Big Blind Ante Poker Tournament

There is a revolution taking place in tournament poker right now in the form of the big blind ante. Started by players in ARIA High Roller events, the concept has expanded to the world's largest brands and tournaments. The debate on how to best implement the big blind ante has been a major discussion among the poker community on social media. Change doesn't come easy in the poker world and the big blind ante has stirred up a whole bowl of it.

What exactly does the big blind ante do?

See full list on advancedpokertraining.com. At a full-ring table, the antes juice the pot by about one big blind. Combine this with the relatively small raise sizes (2x-2.5x) used by tournament players and it becomes clear why the big blind can profitably defend with a wide range.

Have you ever been at a table where there are a few players who need a reminder every hand to put their ante in? The big blind ante solves that issue. Usually tied to the size of the big blind (ex. 2,000/4,000/4,000), the big blind antes for the everyone at the table each hand. The math of the game remains nearly the same.

There are a few small improvements in gameplay the big blind ante solves. Gone are the pesky T25 chips in starting stacks. Instead, players start with levels of 100/100/100 rather than 25/50.

The big blind ante has empirical data showing there are more hands played as a result of the format. Players across all buy-in levels enjoy it as well. Eventually, positie player feedback in High Rollers led to ARIA introducing it into $240 daily events.

Where is the big blind ante in use?

Tournaments using the big blind ante are found across America. ARIA was the first to use the format in 2017 and it has spread since then. The Wynn Poker Room introduced big blind ante across all of its events in 2018 to rave reviews from players.

BB ante tournaments = sliced bread ????. Thank you @WynnPoker for implementing this great format. It speeds up the game quite a bit and makes the dealer's job easier.

— David Paredes (@gaucho2121) March 4, 2018

Decided to fire the @WynnPoker $600 250k… BB ante is so damn sexy good job as always Wynn

— wretchy (@Wretchy) February 27, 2018

The largest study of the format came in California at the L.A. Poker Classic. A field of close to 4,000 entrants used the big blind in the $350 buy-in opening event. World Poker Tour Executive Director Matt Savage found recreational players taking to the format upon putting it into play at LAPC.

Savage announced last month the WPT will be using the big blind ante in all Main Tour events come Season XVII.

The Borgata is utilizing the format for all of the Spring Poker Open in April. Seminole Hard Rock is following suit for a few events for their Showdown series next month.

Come this summer, The Venetian is putting the big blind ante into use for 16 tournaments in the DeepStack Extravaganza series from $400 single-day events all the way up to $5,000 buy-ins.

What is the controversy?

Daniel Negreanu made headlines last week over his adamant debate over a facet of the big blind ante structure. A veteran of ARIA High Rollers, Negreanu argues that the 'big blind first' rule is best for players of the recreational and professional level.

'Big blind first' means that if a player is a all-in for up to or less than a covering stack when in the big blind, they are eligible to win their amount of chips multiplied by the number of players at the table.

When a player doesn't have enough to cover the ante and BB the BB is paid first. So if he owes 8k BB 8k Ante but only has 2k. He posts 2k as a BB and there is no ante. He wins 2k x # of players

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) January 16, 2018

'Ante first' in the same situation prevents a big blind from being posted and a player can only win back the chips they are all-in for, thus having zero additional equity in the hand.

Savage is a proponent of 'ante first' and plans to use that definition of a rare all-in situation for the WPT.

Because you win the entire ante when not in the BB plus chips you have x players in the pot, cannot have it both ways @DBuzgon@TabDuchateauhttps://t.co/gp67dhcFXi

— Matt Savage (@SavagePoker) March 16, 2018

The debate among Savage, Negreanu, and the poker community at large has netted out to a common denominator: the big blind ante is a popular choice among players.

Olivier Busquet summed up the argument for using big blind ante best when comparing to the current style of all players anteing.

If you're unsure about the bb ante, imagine that bb ante were the status quo and the discussion were to change it to the current system. It would be absurd – break the ante up into small pieces and force each player every hand to do it?? This helps show status quo bias.

— Olivier Busquet (@olivierbusquet) March 16, 2018

Where does the trend go from here?

The big blind ante is popular across high roller events and is going to be in use at the Super High Roller Bowl and Big One for One Drop this summer. One Drop is the only World Series of Poker event to adopt the big blind ante so far but that should change come 2019.

The WSOP Circuit is tinkering with use in events and the growing popularity among players might be too much to pass up.

More venues and series are making the big blind ante the rule. SugarHouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is using the concept in a $150 tournament next month.

$100,000 Guaranteed.
$150 Buy In#BBANTE

April 8th – April 15th https://t.co/5RG45z73qipic.twitter.com/UpTkaOgL8d

— SugarHouse Poker (@sugarhousepoker) March 16, 2018

It's only a matter of time before the days of every player putting in an ante is a thing of the past.

Lead image courtesy of World Poker Tour/Flickr

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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If 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. Casino tropez no deposit bonus code. 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.

Texas holdem online 888. No system is perfect, and it would seem that the button ante game model has more issues than paying a big blind ante.

Big Blind Ante Poker Tournament 2019

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.

See full list on advancedpokertraining.com. At a full-ring table, the antes juice the pot by about one big blind. Combine this with the relatively small raise sizes (2x-2.5x) used by tournament players and it becomes clear why the big blind can profitably defend with a wide range.

