
Originally Posted by Javanewt
Interesting -- even though you know they don't adjust and you can? Weird. (BTW, it's never killed any game I've played in -- and they all allow BTN straddle -- but I play in games that can run pretty big.)
It kills the game in the sense that Poker in general is a contest for the antes, but Hold'em is a contest for the blinds. Every scenario discussed in theory assumes a heads-up confrontation between a PFR in LP and the BB.
In a normal set-up, the blinds have the benefit of seeing every other players' actions before action gets back to them, and they have to decide whether or not to defend. The fact that the blinds already have money in the pot creates better pot odds for them, incentivizing them to defend wider, thus creating the post-flop contest.
When the BTN straddles, it forces the blinds to act first, before seeing what other players do. The other players, meanwhile, don't really have as much incentive to limp or raise, knowing that the BTN now has better pot odds to call.
Every player in the game should NOT want the BTN to straddle, because it dis-incentivizes the blinds to call or raise. In theory, the blinds should be over-folding when the BTN straddle is on. If the blinds fold, every other player at the table has an incentive to go after the dead money from the blinds, but has to contend with the specter of the BTN straddle.
The UTG straddle stimulates action by way of players in EP adding more money to the pot. The BTN straddle does the opposite, by advantaging the BTN, who is already at a tremendous advantage. The pots end up being smaller, and contested by fewer players.
When we talk about adjusting to the BTN straddle, what adjustments are we talking about, exactly? If the adjustment is for the blinds to have a limp-3B'ing range, or all players to tighten their pre-flop ranges, how is that improving the game?