I realize from my hand histories that I have a leak playing the blinds. Players straddle the button often, and I err playing the blinds when they do.

1/2. On this table with six loose passives, villain (500) was one of three, including the hero (around 300), playing tight aggressive. At first, hero thought villain was a grinder. With a hat pulled down over his eyes, during the first three orbits, he played just one hand. After that, he played about 20 percent of his hands. He never limped, always open-raised or called a bet in position following a call. He 3bet once. In one hand, he opened to 10, hero with AKo 3bet to 30, V called. Hero whiffed a wet flop but bet 20 after V checked. V called hero's c-bet. Hero and V checked turn. Hero arrived river with only A-high on a wet board. V bet 50, getting hero to fold.

However, Hero doubted his read after V made a huge mistake against a loose-aggressive player, calling a massive river bet with an A-high bluff-catcher. After the mistake, V rebought and straddled on the button, beginning this hand.

OTTH

V straddles on the button, SB folds, hero in BB raises to 15 with red 99. UTG calls, and hero thinks his bet was too small. Folds to V who calls.

Flop (40 after rake): 7s7h5c

Hero usually bets 1/3 pot after a tight V calls a 3bet, but hero instead bets 20, thinking his preflop bet was too small. UTG folds. V calls.

Turn (78 after rake): 8s

Hero bets 40. V raises to 110. Hero?

Mistake: hero open bet this hand. V did not 3bet.

Probably just jam turn at this point with so little behind.

What was the button straddle to? I think opening 99 is fine. It's still a very good hand.

Flop I think going smaller multiway is fine, like 25% pot, $10.

Check turn. Villain as at nut advantage on this board. He can have so much more 7x out of the button straddle, plus 88, 55, 96s, 64s.

Straddle was 5.

I think with a board this connected you have to fold. You've shown aggression on every street and V is playing back.

Is the equity of the gut-shot straight draw too small to continue with a barrel on the turn? A tight player makes a bad error, rebuys, and immediately straddles—doesn’t that suggest someone on tilt enough of the time to continue?

Results

Hero folded. V mucked.

Previous HH it helps to know what the board was ... def. possibility V thinks you are cbetting too much and called any pair, which goes directly to this hand.


I know I've been called an idiot for only limping range in blinds from a BTN straddle ... which is fine. But 15 is a much worse option. The button is just calling super wide, and at least in my games you are mostly going 3 or 4 ways to a flop.
Lots of 1-2 regs. will have a spewy range on BTN and SB when you open to 8, for 10 more on the BTN it might well be lol any2 category ... and then you fold overpairs.


When you open here you are going to have a lot of high cards. Can bet small for range, check raise or even check call. Putting V on a 7 or a straight on the turn needs reads that V is folding a decent amount somewhere ... and the only HH you have you didn't even see his cards after you 3bet.
With no spade and 9 blockers I'd be tempted to x/r turn ... you are playing a 60bb pot with overcards. Even with bet/raise line I think V can have a lot of 5x:ss/8x that is going for "value" or just rando 9x/6x/ss that know they are bluffing. Sets are a tiny part of range, 64 that didn't raise flop is also unlikely, 7x possible but still small compared to rest of range. Can even decide you are aggressive, and have a better hand, so he can't call but you can't call a raise on this board.

Given we have limited history on villain, we have to default to low stakes priors, and the deafult is "call flop, raise turn" tends to be a very nutted line at low stakes. Sure occasionally you're going to run into a draw or combo draw, but probably not a rate where we can profitably pick them off.

You're not giving enough respect for how bad this board is for you, how good it is for the button, and how dynamic the turn is. I ran this one in a heads up solve with custom ranges and I believe flop was a range bet, turn was a range check. Since it is multiway I am guessing flop would not still be a range bet, but I would guess turn would still be a range check.

You might not have 88/77 pure here, definitely shouldn't have 87s pure, 55 or A7s. Meanwhile villain has all the 96s, 64s, 88, 77, 55, 75s, A7s through maybe 47s. These all beat most of the the top of your range which includes 99-AA, a full 36 combos, plus it's beating all your bluffs, and you only have slivers of better hands. So yes, while you have a vulnerable overpair and the added equity of a gutter is nice, yeah, I think this is a range check.

