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Great idea to pick seats relative to known straddlers. I also think that the pre-flop range is impacted since your stack is cut in half…so if i’m sitting with 100BB, I imagine I have 50BB and would enter the pot with more face cards (even offsuit) and fewer lower suited connectors. I like to raise big and go with it with a big one pair type of hand, but of course we take it down most of the time since our range is stronger than the random hand putting money in blind.
I haven’t played too many games with a button straddle, but I’ve heard they are bad for the game b/c it kills the blinds…often times the button gets “ultimate last” and puts the blinds at even a bigger disadvantage since the button acts after them pre-flop.
I do love UTG straddlers since most at 1/2 are not comfortable when pots get bigger and you have more leverage with a decent stack. The typical profile of the player is loose and aggressive and I think they call raises 90% of the time since they didn’t put money in blind to just fold. I just wish for decent cards when someone does me the favor of putting money in the pot blind.
Final thought is that some tables encourage the straddle for entire table…this usually seems like a move for a player that wants to play a bigger game and leverage their skill advantage…this type of situation isn’t as ideal unless I can add on and make sure I have a deep enough stack for the game we are now playing.
