Should I ever Button Straddle?

It's not profitable in theory.

I toss this around in my head as well.

If someone is going to straddle anyway, is it smart to take it from them and straddle the button?

When a very good & aggressive player sits down to my left, I will straddle & make him act first until I can get a seat change.

Maybe after being card dead and trying to avoid a too nitty image.

I would not straddle from anywhere but the button. If it’s a game where there’s a straddle every hand, I won’t do it. Whether you do it or not, you need to be comfortable with it happening and understand how it affects ranges.

If you are a good, aggressive player and can get action and are confident against these players post, straddling on the button is great. It can also loosen the game up.

Hello! That's a great question, as Button Straddles can really change the dynamic of a 1/2 game.

The short answer is it is generally not correct to button straddle if your only goal is to maximize profit (EV).

Here’s a quick breakdown of why and when you might still do it:

Why It's Usually Bad (GTO / EV)
Loss of Last Action Advantage: The biggest edge of being on the Button is having the last action post-flop (and often pre-flop). By straddling, you are giving up the last pre-flop action to the Big Blind, which reduces your positional advantage.

Forced Size Increase: You are unnecessarily increasing the size of the pot, which forces you to play a tighter range or make more costly mistakes with a wider range.

When It Can Be Good (Exploitative)
Creating Action and Volatility: In a soft, loose 1/2 game, straddling is a tool to put more money into the pot and force more action. If you are significantly better than the rest of the table, creating bigger pots can be beneficial because you get to leverage your skill for a larger amount.

Getting Paid Off: Players at 1/2 are often willing to call a button straddle with much weaker hands just because "the pot is big." This allows you to play a strong, tight range and get paid off when you hit.

Hiding Strong Hands: Occasionally, straddling can be used to hide the strength of your very best hands, as your range is supposed to be wider when straddling.

Unless you are explicitly trying to maximize your fun or you know for a fact that your table is extremely loose and passive, you should stick to raising normally from the Button to maintain your powerful positional edge and keep the pot size manageable.

Continuously updating thought processes and now unbothered by a good player in my SB. Not exactly sure why, but I feel comfortable moving around that position.

But a good player in my BB and I’m going to button straddle until one of us moves if it’s available. I’m not out of line saying the button straddle punishes the blinds and it’s worth a little minus EV just to do that sometimes. Not going to go wide on the button and get re-popped.

I won’t do it to induce action or really for any other reason. I respect you guys, but

I don’t think that it could be too negative EV being absolutely last to act on every street.

Annoying example:
If you straddle to make me act first from the button, I’m gonna straddle the button.

To clarify, in my room the button always has first choice. You can straddle from anywhere, but if the button decides to straddle you have to pick yours up.

Guy was playing game with me - waiting until the last second to post the straddle, so I wouldn’t cancel him. He knows I never straddle usually and he would get me sometimes.

I’m really not sure the EV
But I’m going to choose playing the button straddle myself over acting first from the button under someone else’s straddle.

Is this logical? Tell me what I don’t know

if you want to lose money, yes.
although maybe you can win some EV back, byt creating a crazy dynamic at the table, but this is meta meta