Tourney Low big blind ante? (1 Viewer)

[upNdown]

tl;dr - do you adjust your play when there are half-antes?

I played my first live tournaments in a while recently - the return of the big blind ante; I’d forgotten about that. Those tournaments were kinda turbos, which turn into a bingo fest for the whole last half, in part because of the big blind ante - those get scary as the blinds quickly increase.

But I just took a look at the structure for this weekend’s deep stack at the same location, and noticed that for this one, the big blind ante is actually a small blind. Weird; I’ve never seen that, except when the final table gets short.
So the question is, how to I change my play in light of that? I’ve always been a guy to go after blinds and antes in traditional ante formats - that can be profitable. And in big blind ante formats, I keep an eye on them, trying to grab them when possible, if people are playing tight. Though, with bba, I’ve noticed people tend to defend their big blind more often when they’ve just put in an extra big blind for the antes.
But with what essentially amounts to a half-ante, my gut tells that trying to steal blinds and antes could be less profitable.
Anybody have any thoughts, or experience with this format?

 

[joker80]

That's weird. No experience but I don't think I would like it

 

[joker80]

How big is the starting stack?

 

[CptainCanuck]

Would certainly change my PFR sizing, which ultimately may make it less profitable depending on who's in the blinds for sure. Haven't experienced that structure personally, but that's what my gut tells me without spending time crunching numbers.

 

[Legend5555]

It changes your strategy a bit. But all antes should be changing are your opening and defending ranges. All other effects grow from those two things.

 

[upNdown]

How big is the starting stack?

50k
It’s 40k for $240 plus 10k for a $10 staff bonus, so it’s a $250 50k. And I love that structure for that stack - start with 500 big blinds and after 3 hours a starting stack is still worth over 40bb. That’s plenty of time to play poker.

 

[Frogzilla]

Open a little tighter, defend a little tighter from the blinds. Not a huge impact from most positions, just a few combos here and there

 

[upNdown]

Open a little tighter, defend a little tighter from the blinds. Not a huge impact from most positions, just a few combos here and there

I guess that’s what it comes down to - less to gain, less reason to go after it.
mist jist a really strange variation, especially since the sane room does it the “normal” way for other tournaments. Personally I’m not thrilled about it because I’m pretty sure there’s a large portion of the field that wouldn’t play any differently whether there were antes or not. So watering down the antes only serves to water down any perceived edge I might have, with antes.

 

[upNdown]

Well, in case anybody wants to play this last Saturday of the month $250 at the Filotimo:
Tournament starts at 12:30
Website says they open at 11:00
I got here at 11:30 and they’re calling names from a list, of people who pre-signed up to register. Apparently that list happened at 10:30, though that info isn’t posted anywhere. And I can’t get on the list. They got through about 105 on the list, then let people who were lined up, register. I was 119 out of the 126 spots. And so far they’ve sold over 30 alternate tickets.

 

[upNdown]

Pretty strong field here today though. I’m not getting any edges based on ante size. Ha.

 

[upNdown]

I am bad at poker.
That is all.

 

[Madmizike]

Is this tourney ($250) a weekly or monthly? Sure your not bad at poker, variance...variance.

 

[Madmizike]

Is this tourney ($250) a weekly or monthly? Sure your not bad at poker, variance...variance.

Sorry I re-read the posts above and answered my own question. As far as the BBA being half a bind is odd. Guess it makes it a bit less crazy with people defending wider. I’d say this plays well for a straight forward type of player. Idk.