Quote:
Originally Posted by hardinthepaint
No, because on a forum of thinking players, one guy says you need to tighten up and the next guy says you need to loosen up. They cannot both be right. One of the benefits of turning on the straddle is that a lot of players adjust incorrectly, including players who normally play quite well.
One of my favorite things about the game I play in is that a lot of the above average players love to cold call raises and I frequently get to see the flop for one more bet from the big blind. When the straddle is on, the next VPIP is usually a 3-bet and I have to fold my big blind way more often. I doubt anyone would argue you should be looser in this spot (3-bet pot vs single-raised pot). I am not a fan of this dynamic shift.
On the other hand, I’m not sure we should be folding anything from the straddle for one more bet. So here we have a situation where we are frequently forced to fold hands with decent equity and solid playability from the big blind while also having to defend the bottom of our range from the straddle and usually play the hand out from the worst position. I am also not a fan of this dynamic shift.
I imagine our EV from all the other positions should increase. Does it make up for the loss in EV from the three blind positions? I don’t know. Do I have faith in my ability to adjust to these conditions better than my opponents? Absolutely. Am I in a financial position to want to drastically increase my day-to-day variance? lol not really.
All that being said, I’m going to embrace the straddle if they want it. I don’t want to be the dude that doesn’t chop AND doesn’t want to play a straddle game. I think I’m generally well liked when people get to know me but I could definitely work on being more rec/reg friendly overall.