The Hard Rock Straddle

[FishAndChips]

This is a question about a new rule they've instituted at Hard Rock's poker room in Vegas. It's a live game question but I figure full ring is the best place to post it.

Hard Rock has an odd kind of straddle that is unique to any poker room I've ever seen.

Usually when a player straddles, they post 2BB utg and have the benefit of acting last. In almost all live games, straddling is very high neg eV and is used mostly by gamblers or people who have no idea what the hell they're doing.

The Hard Rock straddle is unique because you are allowed to post on the button AND get last action. This is different from a Mississippi straddle because action starts on UTG, skips the button, goes to SB, BB, and then the button acts last.

It's also an odd rule because in the case of a 4-bet pot preflop (straddle counts as 2-bet), the button does not get the benefit of acting after the blinds and pre betting reverts back to normal order.

I've been thinking about it and what do you think is the highest eV to use the Hard Rock straddle? What textures of games would it be plus eV, when would it be negative eV, would you do it every time on the button, when would you avoid it?

[TheDeKay]

Lol, I can imagine, that you could play +EV here in almost every game, cause of your position.
But I have no experience with that kind of straddle^^

[FishAndChips]

I was thinking it'd be way plus eV in tight passive games where you see a lot of limped pots. Regular straddles are actually okay in these textured games too, as long as you know when to put on the brakes.

It'd probably be pretty bad for games textured in a way where there is a lot of pre calling and people stacking off light, which is also a very common game type in Vegas, esp. late at night after clubs get out. In these games you want to see a lot of flops cheaply because your implied odds are so good, so it'd be better to just limp on the button and not try to steal blinds.

Hard Rock is full of nitty locals right now because they're running a lot of promos on the new room, so I think the HRS is extremely profitable right now. I'd probably just get annoyed having to defend against so many straddled pots when other people do it -- generally increases your variance since you're getting money in weaker than normal.