Antes VS One Big Blind Ante

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Acesinthebig

Acesinthebig

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casinos have adopted this format lately to reduce time it takes to collect the antis every hand. Instead of collecting an anti from every player, the big blind will have to put in a double big blind to cover every ones anti.

Should your play be adjusted in this format vs the standard format we've been using for years?
 
I've played a couple of times with big blind antes and I really like it. It speeds up the game because the dealer only has to make sure the SB and BB have the correct chips in play. It doesn't change play a whole lot, except for the fact that you get hit with the ante all at once. A common mistake is to consider the ante as part of your blind. Don't get too aggressive because you have 2BB invested in the pot already. Also, when you start getting short, don't use 2BB in calculating your stack size. For example, if your stack is 25K and the BB is 2K, you are still > 12BB. Don't include the 2K ante in your calculation and think that you only have 6BB, which would lead you to being more aggressive. Other than those, it's pretty much the same game. Everybody antes the same amount. It just isn't spread out over every hand.
 
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I like the BB ante. Faster game. There is really no difference to the way you should approce the game unless you are very short. You will want to push before the BB a big more. Other than that there is no big difference.
 
Acesinthebig said:
Does anyone play live anymore?
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Yep me 😛 like it too ....never ever does the site go down or the tournament freeze up ..... I like live much better to be honest ... it comes down to a balancing act for me if I feel like getting dressed up half respectably, and driving an hour -- hour and a half to get there and then get home, vs staying home laying around comfortably and playing more tables and hands per hour, with the fridge close by ....
 
I love the new format. If you can survive you blinds you're in good shape.
 
kowrip said:
I've played a couple of times with big blind antes and I really like it. It speeds up the game because the dealer only has to make sure the SB and BB have the correct chips in play. It doesn't change play a whole lot, except for the fact that you get hit with the ante all at once. A common mistake is to consider the ante as part of your blind. Don't get too aggressive because you have 2BB invested in the pot already. Also, when you start getting short, don't use 2BB in calculating your stack size. For example, if your stack is 25K and the BB is 2K, you are still > 12BB. Don't include the 2K ante in your calculation and think that you only have 6BB, which would lead you to being more aggressive. Other than those, it's pretty much the same game. Everybody antes the same amount. It just isn't spread out over every hand.
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Thanks for your feedback
 
Plays the same as normal ante.

Great for players!
 
Ryan Laplante said:
Plays the same as normal ante.

Great for players!
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Thanks for the input. So my question is, you don't put extra emphasis in trying to defend your BB??
 
Play is much more different with only one bb ante. I feel like players play is much tighter rather than loose because of the one bb ante. Not really sure how to adjust to this, if anyone has the answers let me know 🙂
 
Mordecoke said:
Play is much more different with only one bb ante. I feel like players play is much tighter rather than loose because of the one bb ante. Not really sure how to adjust to this, if anyone has the answers let me know 🙂
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I think this sounds right, thanks for the comment, it helps a bit to think about it like that.
 
I love the BB ante. It makes you feel like you have a few free hands to play before you have to pay up. Others are saying you stay have to pay the same, but if you're short stacked, you can pick your spot more since you have more free hands to work with.
 
I think for the most part it doesn't really make any difference. When it does make a difference that can really hurt is when you are pretty short stacked and have just gone through the blinds and you get moved tables. You get unlucky and have to go right into the BB again. That can be pretty crippling and unfair. But I guess it's just another kind of bad luck and luck is a part of poker. Another thing to find out that might influence your very short stack play is if you find yourself in a very bad situation of only having enough for the BB or the ante which one you pay first. Obviously you don't want to be in this situation, but it's good to know. If it is the BB you'll have the chance to win much more on the hand.
 
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As I play mainly online I haven't played using that structure.
In MTTs I'd imagine the BB defending much more often
Sounds interesting and would like to see new structures online once in a while
 
AKQ said:
As I play mainly online I haven't played using that structure.
In MTTs I'd imagine the BB defending much more often
Sounds interesting and would like to see new structures online once in a while
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I don't think they would ever change the online format because it doesn't take any more time for the computer to deal the cards with or without an anti. There would be a lot of blow back. The reason there would be a lot of blow back is because it DOES change the game.

If people would like to discuss ways they think it changes the game I would really welcome it. We could discuss ways to combat the new blind structure to give us an advantage. If this is a popular variation that is taking off in most major poker rooms, then some of the more elite problem solvers of the game for sure have taken a look at this and found ways to exploit it.

That is the whole game right, finding small edges and trying to exploit them.
 
My goals I have set for myself include me playing in one live event starting in January. I'm looking forward to participating in my first poker game live.

I could see the bb antie effecting the game only slightly. Already players defend with any 2 cards from the bb. I don't see that changing with the bb antie structure.
Theoretically a player in LP could widen his attacking range to put more pressure on the bb to defend tighter, although this is already happening as well, so I don't see the bb antie changing that aspect either.

I recently played vs the chip leader on my left on the final 2 tables. He had 1m in chips compared to my 199k and I was running in 5-8th place. So he had a pretty commanding chip lead.
Interestingly he limped EVERY time when he was UTG. I found this quite odd - and I also learned a betting tell on him after about 4 orbits.
Every hand he limped - which was every time he was UTG - either me or the sb took down the pot, either on the flop (fit or fold) or with the runout.
It was an interesting tactic by the chip leader, and I found it nice because it allowed me to chip up and stay competitive into the final table.
How is this relevant to bb antie - not sure - other than limping DOES force the bb to play the hand post flop - even with terrible hands. Though limping isn't optimal and - seems like a weak play - allowing the bb to see 3 free cards. Thanks chip leader. 🙂
 
I think there are some differences to the game with the BB ante structure. Depending on how you view the structure it could be good or it could be bad. On a full table it doesn't really affect the play very much because if you break it down mathematically, everyone is covering the same cost that can be equally divided between players. An example would be 200/400 with a 400 BB ante. On a full table of 10 this means that the ante in theory is supposed to be 10% of the BB per player. As players start to get knocked out this value changes and the cost of the ante goes up per player. Lets say the table only has 5 players... This means that the ante is 20% of the BB per player. The reason for this change in value? Since the BB ante is a static cost the size of the pot stays a constant 1000 per hand. If every player were to put in a 10% ante then the size of the pot would change depending on how many players there were (10 players = 1000 vs 5 players = 800).

I think the strategy here depends on the number of players at your table. On a full table you don't need to change your strategy as much. The cost of the playing doesn't change. As players start to get knocked out you must start to change your strategy slightly. I don't think there needs to be a drastic change but I do think you have more opportunities to be aggressive.
 
Not sure if there is advantage or not with this type of play. What I do know is the game goes much smoother. The dealer only has to ask one person to post the ante's.
 
Makes you wonder if the big blind ante speeds the game up how many more hands are you seeing? Plus if the big blind ante speeds the game up why don’t we just do away with the ante and charge triple big blind something like 50/150?
 
I don't care for the big blind having to ante as well as post the blind. The purpose of an ante is to encourage betting, and having the big and small blinds already accomplishes that goal.
 
wow rules, now how wide a range does the big blade have to defend?
 
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