Have you ever been at a table where there are a few players who need a reminder every hand to put their ante in? The big blind ante solves that issue. Usually tied to the size of the big blind (ex. 2,000/4,000/4,000), the big blind antes for the everyone at the table each hand. The math of the game remains nearly the same.

There are a few small improvements in gameplay the big blind ante solves. Gone are the pesky T25 chips in starting stacks. Instead, players start with levels of 100/100/100 rather than 25/50.

The big blind ante has empirical data showing there are more hands played as a result of the format. Players across all buy-in levels enjoy it as well. Eventually, positie player feedback in High Rollers led to ARIA introducing it into $240 daily events.

Where is the big blind ante in use?

Tournaments using the big blind ante are found across America. ARIA was the first to use the format in 2017 and it has spread since then. The Wynn Poker Room introduced big blind ante across all of its events in 2018 to rave reviews from players.

BB ante tournaments = sliced bread ????. Thank you @WynnPoker for implementing this great format. It speeds up the game quite a bit and makes the dealer's job easier.

— David Paredes (@gaucho2121) March 4, 2018

Decided to fire the @WynnPoker $600 250k… BB ante is so damn sexy good job as always Wynn

— wretchy (@Wretchy) February 27, 2018

The largest study of the format came in California at the L.A. Poker Classic. A field of close to 4,000 entrants used the big blind in the $350 buy-in opening event. World Poker Tour Executive Director Matt Savage found recreational players taking to the format upon putting it into play at LAPC.

Savage announced last month the WPT will be using the big blind ante in all Main Tour events come Season XVII.

The Borgata is utilizing the format for all of the Spring Poker Open in April. Seminole Hard Rock is following suit for a few events for their Showdown series next month.

Come this summer, The Venetian is putting the big blind ante into use for 16 tournaments in the DeepStack Extravaganza series from $400 single-day events all the way up to $5,000 buy-ins.

What is the controversy?

Daniel Negreanu made headlines last week over his adamant debate over a facet of the big blind ante structure. A veteran of ARIA High Rollers, Negreanu argues that the 'big blind first' rule is best for players of the recreational and professional level.

'Big blind first' means that if a player is a all-in for up to or less than a covering stack when in the big blind, they are eligible to win their amount of chips multiplied by the number of players at the table.

When a player doesn't have enough to cover the ante and BB the BB is paid first. So if he owes 8k BB 8k Ante but only has 2k. He posts 2k as a BB and there is no ante. He wins 2k x # of players

— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) January 16, 2018

'Ante first' in the same situation prevents a big blind from being posted and a player can only win back the chips they are all-in for, thus having zero additional equity in the hand.

Savage is a proponent of 'ante first' and plans to use that definition of a rare all-in situation for the WPT.

Because you win the entire ante when not in the BB plus chips you have x players in the pot, cannot have it both ways @DBuzgon@TabDuchateauhttps://t.co/gp67dhcFXi

— Matt Savage (@SavagePoker) March 16, 2018

The debate among Savage, Negreanu, and the poker community at large has netted out to a common denominator: the big blind ante is a popular choice among players.

Olivier Busquet summed up the argument for using big blind ante best when comparing to the current style of all players anteing.

If you're unsure about the bb ante, imagine that bb ante were the status quo and the discussion were to change it to the current system. It would be absurd – break the ante up into small pieces and force each player every hand to do it?? This helps show status quo bias.

— Olivier Busquet (@olivierbusquet) March 16, 2018

Where does the trend go from here?

The big blind ante is popular across high roller events and is going to be in use at the Super High Roller Bowl and Big One for One Drop this summer. One Drop is the only World Series of Poker event to adopt the big blind ante so far but that should change come 2019.

The WSOP Circuit is tinkering with use in events and the growing popularity among players might be too much to pass up.

More venues and series are making the big blind ante the rule. SugarHouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is using the concept in a $150 tournament next month.

$100,000 Guaranteed.
$150 Buy In#BBANTE

April 8th – April 15th https://t.co/5RG45z73qipic.twitter.com/UpTkaOgL8d

— SugarHouse Poker (@sugarhousepoker) March 16, 2018

It's only a matter of time before the days of every player putting in an ante is a thing of the past.

Lead image courtesy of World Poker Tour/Flickr

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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PokerStars is the biggest online poker room in the world and operates in every regulated market in Europe. Sign up with PokerNews and you get a 100% deposit bonus up to $600!

Unibet is one if the biggest betting firms in the world and their poker product is top notch. They're giving you a €200 Welcome Bonus + €12 Unibet Open Tickets + €8 Cash game ticket if you sign up through PokerNews.

partypoker is one of the biggest poker rooms in the world and operates in most European countries. Sign up through PokerNews and get a deposit bonus of up to $500 + 40% of your rake back every week!

If 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. Casino tropez no deposit bonus code. 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.

Texas holdem online 888. No system is perfect, and it would seem that the button ante game model has more issues than paying a big blind ante.

Big Blind Ante Poker Tournament 2019

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.

Big Blind Ante Poker Tournament 2020

Igor Kurganov's passion on this subject extends to a slight tweak for final table play, something only he mentioned among our poker luminaries.

Big Blind Ante Poker Tournament Odds

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.

• Tags

  Dominik NitscheIgor KurganovAdrian MateosNiall FarrellDara O'Kearney

• Related Players

  Dominik NitscheIgor KurganovNiall FarrellAdrian Mateos