The Rock

Playing limit holdem, how do you like it when the guy under the gun puts up a blind straddle?  Small blind is $10, big blind is $20, and this gambooler puts in an extra $40 before even seeing his cards.  You like that?

I might not like it so much if I'm already in the small or big blind, but otherwise, and especially if I'm right behind the straddle, I like it just fine.  

So then will I play looser,  and 3 bet with way more hands than if he had seen his cards before he put in that 40?  Well, yeah, sure.

I read somewhere, long ago, that poker betting begins as a battle for the antes, or blinds, and that smaller blinds dictate tighter play, while bigger blinds mean looser play.  Makes sense, doesn't it?

Then I read somewhere else, recently, that we inevitably will lose money with our blind hands, that the best we can do is to play well enough to minimize that loss, and that we knowingly post blinds with that -EV only because it entitles us to be dealt the hands that follow.  That made sense to me too.

And so would I want to put up that straddle myself?  Well, um, no.  But sometimes players want everyone to agree to play a round of straddles, "Because it makes the game better." 

"Better for who?" I ask them.  

"What?  For everyone!" they say, looking at me like I'm an idiot.

Yeah, right.  That's like when Tess finishes dealing a down, stands up, and says "Good Luck, Everyone!"  I keep telling her that's not possible.  She laughs, and smiles back at me, and then she says it again next time.  :-)  

She's just being polite and cheerful, and that's sweet.  But I'm philosophical, and don't accept that a change could possibly be beneficial to everyone's expectation in the game.  No way.  Any structure change will benefit some, and harm others, depending on their strategy, and . . .

Q:  What's my #1 basic strategy to beat these guys?

A:  Play tighter than they do.  This only works because they play too loose!

Q:  What happens when the blinds get bigger (or, for that matter, when the game get shorthanded) ?

A:  The Other Guys' Too-Loose Play becomes LESS wrong, maybe even becomes correct.  There goes my Delta, my basic edge, the very foundation of my game, right out the window.

So when they ask me to agree to a round of straddles, "To liven up the game," I just tell them that they're already plenty wacky enough for me, and no thanks.  Truth is, I don't want to put up -EV blind bets any more than I absolutely have to.  Right?  Doesn't come up very often, anyway.

OK, fine.  But then, a couple months ago, somebody got the guys in the DL 20 game playing with "The Rock."

The Rock is eight red chips, $40, 2 small bets, taped together, to stay together.  It goes in, and plays, like a straddle.  Whoever wins that pot takes it, and keeps it on their stack until they are under the gun before the deal.  Then they they are obligated to put it up, like a straddle, and so it goes.

That looked like a blind straddle to me, and I didn't give it much thought.  My ignorant, knee-jerk reaction was to say "No, thanks!" again, and refuse to play with The Rock.  Well, that was stupid, and also was very poor customer relations, as it pissed off the guys who like The Rock.

Thing is, I'm slow.  Most times I have to go away, and think about something for a while, probably longer than I should need to, before finally reaching a valid conclusion.  

In this case I contemplated it for two weeks before finally realizing that I should have no objection to a Rock, and in fact should probably like it!

Turns out that posting a straddle, and playing with a The Rock, are completely different.  When I sat into a Rock game, the Rock was already there.  Unlike a straddle, I didn't contribute to those 8 chips, and won't get to keep them if I win them.  So where I should go after the extra money in a straddle, the "extra money" when The Rock is out there is just an illusion that I should NOT go after, even when the other guys do.  Hey, welcome back home, basic winning strategy #1.

Turns out also that I shouldn't even consider The Rock when counting bets to figure pot odds.  At least those were my conclusions.  What do you think?  

OK, so I got all that down, felt way better that I wouldn't be killing the game, and went back to DL, all pumped to play with The Rock.  And then, guess what.  Maybe [you saw][I should've seen] this coming?  Seems The Rock caused too many disputes over this and that, and the floor got tired of being called over for what was supposed to be a "Players Agreement," and so DL banned The Rock.

And so, just like high speed Morse Code, and "Advanced" BASIC Programming, now I have yet another obsolete skill that I'll probably never get to use again.  Oh well.