Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyGroomsTD
Our philosophy is predicated on having the games with the best action. If this means they play bigger, then so be it. You will have options to buy into smaller games too...
As a recreational player that doesn't care about the money, I just want to play in a fun cash game. The fun part for me is playing in games where I am faced with interesting scenarios. I like to have room to make plays, and I actually enjoy being put in interesting spots by opponents. The only way those situations are going to arise is if stacks are reasonably deep.
Adding a straddle obviously cuts the effective stacks in half. A lot of cash games allow min buyins of 33-40bbs, once you cut that in half you have essentially made NL holdem a preflop game. You have turned chess into checkers, and I don't think checkers is very fun to play.
This is less of an issue with a UTG straddle, because not many people will exercise their option, and those that do are usually steaming or in the mood to gamble. I don't mind playing the occasional hand short in those situations, especially since they are always OOP. However, the MS straddle option is going to be used by anyone that even remotely understands that having position is good in poker, so the game becomes a mindless short-stacked form of poker that just isn't fun for me.
There are so many mindless games in a casino for people that enjoy that sort of thing. Please don't add NL Holdem to that list.
Your other ideas for generating action (uncapped buyins, 9 vs 10 handed, etc) are much less invasive to the flow of the game.