I have been averaging about $15 an hour in the 1-2 and 1-3 NL games over the past 3 years. This is not killing it by any means but I have also not been losing either.

Recently, most of our casinos in my area have started letting anyone straddle from any position (except the blinds). This has dropped me down to the $11 an hour range. I guess this is mostly because I have not adjusted to the straddles. Somehow I feel a little uncomfortable in these situations. This does not allow me to play my normal TAG game and then use my tight image to steal the blinds in late position. In fact, I have noticed that I am raising A LOT LESS from the CO and the button due to the straddles.

Anyone have any good advice on playing in a straddle happy game? Keep in mind in my local 1-3 games it is not uncommon for people to buy in over 1K as there is not a limit to the buy in. Quite often I am the short stack at the table when I buy in between $300 and $500. A lot of the heavy buy-in guys have no problem putting large sums in the pot before the flop and I have been hesitant to play the larger pots OOP. I spewed away a couple hundred bucks this weekend getting involved in a couple of large pots where my draws did not materialize. I know I cannot base things on this weekend either as that is just variance. This has been a growing problem for my game over the last few months. It's killing my already paltry win-rate. Anyway, any advice that will help is much appreciated.

How many hours is your $15/hr winrate based on and how many hours has it taken to drop down to $11/hr? If the amount of hours is smallish (which it probably is if you are a typical weekend warrior), this could all just be variance that doesn't have anything to do with the straddle rule change. For example, I played about ~560 hours/year in each of 2013 and 2014, and yet my 2014 hourly was a rather large ~$15/hr worse than my 2013 results; it happens.

If your amount of hours is low, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I would just concentrate on trying to play your game (whatever that style is) even when the straddle is on.

Gcongratsonbeingawinningplayer!G

Without straddle 305 hours which is still not a ton of hours. Even then a straddle was allowed. It was just only allowed following the BB. With the new straddle system it is only based on a 112 hours. Yes about a 1/3 of the sample rate.

Request a seat change token and move as close to the right of straddle happy villains as possible.

My guess is that you are overestimating the affect that this straddle rule is having on your results, and the results (which is basically you still winning but not as much as before) can easily be variance over this shortish time period.

GimoG

with that little amount of hours, your first 500 will never be exactly the same as your next 500. You can't assume that you will always make at least $15/hr because you did it in your fist 300 hours.

Maybe without the straddle you would have averaged only $9/hr. Who knows.

However maybe you are not playing draws correctly (or may have other leaks):

did you jam it expecting fold equity, or did you play it passively without the correct calling odds? I would suggest to post some of your big hands to see if you have any leaks playing draws or anything else before thinking it may be the straddle. Straddles are great for good players. We just have to adjust our pf raises accordingly.

+1 maybe your short stack is working against you in those games

If the straddle is common, I would buy in for more, double, if your bankroll allowed it. Essentially your playing 1-3-6 (whatever the straddle is)

Assuming your playing against the same players, you can look at it by doubling your win rate. So instead of the raises being $3 x X, your at $6 x X

yeah 100 hours is far too little to gather a winrate from. A $3/hr difference over that time is just replacing a 50bb win with a 50bb loss. One session.

But if you feel frequent straddles are making you less rather than more money, you're probably right that you're doing something wrong in that situation.

It really sounds like you're just uncomfortable with the amount of money involved, and also don't know what to do against players who aren't tight and fit-or-fold who just give up to a single cbet. The good news is that you should be able to make a lot more money from those players. The bad news is that you have to learn how first.

Maybe it's simply this and you need help in not adjusting to the straddles.

I play in a straddle happy game and do well. I think its important to play fairly tight, but in position you should be raising a lot with big cards and medium to big pairs. Big cards go up a lot in value when a straddle is on. You can even raise with Ace rags and Q 10 in position. Raise large to isolate, too...Attack the dead money and make c-bets on good boards and you should crush it.

However maybe you are not playing draws correctly (or may have other leaks):


did you jam it expecting fold equity, or did you play it passively without the correct calling odds? I would suggest to post some of your big hands to see if you have any leaks playing draws or anything else before thinking it may be the straddle. Straddles are great for good players. We just have to adjust our pf raises accordingly.

I had one big draw that was an open end straight flush draw and I jammed. Luckily I only lost $180 on that hand. Also I had a couple of hands where I set mined with 44 and 33 when it was raised to $24 and $26 (both in multiway pots of 6+ other players). Both times I missed and the flop was raised on the 44 hand.

Very well could be. My aggression certainly has decreased.