Straddled pots after the flop

How the bigger preflop pots of straddled games lower the SPR, and what that means for commitment, draws and multiway play.

Rail analyses one straddle only: a single 2bb straddle from the seat left of the big blind, 4-6 handed, near 100bb. Other straddled pots are taught in words.

Approximate: the ranges here are hand-written teaching ranges or rest on Rail's narrowing model, not on a solve of the whole hand. The direction is what to take away.

In this lesson

Work out the SPR in a straddled pot.
Commit with top pair and overpairs more often at a lower SPR.
Explain why draws lose implied odds when the stacks are short next to the pot.
Plan multiway straddled pots with commitment in mind.

Read first: Straddles before the flop, Stack-to-pot ratio and commitment · Advice, not a lock: every lesson opens.

Concepts used: SPR and commitment, Multiway pots

Pots get big before the flop

A straddled pot is big before the flop starts. An open to 6 bb called by the straddler and one more player puts 6 × 3 + 0.5 + 1 = 19.5 bb in the middle with 94 bb behind: an SPR of 4.82. That is the SPR of a 3-bet pot, reached without a 3-bet.

Pot19.5 bb

Effective stack94 bb

Streets to bet3 streets

SPR: 4.8
Geometric bet each street: 60% of the pot · 11.7 bb
Called pot-sized bets the stacks hold: 2.2

A straddled flop: 19.5 bb in the pot, 94 bb behind.

Commitment at a low SPR

At an SPR near 5, three bets of about 60% of the pot each get the stacks in by the river; two streets need bets of about 113%. A top pair with a good kicker or an overpair plans to get the money in, because folding it later wastes the pot it built. Implied odds shrink: with so little behind, a draw wins little more when it hits than the pot already offers.

Draws, and more players

More callers before the flop mean more multiway flops. A bluff into two players who each fold half the time succeeds 0.5 × 0.5 = 25% of the time, and a bet into two has to be defended by both: the multiway lessons (F5) price it. The river drills here use 3-bet pots, the nearest SPR Rail solves.

Rail does not analyse straddled pots. The drills deal 3-bet-pot rivers, whose SPR is close; their ranges come from the charts, narrowed by Rail's heuristic model.

Rules of thumb

Count the SPR on every straddled flop; it is often a 3-bet pot's.
At SPR near 5, top pair and overpairs plan to get the stacks in.
Draws lose implied odds when little is behind.

When they break

Deep straddled games keep a higher SPR: count, do not assume.
Multiway, top pair is weaker: commit less readily into two players.

Example hands

Examples come from two places only: your own analysed hands in this lesson's spots, and a hand Rail deals and grades itself. Never a hand from outside Rail.

A hand Rail deals

Rail scripts this hand from the lesson's own practice, always the same one, and grades it with the analysis. Decide first, then read Rail's verdict.

Practice

The lesson is mastered when every exercise below that Rail can grade is passed. Missed items come back later as review cards.

Exercise 1

Pass: 5 of 6 right

Six SPRs to work out from a pot and the stacks behind.

Exercise 2

Pass: 2 of 3 right

Three 3-bet-pot rivers, the nearest SPR Rail solves, graded by Rail's river solve.