You are making a lot of assumptions there.

I wouldn’t assume that he made an error just because he called with a bluff catcher and lost the hand — perhaps it was a good call but he lost. Let’s not be results-oriented.

I also wouldn’t think that his putting on a straddle means he is on tilt. Some players believe the BTN straddle is profitable because their opponents respond poorly to it.

Generally, this player is going to connect a lot with this board. You have basically no 7x opening preflop from the BB. BTN has better overpairs like TT and many players will show up with JJ pure as well — he may not always 3bet pre even though he probably should squeeze after UTG flats.

So this board isn’t that great for you on the turn .. and even your exact hand is behind some overpair combos … so I would start with a check there for sure with your hand, and probably check the entire range to be honest.

Chaos, Mlark, and hitchens--thanks as always for your wisdom. What do you think about illiterat's advice to call preflop here instead of raise? Illiterat has been called an idiot for a range-bet against a button straddle in the blinds. For the same reason, I've been called one too. Hence, I raised preflop.

Might as well plead my case:

• I most often see BTN straddle in bigger stack 1-2 games (multiple people with 250bb+) where most of the table treats it the same as UTG opening to 5, blinds call way too much ... and often raise big with big hands.
• Pretty much always the BTN straddle is only done by 1, 2 or sometimes 3 people. So they are either a "reg." who thinks people respond poorly to it, or someone who likes to gamble. Both of these things means BTN straddle will often raise limps as though they were $2 limps starting UTG ... many times seen people raise 87s into 4 people (because they aren't really counting the blinds).
• Esp. annoying is if someone is playing with a $50-100 stack, which is an okay limp and see a flop for $2 size but now they see $25 in the pot and there's only one raise size. You opening anything meaningful means both options suck when it gets back to you.
• Mid position people will also see limps, treat it as a normal limp fest and start raising "good" hands like KTo.
• Both MP and BTN often respond surprised/poorly to limp/3bet from the blinds, when there might well be 10, 20, or even 30bb+ in the pot.
• Hard to balance the fact we have money in vs. acting first, but esp. SB should be tighter than a normal UTG open, I think. I'm not playing BB much wider than SB, probably close to UTG range. In theory we can be wider if we just open to 10 or 15, but in reality we are going to be in a lot of terrible spots.
• Even if it goes HU: Open raise to 10 means BTN calls super wide but "we have initiative" post, and checks are weakness ... "open raise" to 5 and BTN calls only a bit wider but checks aren't seen as weakness in the same way.
• I will start open raising if I see someone BTN straddle a lot and rarely raise when limped to, but this is an exception in reality. Size is roughly 25 from SB and same from BB unless SB limped then 30 and 20 from UTG onwards adding +5 for each limper ... but again, mostly very tight ranges everywhere.
• BTN straddle sucks and I hate it.

I don't really like it. I think having an open limping range outside of the blinds unless sctin starts on SB. If I think a hand is + EV to open, I will open it. I think it's probably the most + EV when we open raise it. If it's good enough to open raise I want to get money in the pot now, especially if I have a premium. A lot of my range plays that right size pot when I open raise and get called, or when I 3bet and I call, or when I 3bet and decide to 4bet. QQ or JJ in early position with a 3bettor, no cold callers and it folds around to me? I am going to like calling there a lot. AA, KK, AKs? I am going to like 4betting a lot. AKo? It depends, probably mixed.

If I limp range and other players just limp, I tend play too small of a pot with too many players. If iso raised and I have a limp reraise hand, I play a pot that is too small with AA and KK, I would have rather played a 4bet pot or at least taken down more dead money with the 4bet. And I am not going to get called a ton when I do this as it looks really strong. If I limp first in and then call an iso after other people limped behind, I am inviting everyone to go multiway way where I have a capped range and get to play out of position to everyone.

If I have both a limp raise and a raise range, my strategy becomes too complex to balance and my hands will be very face up.