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With the BB ante format, the ante is always the size of the big blind. So, when the small blind is x and the big blind is 2x, the ante is 40 percent of the pot. Occasionally, because smaller. 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.
The argument for ‘Ante first' seems to be that the Big Blind Ante represents the Antes of everybody at the table (It just happens to be this Big Blind's turn to post them) and the only equity the player has in the hand is the 111 chips for their share of the Antes. If we are to deem the lone 1,000 chip of the player that was posted to be. Some poker rooms have a rule that over 6 players the table ante is the size of the big blind with 6-handed and under it becomes the size of a small blind. This seems like a good compromise. But there is far from being consistency from tournament director to tournament director on this point. What does this mean for Blind Valet? The big blind ante wasn't invented in 2018 but was usually only seen in high-stakes tournament play. The method of collecting the antes from every player for each hand (the old way), to only the Big Blind posting the BB and the ante. The ante would consist of a set amount like $200 or sometimes be equal to the total ante from each player on.
Please let me encourage you to reach out to me with article ideas and questions for future columns. You can tweet to me at @FossilMan, or send me a message at info@fossilmanpoker.com.
First starting to rise to prominence in the poker world in early 2018, the big blind ante (BBA) has now become the norm for most poker tours, and many local tournaments, around the world.
If the BBA is somehow new to you, know that it simply means that when it is time for antes, instead of each player posting an individual ante, the player in the big blind posts an ante for the entire table.
Big Blind Ante Strategy
For example, in a traditional ante structure, when the blinds are 400-800, it would have been typical for each player to also post an ante of 100. Before the cards are dealt, the dealer collects 100 from each player. In the BBA structure, the size of the ante is typically the same as the amount of the big blind, and is paid only by the big blind. In this case, the big blind would post 800 as the ante, and then another 800 as the big blind.
Soon after I submitted the final draft of my first book, FossilMan's Winning Tournament Strategies, to D&B Publishing, this trend towards the BBA was beginning to emerge and grow. Before we got to publication, I told them to wait a bit, and drafted a new, additional chapter, focusing on the BBA and how to adjust for it. I want to give you a summary of that chapter now.
The first thing to keep in mind, when you are the big blind, and post both the BBA and the big blind, is that there is nothing different you should do as compared to the traditional ante structure. The fact that the BBA came from your stack does not mean you should defend your blind more often, or with a wider range of hands.
Once money is in the pot, it does not matter where it came from. The reason it is correct to play a wider range of hands from the big blind than from early position is not because the big blind is your money. It is for other reasons, chief among them because you can call a raise for less than other players. If you post the 800 big blind, and somebody raises to 2,000, it costs other players 2,000 to call, but only costs you 1,200.
Another key factor is that frequently you are closing the action when you call a raise. If the player in first position raises to 2,000, somebody in middle position not only has to call 2,000, but must risk a reraise from another player. When action gets to you, you can call and see a flop with no such risk. Neither of these factors takes into account where the chips came from. So, the good news is, you really don't need to adjust anything at all when playing in a BBA structure.
There is one area where you will want to make some rather large adjustments, however. This happens when you become very short-stacked. With blinds still at 400-800, in a traditional structure, if I were to find myself under-the-gun and only had 1,200 chips, I would still fold my worst hands. In this case, rather than go all-in now with a weak hand, I will fold, knowing I will never fold my next hand, no matter how bad.
In the BBA structure, this would be a huge mistake. If I fold now, next hand I will have to post 400 as the (short) ante, and 800 as the big blind, and I will be all-in at that point. In some rooms, the ante comes first, so I would post 800 as the BBA, and be all-in for 400 in the big blind. In either case, if I win the pot, other players will only lose the amount of chips that are posted for my blind. They won't have to match the ante I also posted. Even if I were in better shape, and starting the hand with 3,000 chips, once I post 800 as an ante, and another 800 as the big blind, I am probably never going to fold my hand. But again, this means when I win, I only win 2,200 from the losing players, and don't get matching chips for the 800 I paid as an ante.
