Hi all,

I play 1/3

What do you guys think about button straddling?

In my home casino we can button straddle from 6-15 dollars

Action starts on the SB.

Confusions where you would vs would not button straddle?

I’ve been trying it like maybe 20x lately and it only got raised like 2 times most of the like 4 people will limo to me and I’ll have position the whole hand

Is this plus EV? Honestly it’s just find fun to do TBH and kind of addicting but I don’t want it to hurt my overall winrate

it is my understanding that being forced to invest money with atc is negative ev. just like being in the BB is -ev
im sure there are some meta game scenarios that could be argued for in a vacuum but overall ur just investing money with a bad range

It's definitely -$ev

That said, it's much better than straddling utg and if the whole -game- is straddling there's a good chance it's a nice situation for you, so if your game is like that then you shouldn't kill the atmosphere.

i dont mind button straddling in 3 handed games

The difference is that posting the BB doesn’t give you any benefit, straddling the button does. You’re gaining position preflop.

It’s hard to quantify how big that advantage is and one very important factor is number of players. Being last to act instead of first to act in a 3-handed game where the “normal” setting already allows for you to profitably VPIP >50%? Sounds like a good deal to me. But that scenario doesn’t really occur in real life.

A scenario you do see frequently is live games getting down to 6 or even 5 players. If you play 5-handed, straddling moves the button from being 3rd to act preflop to 5th aka last. I’m button straddling 100% in that situation.

It’s definitely more +ev the shorter the game is. That all has to do with what the optimal range is at that moment though. If you want to be playing tighter (aka smaller opening range) then you’re putting in more money bad than you would otherwise want to. In general you’ll be in and raising these hands from the button anyway.

In a 3 handed scenario it seems highly +ev to button straddle assuming you have a positive expectation in the game in the first place. If not you should prolly get up anyway

Straddle is just another forced big blind. Which means -EV. But it can be used to set up a image if you are playing in game where nobody knows you.

That advantage is definitely not big enough to justify paying two bb when you dont have to.

From the button in a 3 handed game? I would disagree.