BigStack.com

[thejim]

I heard yesterday that Hard Rock had opened over the weekend. I have dug around, seen some reviews, and am pumped. Within a couple weeks, I expect to be spending most of my time there. I hope I'm not disappointed.

The biggest thing is the Hard Rock Straddle. It's a button straddle that takes priority. Action still starts utg, passes the HRS, and then returns when action is complete. Wow. Huge advantage.

In addition to that, though, the room looks nice, the dealers and staff are supposedly competent, and the rake and comps are comparable to the best in town.

[Grunkzzz]

You mean the mississippi straddle

[thejim]

Grunkzzz wrote: You mean the mississippi straddle

No, I don't.

My understanding is that the Mississippi Straddle is what they do at the Rio. The button straddles, and action starts with the small blind, with the button then acting in turn. The Hard Rock straddle would give the button FINAL action preflop.

[TommyTwoToes]

http://poker.wikia.com/wiki/Straddle#Mississippi_straddles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betting_(poker)#Mississippi_straddle

i was under the impression that the Mississippi was the one that gave last action ....and that just a button straddle did not.... I have also experienced soem card rooms that if a person straddles and anotehr person raises in front of them then the straddler cant raise... thus if its a $4 straddle and someone raises to 8 the only thing the straddler can do is call the 8 or fold... they cant reraise. other people can raise but not him.... I cant remember where i was at when this occurred but it did...

either way i think that straddling often sets you up to be trapped....most people that straddle the button intend on raising an enormous amount to steal all the $4 limps... I let a person straddle a few times before i set any trap with a big hand... basically if they set a pattern of usually raising a bunch and i have aces or kings i am limping and waiting for them to pop it then get other callers that know this straddler is raising for no reason other than to steal ... then i push/reraise...

lets say that on avg 5 people limp per hand.
and lets say that the avg table raise is to $12.

to get all 5 people to fold you have to likely raise to $30+. and thus you take down $20. and still you may get one caller and thus no guarantee of winning the hand. you have to be able to win two out of three hands uncontested to net $10? (the contested hands lets assume that you split evenly which isnt realistic seeing as how you may have more than one caller....

but i ma no expert on the matter and the straddle is usually done by players that want to gamble and be aggressive... i would imagine to truely be prfotable you would have to go against the stereo type and take advantage of people that are following the stereotype... in other words you wont reraise every time and that you will reraise with big hands and get callers thinking you are bluffing...

[thejim]

The utg straddle is bad, for obvious reasons. Basically, it makes sense for a card room to allow it, because it's a bad bet for the one doing it (while not hurting the other players), and it builds a bigger pot for the house to rake.

The mississippi straddle on the button is bad, IMO, because it unfairly punishes people not willing to put it on, as they have to act first in the blinds, while giving an advantage to the button they don't need. I will always put on a mississippi straddle on the button. As far as I know, the Rio is the only room that allows it. I especially detested the way they allowed anyone to mississippi straddle from anywhere at the rounder room (they didn't even enforce it correctly, as it should act as a rock with the action starting to the MS's left.

The HR button straddle doesn't unfairly punsish the blinds, and it doesn't randomly change position like a rock. Every thinking player at the table should use it, which negates the advantage a little (although every intricacy should probably work out in the best players' favor). But, I'll bet that many people don't use it, thus giving me an even bigger advantage being one of the people who are building a pot with absolute last action preflop and last action on all other rounds. If I was opening a card room, I wouldn't allow it. But, as a player, I'll take advantage of it.

But, besides this intricacy, the room looks like it's well setup and with a good team. The crowd should be fairly good on the weekends, with a mix of drunk gamblers and decent players trying to take their money.

[itsoverjonny]

Jim -

All of your statements are correct.

With a Mississippi straddle, action always starts to the immediate left of the straddle and proceeds in order around the table. The straddle acts in turn, whether there is a raise in from of him or not. The common casino version is allowed only on the button, so the small blind acts first. In a lot of bigger games, particularly in the South (Tunica, Shreveport, Tulsa, etc.) it's not unusual to see a mandatory button Mississippi straddle. Usually when there are big tournaments at Cherokee in Tulsa, they will get a 5-10-25 PLO or ROE game, and the 25 is mandatory on the button and action starts with the small blind. I have seen games where a Mississippi straddle was allowed from other positions, and in most cases a player was only allowed to straddle out of position of the button did not want the straddle. I do not recall ever seeing this flavor spread in a casino - it was in private/underground games. The closest thing I have to seen to this spread in a casino is a rock game, where action starts to the immediate left of the rock and proceeds, with the rock acting in-turn.

The more extreme version is commonly referred to as the "Dallas straddle" (I have heard this term elsewhere in the country, including in Vegas and in Tunica by people who weren't from Dallas). Back in the boom days of the Dallas Underground, a lot of rooms allowed straddle (and re-straddle, and re-re-straddle, and ...) from any position, and the straddle had ABSOLUTE last action, meaning that the straddle did not act until ALL other preflop action was complete. If there was a raise, a re-raise, or a six-way all-in, the straddle would just sit there until all other pre-flop action was complete, and then he had the option to call, raise, or fold. Likewise, if there was a re-straddle, he had absolute last action, and the first straddle had absolute second-to-last action. So what happened when the games got wild was that preflop action would pinball around the table and the poor dealers had to try to keep up with the order that everyone needed to act. It made some games REALLY juicy, but it was bad poker and a nightmare to deal, not to mention slowing down the game.