Because of this, in the BBA structure, if you are severely short-stacked, you should always go all-in at some point before being the big blind. And for any given number of blinds, the minimum hand with which it is correct to go all-in is much weaker in the BBA structure than in a traditional ante structure. If you are under-the-gun with seven big blinds in a traditional ante structure, you should still fold some hands. Yet it will probably be correct to go all-in with any hand in this situation playing the BBA structure.
Without a doubt, the BBA is here to stay, and will likely become the only structure used for any tournament that has antes. So, learn to enjoy its benefits, and ignore anything about it you don't like. And learn some new strategies for which hands to shove when short-stacked, and when you should still wait for better. But for the most part, there is no need to adjust your game for this format. ♠
Greg Raymer is the 2004 World Series of Poker main event champion, winner of numerous major titles, and has more than $7 million in earnings. He recently authored FossilMan's Winning Tournament Strategies, available from D&B Publishing, Amazon, and other retailers. He is sponsored by Blue Shark Optics, YouStake, and ShareMyPair. To contact Greg please tweet @FossilMan or visit his website.
In an effort to speed up the game, poker tournaments are experimenting with a tweaked process for posting antes called the 'Big Blind Ante.'
In Big Blind Ante games, instead of each player posting an ante at the beginning of a hand, the BB antes for the entire table.
So far, players overwhelmingly like the big blind ante format. Not only does it speed up the game, it also eliminates the need to keep small denomination chips in play past their usefulness.
But not everything is peachy keen with the new structure.
A debate over what comes first, the ante or the blind bets players are required to post at the start of each hand, has overtaken Poker Twitter.
The debate almost exclusively involves high-stakes poker players and tournament directors, with the two sides arguing player preference vs. fairness.
With the BB ante format, the ante is always the size of the big blind. So, when the small blind is x and the big blind is 2x, the ante is 40 percent of the pot. Occasionally, because smaller. 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.
The argument for ‘Ante first' seems to be that the Big Blind Ante represents the Antes of everybody at the table (It just happens to be this Big Blind's turn to post them) and the only equity the player has in the hand is the 111 chips for their share of the Antes. If we are to deem the lone 1,000 chip of the player that was posted to be. Some poker rooms have a rule that over 6 players the table ante is the size of the big blind with 6-handed and under it becomes the size of a small blind. This seems like a good compromise. But there is far from being consistency from tournament director to tournament director on this point. What does this mean for Blind Valet? The big blind ante wasn't invented in 2018 but was usually only seen in high-stakes tournament play. The method of collecting the antes from every player for each hand (the old way), to only the Big Blind posting the BB and the ante. The ante would consist of a set amount like $200 or sometimes be equal to the total ante from each player on.
Please let me encourage you to reach out to me with article ideas and questions for future columns. You can tweet to me at @FossilMan, or send me a message at info@fossilmanpoker.com.
First starting to rise to prominence in the poker world in early 2018, the big blind ante (BBA) has now become the norm for most poker tours, and many local tournaments, around the world.
If the BBA is somehow new to you, know that it simply means that when it is time for antes, instead of each player posting an individual ante, the player in the big blind posts an ante for the entire table.
Big Blind Ante Strategy
For example, in a traditional ante structure, when the blinds are 400-800, it would have been typical for each player to also post an ante of 100. Before the cards are dealt, the dealer collects 100 from each player. In the BBA structure, the size of the ante is typically the same as the amount of the big blind, and is paid only by the big blind. In this case, the big blind would post 800 as the ante, and then another 800 as the big blind.
Soon after I submitted the final draft of my first book, FossilMan's Winning Tournament Strategies, to D&B Publishing, this trend towards the BBA was beginning to emerge and grow. Before we got to publication, I told them to wait a bit, and drafted a new, additional chapter, focusing on the BBA and how to adjust for it. I want to give you a summary of that chapter now.
