In previous posts, I've talked about how allowing the Mississippi straddle anywhere except for the blinds could lead to a levelling war between regs who are seated next to each other, if the reg on the right always straddles in the Cutoff.

This is because the Mississippi straddler gets to go last preflop, and action then starts on the player to the left of the straddle. A Cutoff straddle means that the Button has to act first, effectively turning the Button into an Under The Gun preflop, which is a very bad thing, EV wise.

The Button has but one recourse in this case, and that is to take the straddle away from the Cutoff, as only one Mississippi straddler is allowed in a hand, and the Button has first priority for it.

I don't like to straddle; I think that an extra $5 blind bet is a leak, even in position, but last night it finally happened. A loose-aggro player transferring from another table sat down on my right with a huge stack. He was a hippy-looking guy in his late-thirties, and at the first opportunity he set about trying to straddle on the Cutoff, when I was on the Button.

Other players have tried this before, on occasion, and I've always thrown on the Button straddle and then asked them, "Not on my button, please." Until this guy, everyone had chosen to honor my request...and to be clear, nobody has to stop just because I ask. It's not an angle or a breach of poker etiquette to straddle whereever you want.

This guy humored me for a few orbits, but then he started losing, and he went back to trying to throw on the straddle from the Cutoff, forcing me to straddle on the Button to take it away.

My preconceived plan for this occasion was to change seats or to transfer tables. Take the easy spots and leave the battling to the egotists. But this guy had riled me up a bit, which is probably what he was trying to do; however, he was also raising my Button straddle nearly every time, and therefore too widely, and I had position on him, so I stuck around, and I won more than a few of my Button straddles, and Villain's stack gradually flowed away; some of it to me, and the rest of it to the other players.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 8 hours
+$900.00
MGM Springfield Slots: 3 hours
+$49.95

2024 Running Poker Total: 280 hours, +$5010.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 150 hours, +$6137.24

2024 Grand Total: 430 hours, +$11147.24

Doing great the past few sessions, doing great.

Let's go!

+1000.

I did not know this about Mississippi straddles, interesting...