The straddle is a third blind added to the traditional two blind structure of hold’em and other related games. It’s not always a neutral proposition. The extra blind can help stimulate action or inhibit it, depending on the players and stack sizes. More controversially, the straddle often gets put into play with a certain amount of social pressure. For this reason, in the games I host, I allow unlimited straddling but never allow it to become mandatory – because there is always That Guy who doesn’t want to straddle, and I don’t think a good host forces people to do things.
Our guest today Brent Jenkins is that guy who is tired of what he calls “stakes terrorists” prodding him into putting on the straddle. Not a big deal you say? Just say no to straddles, Nancy reminds you – you have the option. Well, as we all know, it’s not that simple. Pro-straddlers can be pushy and unpleasant. There is a social stigma that if you are against the straddle, you are somehow against a “good game.” Objecting to the straddle becomes a form of poor behavior – it is stigmatized.
Brent doesn’t think it should be like this and has written what he titles The Anti-Straddle Manifesto. For the TLDR crowd it’s going to be a heavy lift, but I can assure you it is fairly straightforward and marshals many good arguments for his case. In the introduction he even lists the headers for the points he’s going to make, at pains to be clear.
To really understand his argument, we have to separate the social pressure aspect and the straddle itself. Brent makes arguments against both, but the former is what is most important to him. Poker is constantly concerned with “what is good for the game” and he makes a fairly reasonable case that “stakes terrorists” are not acting in its best interests.
The straddle itself, on the other hand, is going to be a less clear subject. Most players who love it confuse the correlation of action they bring with the incentive the straddle adds to the game, and therefore are under the delusion that they are the “good guys” here, when it is really much more of a grey area. Straddles halve the effective stacks and limit actions, while providing third blind complexity. Tradeoffs.
The notoriously bitchy, micro-edge seeking culture of the 5/10 scene at Wynn and other casinos has led to that leading room now removing the straddle from the game in favor of a big blind ante. Brent is obviously pleased by this contiguous development. We’ll want to watch and see how it all plays out. Brent argues the lack of straddles will stimulate players to play at their appropriate stakes size, and anecdotally already reports some of that happening. Conversely, I’ve heard negative rumors as well.
In any case, whether you are a die-hard straddler or one of Brent’s acolytes, hopefully today’s podcast makes you think about this hidden big deal within cash game culture. Enjoy the pod.
N.B. Dean is occupied, my apologies for the stripped down podcast and any balance issues.
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Great episode and I fully agree with Brent. So much so that I went and read the entire Manifesto. Thoughts:
– Suppose you’re playing in a game – even a private one -where everyone is straddling UTG except you. They are theoretically taking a -EV line while you aren’t. So the table is angry at you for not donating EV for the “common good”. But let’s take another scenario: the only player straddling is to your left. He’s sacrificing EV, but you are also being hurt by the fact that in every orbit, you are effectively in the small blind twice, not closing the action. This is unfair to you. I believe that this is also a good case for banning UTG straddles in the first place.
– In the small (unraked) home games I host and play in, straddles are not allowed, mostly for the last point above. Another reason is that straddles slow the game flow somewhat, especially when everyone is straddling and people “forget” it’s their turn.
– In my state of Washington, straddling in public games (say, at 2/5) is even more ridiculous because of the $300 max bet rule imposed in non-tribal cardrooms (the tribal cardrooms have mostly gone away and they too have something like a $500 max bet rule). When the buy-in cap is $1k, a straddle reduces the effective max BB to 100BB. Adding insult to injury, you can’t leverage your stack properly in many situations. Straddles just make this worse.
– I was once bullied in a 2/5 game by the regs, after refusing to straddle. I stopped playing it.
– What about button straddles? When those are allowed, I do use them since they provide a ridiculous advantage to the button. I still think those should be banned, because they put the blinds at a disadvantage they didn’t sign up for.