The first thing to keep in mind, when you are the big blind, and post both the BBA and the big blind, is that there is nothing different you should do as compared to the traditional ante structure. The fact that the BBA came from your stack does not mean you should defend your blind more often, or with a wider range of hands.
Once money is in the pot, it does not matter where it came from. The reason it is correct to play a wider range of hands from the big blind than from early position is not because the big blind is your money. It is for other reasons, chief among them because you can call a raise for less than other players. If you post the 800 big blind, and somebody raises to 2,000, it costs other players 2,000 to call, but only costs you 1,200.
Another key factor is that frequently you are closing the action when you call a raise. If the player in first position raises to 2,000, somebody in middle position not only has to call 2,000, but must risk a reraise from another player. When action gets to you, you can call and see a flop with no such risk. Neither of these factors takes into account where the chips came from. So, the good news is, you really don't need to adjust anything at all when playing in a BBA structure.
There is one area where you will want to make some rather large adjustments, however. This happens when you become very short-stacked. With blinds still at 400-800, in a traditional structure, if I were to find myself under-the-gun and only had 1,200 chips, I would still fold my worst hands. In this case, rather than go all-in now with a weak hand, I will fold, knowing I will never fold my next hand, no matter how bad.
In the BBA structure, this would be a huge mistake. If I fold now, next hand I will have to post 400 as the (short) ante, and 800 as the big blind, and I will be all-in at that point. In some rooms, the ante comes first, so I would post 800 as the BBA, and be all-in for 400 in the big blind. In either case, if I win the pot, other players will only lose the amount of chips that are posted for my blind. They won't have to match the ante I also posted. Even if I were in better shape, and starting the hand with 3,000 chips, once I post 800 as an ante, and another 800 as the big blind, I am probably never going to fold my hand. But again, this means when I win, I only win 2,200 from the losing players, and don't get matching chips for the 800 I paid as an ante.
Because of this, in the BBA structure, if you are severely short-stacked, you should always go all-in at some point before being the big blind. And for any given number of blinds, the minimum hand with which it is correct to go all-in is much weaker in the BBA structure than in a traditional ante structure. If you are under-the-gun with seven big blinds in a traditional ante structure, you should still fold some hands. Yet it will probably be correct to go all-in with any hand in this situation playing the BBA structure.
Without a doubt, the BBA is here to stay, and will likely become the only structure used for any tournament that has antes. So, learn to enjoy its benefits, and ignore anything about it you don't like. And learn some new strategies for which hands to shove when short-stacked, and when you should still wait for better. But for the most part, there is no need to adjust your game for this format. ♠
Greg Raymer is the 2004 World Series of Poker main event champion, winner of numerous major titles, and has more than $7 million in earnings. He recently authored FossilMan's Winning Tournament Strategies, available from D&B Publishing, Amazon, and other retailers. He is sponsored by Blue Shark Optics, YouStake, and ShareMyPair. To contact Greg please tweet @FossilMan or visit his website.
In an effort to speed up the game, poker tournaments are experimenting with a tweaked process for posting antes called the 'Big Blind Ante.'
In Big Blind Ante games, instead of each player posting an ante at the beginning of a hand, the BB antes for the entire table.
So far, players overwhelmingly like the big blind ante format. Not only does it speed up the game, it also eliminates the need to keep small denomination chips in play past their usefulness.
But not everything is peachy keen with the new structure.
A debate over what comes first, the ante or the blind bets players are required to post at the start of each hand, has overtaken Poker Twitter.
The debate almost exclusively involves high-stakes poker players and tournament directors, with the two sides arguing player preference vs. fairness.
The two sides of the debate
Poker players are focused on what players would prefer, citing the disappointment an extremely short-stacked player would feel if they were only capable of winning their chips back (the antes) in an all-in situation.
Tournament directors are more interested in changing the long-established norm of antes being posted before the blinds, and whether or not doing the opposite is 'fair' to everyone.
