An ante is used in almost all No Limit Texas Hold’em poker tournaments. This is a mandatory bet that all players at the table must pay. Without antes, players can wait longer for good hands. The antes put more money in the pot pre-flop, making it more interesting to play. Especially in casino tournaments, antes are often used from level 4 or 5. In home games this happens much later and in some cases not even at all.
Where previously the regular situs judi online “ante” was often used, we now increasingly see the button ante or big blind ante. In the case of the big blind ante, the player on the big blind must also pay the ante. The amount of the big blind ante is equal to the amount of the big blind. If the blinds are 100/200 then the player on the big blind must put 200 big blind and also 200 ante. In the old variant, all players paid 10% of the big blind to ante.
Why a big blind ante?
Why do you think something had to change? Actually it is very simple because the old ante did have some disadvantages. For example, the dealer must ask all players to put the ante down each round. This takes a lot of time and for that reason alone it is good if one player pays the ante. What you often see happening is that players discuss who has or has not paid his ante. With a button ante or big blind ante you will never be bothered by this again.
Disadvantages of a big blind ante
There are a few drawbacks to the big blind ante. Especially for players with a smaller stack, very annoying situations can arise. You may have to pay your big blind of 10,000 at table X, but then you will lose 20,000, because you also have to pay your big blind ante. The hand after that you have to pay 5,000 for the small blind. That has a significant impact on your stack, although seen over a full round it is of course the same.
In theory it can happen that after that your table is closed and that you randomly get a new table ticket and once again on the other table you are the big blind so you have to pay 20,000 again and the hand afterwards your small blind of 5,000. So you can lose 50,000 points in 4 hands.
Another situation that can occur
If a player has too small a stack to pay his big blind or antes, he must first try to pay his ante. So paying the ante takes precedence about paying the big blind. It can happen that the hand is played without a big blind because the player cannot pay it, but cannot win. A player who can only pay the ante can therefore only win his ante.
