Ok, heres another hand from last night ive been thinking of for a while now:

im in early postion, $200, villain is to my right with about $500

Villain stradles to $4

i raise to $8 with 2d3d, hoping strdler will raise, and i can fold my 2/3 face up to give myuself a little image at the table

everyone folds to the strdler, who calls the $4

flop: 2x 9x 3x

villain checks, I bet $15, villain calls

turn: Qx

villain instantly bets $50
I think for a while, and call

River: 2x

villain checks, I bet $75 , villain calls and Flips Qx 9x
I apologize for sucking out on him, but him a drink

Q9 was one of the hands I put him on when he bet $50. He was a decent player, but the overbet kinda looked a little bluffy to me.

He said he put me on AQ


any thoughts would be much appreciated.

-Ghost

you min-raised from early position with 23s to get good image?

Are your raises currently getting too much respect? If you expect to be reraised, I find that hard to believe.

In general, don't try to manage your image. Stay aware of it and exploit it.

I agree with the other replies. Don't worry about creating an image that much. Fold preflop. After that though, I think the flop and turn is okay. Then on the river the pot is already $149. You can probably make a bigger bet there. You only have $127 left. I would just shove.

You only have $200. It's not enough to raise 23s for image purposes.
Besides. You can certainly broaden your range with hands OTHER THAN 23s.

min raise would be to 6 tiger,

and obviously no one was there, but there were few guys in late postions that re raised to 22-26 a gret deal when someone stradled.

doesnt matter though, thanks for the replies

I think the best part of the thread is that guy "put you on AQ".

I button raised 25 sooted (my fav hand) to $25 in a game like this over 5 limpers and showed after they all folded. I got my good hands called down most of the night. Image control can work in your favor if you do it in the correct manner.

IMO raise preflop more if you want a wreckless image. I think you played it pretty standard post flop, nice catch on the river!

This is one of the few fish things that tilts me to no end. I have a friend that I have tried to teach how to play poker and he just arbitrarily puts people on hands that he beats.

" So I put him on AK...."
" Why did you put him on AK?"
" I dunno that is what I thought."
" You have to have a reason to put him on AK what was your reason? "
" I dunno I just felt he had AK"


Fish will always be fish.

+1 so many times that I lose count

this is excellent.


p.s. on a straddle, 8 is the min raise, not 6. The straddle acts as a blind, not a raise.


p.p.s - awesome

Stopped reading here.

You hoped to lose the pot, which is stupid. Losing pots is -ev. As a general rule, I always try and win pots.

why do i keep reading comments in this thread... this hand hurts my head with all the fail here

lol
your wrong, i play in the US, not homo canada


also, if i wanted to play one hand loose after only showing strong starting hands, that is fine, don tknow why everyoe is complaining, no one was at the table to see how it was playing

classy

and your still wrong. I'd say Vegas is kind of the gold standard for poker, no? In Vegas, 2x the straddle is the min raise, I'm assuming most places in the States are the same, but by all means, try to raise to 6 next time you go, maybe somebody will reraise and you can gain an awesome table image.

This is always impossible to explain. In most casinos that allow straddles around the midwest, the straddle is a live bet that differs from a blind raise, meaning the straddler has option to raise if/when the action completes to him unraised. It is also a minimum raise, meaning that the next raise only has to be in the amount of the previous raise. So, it is legal have a $1 SB, a $2 BB, the $4 straddle and a $6 raise UTG (behind the straddle).

Yah, I was always under the impression that a straddle acted as a "bigger blind" so it's like a person UTG takes the option to post a third blind to gain closing action preflop.

I've never been in a game in AC where they allowed the straddle, and to be honest I never quite understood why people do it.

Makes the pots bigger; which could be very good for you if your at a table playing below your usual limits. Say you usually play $2/5 but the table was full or for whatever reason you're sitting at a $1/2 table..if you straddle to $4 or $5 you get to play bigger pots and you get to take the 1/2 players out of their comfort level somewhat.

It makes pots bigger / makes games play bigger.
It's usually only directly beneficial if you have more / the most $ on the table.
It gooses action / gets action players involved too deeply.
It kind of keeps the "dead seats" out of the game / pisses them off.
Wait ... yeah ... a lot of what he said.
vvvvvvvv

Is this thread one big giant level?

Just shove river.

Until someone shows me numbers to the contrary (and I think that's very unlikely), I believe that the UTG straddle in itself has a large negative expectation. We're raising without looking at our cards to play a pot in the worst position because we suspect someone else might be caused to something stupid. If they're going to do something more stupid than raising without looking at their cards, I suspect they were going to do that on their own.

Doesn't everyone lose money in the big blind in full ring? Wouldn't you prefer not to post blinds?

If you can influence other people to straddle by doing it yourself, then I can see the merit.

+1000

Glad it was said by someone better then I coould. I have never strattled in my life, and have made this argument a hundred times.

I don't think anyone has ever strattled.

I wouldn't defend the straddle itself as a profitable play.
It's a way to goose the overall action.

Straddle is -ev

but if we remain disciplined and fold our weak holdings and it loosens the game and we get more action from weak players who are oop and defending their straddle light, I think it's +ev