The conversation is mainly centered around a situation where a player is extremely short-stacked, and the two radically different outcomes that ante-first or big-blind-first create:
Ante 1st scenario. pic.twitter.com/scZaRLqDnm
— Willie Elliot (@Willie_Hmmm) March 18, 2018
BB 1st scenario. pic.twitter.com/sGpW0ZJHaL
Big Blind Ante Tournament
— Willie Elliot (@Willie_Hmmm) March 18, 2018
Considering the infrequency and insignificance of the scenario, it may seem trivial. However, there is an important component to this conversation most people are overlooking: game integrity.
Game integrity
In the BB ante format, the big blind is posting the antes for the entire table. That means that each player at the table owes that player a single ante, and the debt is paid when they are in the big blind and pay the antes for the table.
Steve Badger did a good job explaining one scenario where game integrity could be compromised if the ante is considered before the big blind on Twitter:
And it's not simply a potential issue in unlikely end-of-game scenarios.
Imagine the same all-in situation only it's the first-hand of a nine-handed single-table-tournament, where each player starts with 100 chips, and there is a two-chip small blind, a four-chip big blind, and a one-chip ante.
On the first hand, each player should have an equal number of chips, but that's not the case. The big blind is short eight chips that have been 'lent' to the other players at the table. In an all-in situation, the big blind is unduly penalized, since they can't win any other player's entire stack.
Further, if the BB is eliminated they would never have an opportunity to recoup the chips they are still owed.
If the BB calls an all-in their effective stack is 91 chips (4 chips from the blind and 87 remaining in their stack). On the flip side, the other players are playing a stack of 100 chips. The under-the-gun player can win 102 chips — the 15 chips in the pot plus 87 chips from their opponent — leaving the losing player with nine chips.
Now fast forward a few hands. Suppose the losing player was the small blind and is now the big blind. In an ante-first scenario they would first have to obligate their debts to the other players and would only be able to win the nine chips they ante. In the BB-first scenario they would be eligible to win the blinds, four chips from any player who calls, and the partial five-chip ante they posted.
- Ante-first with three callers: All-in player wins 9 chips.
- BB-first with three callers: All-in player wins 23 chips.
Yes, this is great for the short-stack, but how should the original BB feel about this player that should have been eliminated now sitting on 23 chips and only partially paying their antes? In practice this player shorting the antes means they managed to avoid paying antes for four of the ninee hands that were played.
In no other part of the casino would this be allowed to happen. If you can't cover the main bet on a table game you're not allowed to put money on the jackpot bet.
Considering the lending component and the possibility of unfairness, I don't know if big blind before ante would stand up to regulatory scrutiny, and if a gaming commission really wanted to be a stickler, the lending element of the BB ante format could also be disallowed – although I doubt a gaming commission would go that far.
The problem with fixing problems
What was implemented as a way to speed up the ante process has somehow turned into a debate over what's more friendly for recreational players.
The big blind before antes side isn't making the case from a game mechanic standpoint, in fact, the only logic for it is that it makes the short-stacked player feel better, hence it's believed to be player-friendly and good for the game.
That may be true, and this issue may be inconsequential enough to not matter from a game integrity standpoint (although I'm not convinced it is), but that doesn't make the 'we don't want a player to feel bad' argument a good one.
It seems to me they shouldn't be given any extra advantage just because they can't afford to pay what they are due to the pot.
— Willie Elliot (@Willie_Hmmm) March 18, 2018
Key takeaway #1
Even if 'big blind first' is the best practice for players, it might not pass muster with gaming commissions, and we need to consider all of the different scenarios where a player may be able to game the system in some way.
Big Blind Ante Meaning
Eliminating the requirement that new players post a blind or wait for the blind would also be 'player-friendly,' but that rule is in place for a reason – people have found ways to take advantage of it and/or it's simply unfair to the other players.
Key takeaway #2
In the grand scheme of things, none of this will likely matter. It looks like the BB ante structure is here to stay, and tournament directors and players will eventually hash out the chicken or the egg part of it with consideration given to player-friendliness and game fairness.
But to pretend this is just a matter of preference is wrong. There is a legitimate game integrity and fairness concern.
