Big Blind Ante Poker Tournament
One of the recent trends in online poker is the introduction of No Limit Hold’em cash games with an Ante. Major sites such as FullTilt, UB (formerly UltimateBet), and Absolute Poker have added these games to their lobby looking to attract more players. Ante games tend to bring more action and create bigger pots, which is great for those looking for some instant excitement.
Ante games tend to bring more action and create bigger pots, which is great for those looking for some instant excitement. Those who learned the game by playing live (casino) poker might already be familiar with antes. For those who are unfamiliar with antes they are another forced bet before the flop typically 20-25% the size of the Big Blind. The big blind ante format is being used for the first time ever at the World Series of Poker in 2018. The $100,000 no-limit super high roller will go down in history as the first WSOP event to. This tournament is in Big Blind Ante Format. The Big Blind will be responsible for the payment of the ante wager. The big blind is paid before the ante. Apr 28, 2018 The Wynn Rep did state that his tourneys are taking the same amount of time, conventional or big blind ante. 'Action' definitely slows things down in the sense that you get fewer hands/hr. Of course, if one is part of the 'action' it may not feel like things are slowing down. Perhaps the exact opposite.
Those who learned the game by playing live (casino) poker might already be familiar with antes. For those who are unfamiliar with antes they are another forced bet before the flop typically 20-25% the size of the Big Blind. Before each hand is dealt players will “ante up”, creating a pot prior to the start of the hand. In some live games, players ante up just once each round when they are on the button. In this case, players will ante a much larger amount, but only have to do it once every orbit.
Understanding how the ante affects the game will go a long way in adjusting your strategy for ante games. First of all, the use of the ante automatically creates a larger pot before the flop. This “dead money” in the middle attracts a lot of action as players fight over the blinds and the antes pre flop. The simple fact is ante games play looser than non-ante games, which can be both beneficial for tight and loose players.
For loose players, ante games are great because they are already used to raising and re-raising pre flop. Because of this, the antes are an added bonus they earn every time they take down a pot. Most successful loose players (called LAGs) are great at playing a wide variety of hands from later position while remaining relatively tight from earlier position. This is a great strategy for ante games because it allows them to continue to win a lot of pots all the while still being successful in the overall game. The last thing you want to do is spend your entire stack going after a few extra bucks. Finally, loose players are used to being loose. This might seem obvious but LAGs are used to marginal situations holding mediocre hands while TAG (tighter players) will be uncomfortable having to play more hands.
Tighter players can still remain profitable in ante games. Most of these players make their money by sitting back and waiting on strong hands. While this may not seem like a great idea because of the antes whittling down their stacks, remember this is a cash game, not a tournament. Even though their stacks might take a small hit each hand, the TAGs can reload their chips in between deals, thus allowing them to gain maximum value when they happen to catch a hand. Because these games play much looser, the TAGs should be able to get paid nicely when they happen to connect. Also, as the pots are bigger before the flop, they can easily become out of control post flop, which is great for those who are generally holding premium hands.
You might be asking yourself which strategy is correct? The answer is not so simple. The best advice is to continue to play your normal game and adjust accordingly. If you find the ante games are very loose and/or aggressive then tightening up and waiting for a strong hand can pay great dividends. If your table seems to be tight and unwilling to gamble, then loosening up pre-flop can result in winning a lot of additional smaller pots which ultimately add up to a big score. The main thing to remember is the ante games are still poker; you should always be trying to make the best available play by breaking down your options along with your opponents actions.
In the first two parts of our series on what makes the perfect poker tournament, we spoke to five top poker professionals about how many players should sit at a standard poker table and which tournament format the game should take.
This time, we’re speaking to Unibet Poker’s Dara O’Kearney, 888Poker’s Dominik Nitsche, Team PokerStars Pro Igor Kurganov, Winamax's Adrian Mateos, and Niall Farrell about one of the newest innovations in the game - the changing face of the ante. Should the regular ‘everyone pays’ ante be preserved, or should the button ante or big blind ante take over, and if so, which one? Let’s find out.
The Future of the Ante in Poker Tournaments
Farrell: As we go forward, we should be constantly progressing to make it as close as possible to a perfect poker experience. Things take a little while and there are a lot of people who are afraid of change.
Farrell: “The reason people play poker is they want to sit down and see some flops, they want to play some hands.”
Is the poker ante - an additional amount of chips that each player adds each hand to get the action going - an area where change could come quicker than even we might have imagined? This year, we’ve seen big blind or button ante tournaments sprout up everywhere. Unibet Poker’s Dara O’ Kearney believes that it’s an inevitable progression from an outdated system.
O’Kearney: I think there are some small problems with button ante and big blind ante, but what you gain in terms of the speed and the dealer not having to chase people for antes all the time, more than compensates. I feel like the traditional ante is just going to disappear over the next year or two and big blind ante or button ante will take over.
