title pretty much sums it up.

always

straddling is massively +EV

It's +ev if you are one of the better players at the table, and you talk everyone at the table to do it. It's massively -ev if you are the only one straddling.

If you have AA, it is +++++++++ev.

This is nonsense. If you are the lone-straddler you will elicit enormous action at the table and your AA will get paid off by hands such as 29 offsuit.

You do realize you lose the most money playing from the BB, right? The straddle is just a big BB.

it would seem very minus ev in a vacuum, but a game with a mandatory straddle would probably be way way mroe +ev to play in than one without

I agree with both of Dfly's posts.

It is +ev only when a mississippi straddle (button straddle) is allowed. This is rare at casinos but some home games allow it.

straddle is plus +ev with deeper stacks and it tilts live nits/lets you play more hands

The Harrah's in St Louis use to allow a Mississippi straddle in their $2/5NL game and it was glorious. What made it even better is that only 2-3 people at a table would actually understand how great it was and you and them would be the only ones doing it. A lot of the time you'd have a nit or two on your immediate left so you could also straddle from the CO and HJ.

It's hugely +ev if everyone is doing it... but obviously if you are the only one doing it not so much.

Here's another scenario. I was playing 3 handed with two far lesser players both are loose and leakier than a prison faucet. We were playing 10/25 with 5k effective stacks. I was discussing with a friend whether or not straddling on the button here is +EV. Obviously the argument for it is that I get to act last preflop. I think that its -EV. I think its widely agreeable that deeper stacks would favor the better players who are better at pot controlling when necessary and extracting max value when possible. By straddling it essentially doubles the blinds which makes the stacks half as deep thus making both of those two things more difficult and lessens my edge. Both of these opponents are very easily exploitable as neither are capable of making any sort of sizable laydown so with that said who votes for straddling in this game?

IMO straddling 3handed on the button is so +ev its rediculous...i still can't believe foxwoods and other casinos allow it and won't allow mississippi straddle which is essentially the same thing.

it makes more sense not to straddle and let some people straddle then to get everyone to straddle

I think it depends on the table dynamics. In LT space it cost you a fraction of a bet in EV, but it may gain you a significant amount of EV in other hands since players will tag you as an "action" player. It also can illicit some bad raises behind you that you can come over the top and gobble up if they come from the right player.

never

Agree with this. . . IF only a few people are doing it.

The downside is that if everyone at the table starts doing it, it kills the action. That's because everyone tightens up, afraid to limp/call with their mediocre hands only to get popped by the button-straddle. It also kills the action from the SB and BB, who have to worry about calling with 7 people left to act.

In that situation, even the Mississippi straddle is -EV because of the effect it has on the game dynamics.

mostly -ev, unless mississippeeeeeeeeee

Straddling 3 handed on the button is hugely hugely hugely + EV, especially against the two players you were playing, jshove. Think about it. If you don't straddle your button you will be constantly getting reraised from the big blind when you raise, and forced to play big pots when you continue. With the straddle, you can dictate the size of pots you want to play, depending on the quality of your hand. Especially given the particular villains you were playing, having last action preflop is huge. The big blind is unlikely to trap you by "completing" and you have a much better chance of occasionally stealing the blinds with your trash hands by hammering the limps than you do by opening yourself.

You're making the blinds (and hence the game) bigger against two fish, and giving yourself a monster advantage in position.