Tourney Are big blind + (value of big blind) antes common? (1 Viewer)

[BlueChips]

So I played in a tournament at Bally's last week and for the first time ever (I usually play online though), I saw that they charge the big blind an ante as well as the big blind. Kind of annoying and it sucked all my chips up. Is this common?

 

[Eriks]

It used to be that tournies had an ante paid per player each hand, but that has changed in favor of the big blind ante, which is a lot more efficient.

 

[doublebooyah85]

Yes very common

 

[AlbinoDragon]

The big-blind ante started a few years ago. It seems that its becoming more common. It's a bit easier for the dealers to manage and in the long run, you aren't necssarily out any more money in antes than if you paid them every hand. An example:

Say the blinds are 500 SB, 1000 BB and 100 ante. The table is 9 handed. You wind up paying 900 in antes per orbit.

With a BB ante, it's 500 SB, 1000BB and the 1000 BB ante. Technically this is a touch more per orbit, but the BBA isn't "sucking up all your chips". It only feels like that because you have to pay all your antes at the same time.


[EDIT] This is only one example using blinds and antes from a WPT event from nearly a decade ago that I just happened to have handy on my computer. There are other cases from that same event where you actually save money with a BBA, like the 3000/1500 500 ante level.

 

[LeLe]

Isn’t BBA also common at online Tourney ?

BBA had been common and popular over past few years

 

[Legend5555]

Isn’t BBA also common at online Tourney ?

BBA had been common and popular over past few years

Live only. Online still uses per player ante since no one can forget to ante.

 

[LeLe]

Live only. Online still uses per player ante since no one can forget to ante.

Thanks, never realise that as online poker are illegal in Singapore

 

[BlueChips]

Sooo then when did antes become common?

I remember antes being common in 5 card draw, 7 card stud etc but never THE

 

[doublebooyah85]

Antes were always common for bigger tournaments, then about 4 years ago, a tournament popularized the big blind ante bc it made live poker so much quicker, and it quickly was adapted to everyone.

 

[Legend5555]

Sooo then when did antes become common?

I remember antes being common in 5 card draw, 7 card stud etc but never THE

The better question is: when did antes become unpopular? From what I can tell antes were basically always in poker until card rooms started running games without them.

 

[upNdown]

The better question is: when did antes become unpopular? From what I can tell antes were basically always in poker until card rooms started running games without them.

I’m no historian, but I’d guess it was around the time that Holdem rose in popularity. Games with forced bets (blinds) really don’t need antes.
Im a big fan of antes in tournaments. But the same thing that antes accomplish could also be accomplished by simply increasing the size of the blinds. Which is kind of exactly what we saw with the big blind ante. Which I’m also a big fan of. I resisted the big blind ante initially, when it rose in popularity a few years back, but now I think it’s great. And like anything else - you get used to it quickly.