Kurganov: In live tournaments, the regular ante is bad. Too much time is wasted, it’s big blind or button ante.
Farrell: At the World Series, you have inexperienced dealers and you’re playing a 10-handed $1k with a lot of recreational players. People are on their phones forgetting to ante.
You play so many more hands with one person paying the ante. Anything that speeds up the game is just a far superior system, it cuts out so much shit like people arguing over who paid their ante. The reason people play poker is they want to sit down and see some flops, they want to play some hands.
Mateos: I played three years ago in London when everyone had to ante, and it was strange for me. It was the last tournament I played without it being big blind ante because they have tournament antes like this these days. It was really strange, and I can’t think why we played like this for many years.
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Play NowIf the regular ante is so outdated, which should replace it, big blind ante or button ante? There are merits to both systems, and players remain divided on which one is best.
Kurganov: “So what? You have to make adjustments. What’s bad about that? Screw that, deal with a new environment.”
O’Kearney: If I had to put my money on either one of them right now, I’d say big blind ante would be the one that’ll win out.
Let’s say you’ve just been crippled and don’t have enough to pay a full ante and you’re on the button. With the button ante, you’ve obviously all-in and if you bust, that’s fine from a procedural point of view, but I think people have a hard time accepting that’s all they can win back.
Some tournaments follow a rule where the ante is posted first, then the big blinds. With others, it's blind first. If it’s blinds first, then you can end up tripling up or quadrupling up depending on the number of players in. That makes for a better recreational experience. Big blind ante where blinds are posted first then the ante just seems fairer. I feel like long term, that’s the best solution and hopefully, the one that’ll catch on.
Kurganov: Both have been tried. It seems like the downside of big blind ante is only the perceptual difference that they now have to pay double. The slight adjustments that you have to make are under-the-gun or UTG+1. So what? You have to make adjustments. What’s bad about that? Screw that, deal with a new environment. It’s actually good. People cannot just use their pre-earned ranges which is an advantage to have against players who haven’t done that.
Farrell: I think big blind ante is much better than a button blind ante. You never have a dead big blind but you can have a dead button, that’s reason enough make it the big blind. It’s much quicker, much smoother for everyone, it’s a massive net positive on the game.
Anything that keeps the game going smoothly by default makes it a better experience; everyone’s in a better mood. 8-handed with no-one having to ante all the time [makes] the game much more enjoyable. It all stems from there as an overall much nicer experience. Playing an eight-handed Aria event with a one-person ante, for example; there’s lots of room, the game flows. If you make it a nicer, more fun thing to do, more people will do it.
Big Blind Ante Poker Tournaments
No system is perfect, and it would seem that the button ante game model has more issues than paying a big blind ante.
Nitsche: “Why would you ever act quickly in the small blind if you could make the blinds go up on your button?”
Mateos: Big Blind ante is better than button ante because only two people need to put money in. You want to speed it up, and it’s better to have two people pay rather than three. Button ante has one big problem, that is when player busts. Sometimes, the button is dead and that’s a big problem because you have a hand with no ante and it changes the dynamics. It’s a big mistake; big blind ante is much better.”
Nitsche: I'm fine with big blind ante. I still have concerns that people use it to ‘angle’ as well as waste time. Why would you ever act quickly in the small blind if you could make the blinds go up on your button? If enough people do this, then big blind ante is suddenly slower than regular ante. It also creates unfair situations on final tables where people could really abuse blind jumps to make the blinds go up on short stacked opponents.
Kurganov: The downside of a button ante is having no ante in the hand when someone busts. It’s really odd and the button is then like an empty seat. That’s a bigger downside I think rather than the big blind having to play twice, which is fair on everyone. Yeah, the button ante is also fair in that there is no ante, but that doesn’t emulate the idea of shortening the anteing-in process. That’s the initial idea of shortening the process of posting the ante, the big blind or button ante, of keeping alive the system that a full ante exists every hand. The button ante doesn’t achieve that and is therefore wrong.
Igor Kurganov’s passion on this subject extends to a slight tweak for final table play, something only he mentioned among our poker luminaries.
Kurganov: Regarding what size it should be, I don’t think you should have a full big blind ante in heads-up, three-handed or four-handed game, because it’s to emulate the otherwise-existing ante-per-player and that would be smaller, so we should just half it in those spots. I think it’s about keeping the idea alive and making it very doable. I’d only cut it down to half-ante at the final table, not two or three tables left, as that becomes very weird.”
VERDICT: Button or big blind antes seem destined to take over from the traditional ante that has been around for so long. The big blind ante is likely to win out over the button ante, purely for the flow to the game of poker it helps to maintain. But the pros still have some concerns, with both the button ante and the big blind ante.
Big Blind Ante Poker Tournament Payout
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Dominik NitscheIgor KurganovAdrian MateosNiall FarrellDara O'KearneyRelated Players
Dominik NitscheIgor KurganovNiall FarrellAdrian Mateos