I agree that a conventional UTG straddle is a -EV play, but I will do it in cases when I think the game has potential to "loosen up" quite a bit if it gets the right stimulus. It's like buying tequila shots for the whole table, but less obvious.

[itsoverjonny]

p.s. I'll bet you've already seen it, but there are a ton of pictures of the new HR setup on pokerati. Very nice! Plus I'll bet playing there, especially on weekend nights, will be very +EV for a good, sober player. That's definitely the case with all of the young, drunken douchebags trying their luck at the Palms, and the Palms has a crappy little room. The HR room is way cooler and likely to attract more of that same drunk/douchey crowd.

I hope Tommy doesn't flame me for mentioning another site. Dan frequently cites posts over here when there is good info to spread.

[TommyTwoToes]

itsoverjonny wrote: p.s. I'll bet you've already seen it, but there are a ton of pictures of the new HR setup on pokerati. Very nice! Plus I'll bet playing there, especially on weekend nights, will be very +EV for a good, sober player. That's definitely the case with all of the young, drunken douchebags trying their luck at the Palms, and the Palms has a crappy little room. The HR room is way cooler and likely to attract more of that same drunk/douchey crowd.

I hope Tommy doesn't flame me for mentioning another site. Dan frequently cites posts over here when there is good info to spread.


i dont care when someone posts about something going on on another site or points people to information that is useful. as long as it is not for the intent or possibly gets users to go elsewhere to do something or buy something or sign up for something.

example you said hey check out pics of the HR room on pokerati... you didnt say go to pokerati and click their link to full tilt and sign up on full tilt through pokerati....you also didnt say go to pokerati and sign up for their event they are holding to get this new product out that they are trying to sell.

alot of people dont see the difference... I guess actually no one on this site does, as is obvious from the discussions/arguement that went on. its also obvious that everyone thinks i am pure evil, which i guess might be cool if i had special powers to go with it.

I suppose that this reply is actually going to be seen as me yelling at the computer and bashing my skull into the sheetrock. cause its so obvious that i am a mad man.

[itsoverjonny]

Dude calm down!

[TommyTwoToes]

itsoverjonny wrote: Dude calm down!

no need to get violent ... calm down.
whoa there tough guy... chill out!

[thejim]

Yeah, I saw the pics on pokerati and a couple other places.

The other thing I like, that I forgot to mention but you can see in some pics, is restrooms in the poker room.

[TommyTwoToes]

thejim wrote: Yeah, I saw the pics on pokerati and a couple other places.

The other thing I like, that I forgot to mention but you can see in some pics, is restrooms in the poker room.

ya this makes me think of how i constantly see dirty bastards taking a dump or peeing then walking right past the sink and not washing their hands .. .and going straight back to the poker tables...

[thejim]

TommyTwoToes wrote: thejim wrote: Yeah, I saw the pics on pokerati and a couple other places.

The other thing I like, that I forgot to mention but you can see in some pics, is restrooms in the poker room.

ya this makes me think of how i constantly see dirty bastards taking a dump or peeing then walking right past the sink and not washing their hands .. .and going straight back to the poker tables...

Yep, I try (usually I forget, but I try) not to touch my eyes or mouth after handling chips. I also usually wash my hands before and after peeing when I'm playing.

[itsoverjonny]

TommyTwoToes wrote: ya this makes me think of how i constantly see dirty bastards taking a dump or peeing then walking right past the sink and not washing their hands .. .and going straight back to the poker tables...

I wrote a blog post on this exact topic a few years ago. I'll dig it up and post it.

[itsoverjonny]

thejim wrote: I also usually wash my hands before and after peeing when I'm playing.

Hell yeah. My cock is a temple that should not be contaminated.

[TommyTwoToes]

itsoverjonny wrote: TommyTwoToes wrote: ya this makes me think of how i constantly see dirty bastards taking a dump or peeing then walking right past the sink and not washing their hands .. .and going straight back to the poker tables...

I wrote a blog post on this exact topic a few years ago. I'll dig it up and post it.

nice....

it also when i see this makes me think of the gunk that is stuck on all the winstar chips...

[itsoverjonny]

TommyTwoToes wrote: it also when i see this makes me think of the gunk that is stuck on all the winstar chips...

I know - those "poker turds" on the chips are fuckin disgusting. All you have to do is soak them in some water and that shit comes right off. You don't have to scrub them, wash them, or otherwise clean them. Just dump them in a fuckin bucket of hot water and let them sit, then dump them out and let them dry.

But it's Winstar - they're too cheap to buy a bucket OR water OR heat for the water.

[itsoverjonny]

When I've been on a casino trip for more than a day or two, my hands look like I'm 95 years old because I'm washing them constantly. I always carry a hotel bottle of lotion from a previous trip to try to combat the dryness, but I look like one of the Golden Girls regardless.

Something tells me there's a "Mark that" in there somewhere.

[itsoverjonny]

Found it...

http://itsoverjonny.com/2008/08/to-you-nasty-motherfuckers-at-wsop.html

[thejim]

itsoverjonny wrote: Found it...

http://itsoverjonny.com/2008/08/to-you-nasty-motherfuckers-at-wsop.html

Great post.