Q&A #17: What’s the Deal with Straddles?
Don't miss one article! Subscribe to the Full Feed RSS or get NPA in your inbox.
I’ve gotten a few different questions about straddling, and none of them covers all the issues, so instead of quoting one, I’ll just sum them up with my own question.
What’s the deal with straddling? Is it a good thing to do, or is it dumb? How does it change the game when someone has straddled? How should you change your play?
Straddling is, essentially, voluntarily putting up an extra blind bet before the cards are dealt. It’s fairly common in live games, but if you play exclusively online, you may have never seen it. If that’s the case, you should brush up on your straddling basics here.
The remainder of this article is insider content available to premium members only. Log in to your account or become a premium member and get instant access.
Tags: cash-games, dead-money, limit-holdem, live-straddle, mississippi-straddle, no-limit-holdem, poker, poker-psychology, shorthanded, straddles, straddling, the-rock
In addition to the straddle there is also the rarely used “sleeper”, which is a straddle placed in the middle of the field with an option. Anyone who plays before the sleeper must now call the straddle at a minimum, and when it becomes the sleeper’s turn his action is live, which means he may chose to raise or re-raise. However if everyone folds to the sleeper, he has the option of removing the bet from the table.
Lastly there is also a type of straddle called “The Rock”. The rock is a forced under the gun straddle, but UTG is only forced when he holds the rock. The rock is usually donated by a player, players, or the house and is bound together by rubber-bands, tape, or something similar. If the player wins a pot which contains the rock, he must post the rock as a straddle next time he is under the gun.