In poker, straddling refers to the act of holding two or more cards that are not in hand. When straddling, it is important to keep in mind how much equity (percentage of the pot) you have on each side of the table.
Equity is the total value of all the cards in your hand and all the cards that are currently in the pot.
There are a few factors to take into account when straddling in poker: how many opponents you are up against, how much money is in the pot, and what type of hand you are trying to create. For example, if you are playing heads-up against one opponent and there is $10 in the pot, you would have 60 percent equity (10 − 5 = 5).
If you were playing against two opponents and there was $20 in the pot, you would have 40 percent equity (20 − 10 = 10).
As a general rule of thumb, it is best to hold two cards that aren’t in your hand if you have at least 60 percent equity on each side of the table. However, this doesn’t always work out perfectly.
Sometimes you might not be able to improve your hand enough to make a good call, or your opponents might have better hands. In these cases, it might be better to fold rather than risk having your entire stack go down because you couldn’t get a better deal.
