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...

Thanks guys!

Every good thing comes to an end. I lost $600+ last night and ragequit after 5 1/2 hours of getting beat up.

The ragequitting really bothers me. I need to work on that; maybe get up for a long walk instead. Unfortunately, I also have a compulsive and entirely irrational need to not miss my blinds for some reason, so I'll have to work on that before I try walking away for longer than a few hands. If it's not one thing, it's another.

So I missed a 40 hour week by 90 minutes. I'm going back today to finish that last hour and a half, as a sort of atonement for quitting early yesterday.

I talked about straddles with some dealers and players last night. Apparently the Mississippi part means that the straddle can be done from anywhere except for the blinds. The order of action, however, might vary.

When the Flamingo had a poker room, their straddle was Button only, so not Mississippi, and preflop action started on the UTG, then it went around until it actually skipped the Button and went on to the blinds, then it returned to the Button, who went dead last. Non-regs often found this order baffling, and I didn't blame them.

I don't know if there are places that do the Mississippi straddle with the Flamingo turn order, but that's getting deep into the weeds, in any case.

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentiment to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride; how consoling in the depths of affliction! "And this, too, shall pass away."

-Abraham Lincoln

I sat down for my short 90 minute session today and found myself stuck $200 before even two orbits had passed. I also played a hand poorly during that time, and my bad play tends to tilt me more than anything. This instance was no exception. I could feel the heat rising around my temples; the figurative steaming sensation.

I really, really wanted to bail, but I'd driven a half hour out to the casino just to play a 90 minute session and by the gods I was going to stay for the duration, come what may.

I didn't go for a walk, but I did burrow down into my phone for 15 minutes to observe close-hand the doings of the Internet, and that proved to be a steadying influence, or at least a numbing one. By the end of the session, I'd clawed back the $200, and I was happy to have weathered the storm without running off.

MGM Springfield $1/$2 poker: 7 hours
(-$623.00)
MGM Springfield Slots: 3 hours
+$61.80

2024 Running Poker Total: 287 hours, +$4387.00
2024 Running Slot Total: 153 hours, +$6199.04

2024 Grand Total: 440 hours, +$10586.04