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I was experimenting with straddling in last night’s session. The game was ok, with a mix of tough players and competent players. Lots of three-betting occurred at this table and it was really hard for me to play any speculative hands or set-mine in this game. I think I was the fish at the table. I was also pretty card and flop dead during this session. When I wasn’t getting any action with my strong holdings, I decided to straddle instead of splashing around with marginal holdings, as suggested. Interestingly, my straddle was attacked a lot. There was one particular player, who at the time, I felt like he was going after my straddle from the SB. He appeared to be a nice guy and a competent player. It was probably all in my head that he was going after my straddle. I did observe, that he was squeezing out of the SB with speculative hands and not made hands. I took this into account for my decision in this hand.
Hero stack: 280
Hero hand: 77
Hero position: UTG StraddleVillain stack: 800
Villain hand: AKd
Villain position: BTNPreflop:
Cutoff raise to 16, villain 3bets to 40, hero shoves, Cutoff folds, villain callsFlop: A 7 x
Turn: x
River: x
I was running pretty bad at this table and may have even appeared to be tilting. The two opponents in this hand are competent players, and they were pretty active with their 3bets.
Thinking back, I should’ve moved to a softer game, where I could play more profitably, but I wanted to experience how to play against this lineup. It wasn’t easy at all. I was playing only 100BB deep against them as well, so it really made my preflop decisions “difficult.” When I did manage to get a playable hand against them, I would whiff the flop and concede the pot to a cbet.
During the session, I would notice their 3bet range consist mostly of strong ace and broadway holdings. Only rarely did I see them 3bet with strong pocket pairs.
In three consecutive hands, the villain would 3bet or raise very large from the button. Forcing me to throw away speculative hands, I shouldn’t be playing OOP. I was suspicious if he was doing this on purpose, so I wanted to see if he would do it again on my next straddle. Like clockwork, he did, only this time I had a hand and he had a monster as well.
I wanted to make a stand so I 4bet shove. I wanted to send the message, that I won’t be bullied.
We flip over both our hands, and he asked me if I wanted to run it twice, which is the max at our table. He was a nice guy, but in the moment, I was a little frustrated that he called and I was not out of the woods yet. I replied “I don’t care, it’s up to you” and so we ran it once.
The ace was in the window but the 7 was peeled underneath. I was relieved, I won’t the flip but was still not happy with my play. I remained stoic and gracefully pulled in the chips.
I think you’re straddling for the wrong reason here. There are a few reasons to straddle – to loosen up the table, to play bigger pots, or the make the nitty players uncomfortable and get them off of their game. From your earlier threads, I recommended straddling to loosen up the game. But since this table is already 3-betting fairly frequently, I really don’t think straddling is your best option. If the table is loose, I think playing a tighter range pre-flop and playing your position suits your game best. Also, don’t be afraid to change seats and get the players who raise a lot to your right.
This hand, I really don’t like the way you played it. If you think they’re not 3-betting too light here, what are you getting to fold? Maybe JJ-88. AJ, KQ. There are some hands they fold, but a lot they can call with. And the hands they can call you with – at best your flipping against 2 overs (and likely suited), at worst you up against an overpair. It’s okay to call here sometimes because you can shove boards that are J and below, but I never like the shove here unless you think you can get some folds.
I actually got to play a good session yesterday for the first time in a while (2/3). I straddled about 70% of the times I could (UTG only) for 2 reasons – the table was nitty at first, and I felt that I was by and far the best player at the table, so I was happy playing inflated pots. I actually turned down a seat at the 3/5 game because I felt my advantage was so good at this table it made more sense for me to play the lower stakes. I finished up $300, so I can’t complain, but should have been a better take. I 3-bet TT into KK and had to call his jam because not enough left behind, had my two ran down by a flush, etc.
I’ll post a few hands that I can remember, but know the amounts and positions will be a guess.
Hand 1: I’m on the button, K9dd. Effective stacks around $400 I think. MP raises to $15 (standard raise was anything from $8-18), a few callers, I call.
Flop: T9x, 1 diamond. MP bets out $25, I call with my pair and backdoor, everyone else folds. Pot is somewhere around $100.
Turn: 7d, so now I have the flush draw. He bets $50, but he didn’t seem sure of it. I raised to $175, I figure I’ll take it down unless he has an overpair (I didn’t put him on one), and if I get called I still got some flush and pair outs. He folds.Hand 2: Effective stacks around $400 again. I completely forget the positions here. I have 98ss, a younger Asian kid that had sat down was targeting me because I was a big stack. He raises to like $18, I call. No idea if I was in position or he was.
Flop: TT7 one spade. He bets about $20, I call.
Turn: Ace of spade. He bets out like $55 and I call.
River: 2 of spades. I make the flush. Can’t remember if I’m first or last, but action is on me and I bomb it for $140. I’m pretty sure he has a good Ace or maybe even a 10, so I’m targeting that. Plus I think my image as the bully at the table is in my favor here. He calls, I show, he mucks. (He ran a bluff on me about 20 minutes later, but I only had a K2 and only a pair of deuces. I wanted to call cause his line didn’t make sense, but I folded and he showed).I know there are more, but I wasn’t taking notes so my positions and chip stacks/bet sizes are way off. Those were two of the bigger pots I played.
Nice!
Hand 1:
I was reading that hands similar to K9s have a lot of reverse implied odds, but they appear to be profitable playing in position. So you had about 13 outs to improve your hand on the turn. I like reasoning, maybe I’ll try to work it into my game. What would you have done if he came over the top?Hand 2:
What a run out. You continued with your improved equity. You didn’t think he may have filled up on the turn? I’d play too timid with the paired board.Hand 1: I think maybe we weren’t as deep as I mentioned. If think if he went over the top it would have been $100 or less. I thought they player was trying to be a bully, so I felt he was doing this with hands like AK. I just didn’t see him having many pairs here, so I thought that I was ahead anyways. Unless he had a set or KK, I had a ton of outs, so I was willing to go with the hand. He folded pretty quick, so I think my read of two overs was pretty accurate.
Hand 2: Sometimes you just have to go with it. I can’t remember all of the action, but I don’t think he ever had AA here. So that pretty much leaves AT, TT, and 77 that beats me. And since I think he was targeting me and trying to be the boss of the table, I felt the big bet was putting him into a position to pick off my “bluff.” It was pretty funny, after he bluffed me he picked up his chips and left like a round later. Not sure if it was a coincidence and he had to go or if we was just trying to leave after beating me.
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