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Straddles, kills, and overs are related because they affect the structure and limit of the game you're playing. When you take a seat in a $3-$6 or a $l-$4-$8-$8 game, you know what the limits are, and you have an idea of how much it would cost to play each hand to its conclusion. You therefore also know what an appropriate buy-in is for that game.
Playing the overs or playing with a straddle or a kill increases the limits. All of these plays require you to invest more money in the hand than you might originally have intended to when you sat down in the game. That in turn means that you might be busted out of the game before you realize it. Let's look at each one of these subjects separately.
Playing With A Straddle
A straddle is when the player to the immediate left of the big blind raises in the dark (before he gets his cards). In most cardrooms, this blind raise does not count toward the maximum raise limit, so, if your card-room has a three raise limit, you'll be playing with a bet and four raises if there's a straddle. With one possible exception, you should never straddle the pot yourself. Take a minute here to see if you can think of what that exception might be.
Got it yet? This is one instance where it's useful to think outside the game. The one time you should straddle concerns your image. If you're in a game full of loose, wild players who are playing and straddling almost every hand, you should also straddle the blind once in a while. You don't want to stand out as a tight, conservative, no-action rock, especially in light of all that action going on around you.
The one extra bet that it costs you to straddle is really more of an investment than an actual bet. If you get into the spirit of the game and appear to be one of the loose players, the pots that you win in the future will have more bets in them, on average, than they would if the other players perceived you as a too-tight player.
If you've decided you're going to straddle, the most important thing you need to know is: do it as soon as you can after you've made the decision. You only have to do it once or twice so that the other players can see it and think that you're just playing for fun. The earlier in the game that you straddle a hand or two, the more time there will be for you to take advantage of your looser image.
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Since, as you can see, all you need is an ace in your hand to win the jackpot, many players will play every time they have an ace for that reason. A jackpot gets hit this way only once in about 12,500 hands, so you'll have to know the size of your jackpot and decide for yourself if it's worth it.
This calculation also assumes that you're the one to hit the jackpot. Consider this question: "Is the jackpot big enough to make up for all those ace hands that I lose with while I'm trying to hit it?"
It's impossible to answer this question precisely, because there are so many variables that cannot be quantified. My advice is that you don't play aces solely for the jackpot unless all three of these conditions are met:
1. The jackpot is over $ 15,000.
2. You're playing at a full table.
3. You are a solid, experienced player.
See Chapter 20 for a more detailed explanation.
I can tell you that in all the years I've been playing hold 'em, I've been a winner in a jackpot hand three times. The first time, I held A*AV, made four aces, and beat a player who made four kings while holding K*K*. The other two times I held AVKY and A*Q>, respectively, when three more aces came on the board, and the other player had a big pocket pair. Holding a single ace has helped me win a jackpot only twice in twenty years, and I think my experience is typical.
My personal philosophy regarding aces and jackpots is to forget completely that the two are related. I play my cards based on their poker value, and I don't worry about the jackpot. I've never thrown away a hand like A47£ that would have won the jackpot if I'd played it. Let the jackpot take care of itself; devote your mental energy to the more profitable aspects of the game.
Nothing in this short chapter was exceedingly difficult to learn. I just want you to think about those hands that have an ace in them.
Your assignment, therefore, is to make a list of those hands with an ace that you used to play but, after reading this chapter, have now decided not to play. Every time you throw away one of these hands before the flop, record the outcome of the hand. All you want to know is whether you would have won the hand. I'm betting that most of the time the answer will be "No."
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