'Straddling' a gamble with little strategic value

By Mark Lasser

Here’s something you don’t see much of when poker is played on TV. It’s a straddle. OK, you might see the move on some random games when things get loose on “Poker After Dark,” but you will see it frequently in live play.

Many players don’t know what it is and those that do may not know if it’s a bad or a good idea. So let’s look first at what a straddle is in cash games of poker. We say cash games because as far as I’m aware, it’s never allowed in a tournament.

A straddle is a raise that’s made before any cards are dealt. The most common occurrence for this is from the under-the-gun position or the player who acts right after the big blind in Texas Hold’em. Straddles are sometimes allowed from other positions as well including on the button. These are generally made either on the button or from the cutoff position just before the button and are called Mississippi straddles because they’re quite common in the southern casinos.

Most straddles you see are what we call “live” because the straddler gets to make the last action before the flop. In the case of the under-the-gun straddle, the next position after them acts first and then when the blinds have acted, they have the option to raise or re-raise. In most games the straddle is a minimum raise, so if the blinds are 10-20, the straddle has to be $40.

There are also some games, though they are very rare, that allow re-straddles or a double straddle. This is when the person acting after the straddler can re-raise before the cards are dealt. I’ve seen this at some of the Station casinos in Vegas like Texas Station and Boulder Station where the local players like to get under each others skins or someone is blowing off stream with a rack of chips and a lot of Jack Daniels. All of these straddles apply only to the first betting round. After the flop everything goes back to normal play.

Now the question must be asked: is straddling a good strategy? I guess this is more a matter of opinion, but I can’t think of many scenarios where it’s anything other than a sucker play, especially the traditional under-the-gun straddle. Why would you want to raise from early position when more time than not you won’t have a playable hand? You can always raise once you’ve seen your cards. It’s a pure gamble and has little strategic value over gaining knowledge from the other player’s hands.

You do see guys like Phil Ivey and Huck Seed making the play, but cooler heads generally avoid the play. Personally, I love re-raising the straddle with a wide range of cards from late position. The straddler is unlikely to have picked up a strong hand, they are out of position and will almost always defend the investment. A re-raise from late position will often cause the button and blinds to muck, isolating the straddler when I have total position advantage.

As the astute of you will have picked up, the one plus of the straddle is you are last to act. In the case of the standard live straddle the disadvantages outweigh the advantages in my mind. In the Mississippi straddle I feel differently. In this case I like the advantage of having position and being last to act, instead of the blinds. In this situation, I think the extra bet in the dark might be worth it, especially if the players on one’s left are weak.

Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. You can hear him talk about gambling and casinos every Friday at 5 PM on KEZW AM 1430. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.