What’s the benefit to a straddle?

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Are you talking about in poker?

It increases the amount of forced money in the pot, and thus increases the action.
 
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Not +ev for the straddler. Could be +EV for the rest of the table though


It is indeed +EV for the straddler if they are a better player than most of the other players at the table. It makes no sense to evaluate EV on just the hand where he is straddling. One needs to evaluate the EV of the game as a whole.
 

stuntin'
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It is indeed +EV for the straddler if they are a better player than most of the other players at the table. It makes no sense to evaluate EV on just the hand where he is straddling. One needs to evaluate the EV of the game as a whole.

Yea assuming all players are equal...No way raising blind is +EV.

If so, I'd like to read why.
 

EV Whore
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It's a way to get a 1/2 game to play like a 2/4 game
2/4 stakes against 1/2 players, not necessarily a bad thing
Assuming everyone else follow suit...
 

Home of the Cincinnati Criminals.
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It's a way to get a 1/2 game to play like a 2/4 game
2/4 stakes against 1/2 players, not necessarily a bad thing
Assuming everyone else follow suit...

BUT, is it positive EV? To me, looks like it’s a action junkies crack at the poker table.
 

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Handicapper
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BUT, is it positive EV? To me, looks like it’s a action junkies crack at the poker table.
Probably is for the guy that has more skill playing against weaker players, but not so much for the unskilled guy. The real question is how long will it stay plus even before everyone catches on.
 

EV Whore
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BUT, is it positive EV? To me, looks like it’s a action junkies crack at the poker table.
Yeah it usually annoys me...I sit down to play 1/2, if I wanted to play 2/4 I'd play it. Annoying when I sit with $200 at 1/2 and someone keeps straddling...now an open over his straddle is $10 or more and it fucks up my 3 bet game cause you're investing like 15% of your stack so it's harder to 3 bet light preflop. And my SPR gets too low cause pots are artificially bloated, so it's harder to c-bet or bluff postflop. Changes the whole dynamic of the game.

If someone wants everyone to straddle every hand I feel like he should just move up. Don't force the table into higher stakes.

But most likely people do it cause poker gets boring, not as some well-calculated EV play.
 

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