Opening sizes for ante games? (1 Viewer)

PokerDocTX

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My local card room occasionally has a big holdem ante game. However I do not have much experience with ante games and how it affects opening sizes.

I usually play and open in the 3-5x sizing range depending on player pool and the game. However if their are antes at a full 9 handed table, what should the normal range for opening sizes be?

For example, the game I have seen is 5/5 holdem with a $5 ante. (sb puts $5, bb puts $5, and everyone puts $5 to ante), leading to $55 dead money in the pot before UTG acts.

what opening sizing is good, or a range of sizing? Any change to 3b sizing?
 
I would think about it this way: $55 in dead money in the pot is similar to $20/$40 in blinds. I’d probably use $100-$120 as a starting size, adjusting from there based on game flow (i.e. what the table considers “normal”), position, and of course individual players in the hand. I’d probably want to sit with at least $4k to be in the “100bb” vicinity, maybe a little more because I think ante games might play a little looser than blind games.

I’m not sure if this is correct, but that would be my starting point. Following along to see what others think.
 
I think he meant a button or big blind ante... So $15 in the pot to start.

I would just maybe add another $5 to my starting size and see how it goes. If I'm getting lots of calls, bump it up from there.
 
This game sounds a little crazy. My understanding of antes, which is limited, is that they should be less than the small blind. The total amount of antes should not be more than the big blind
 
Yeah this was a crazy game, and they haven’t had It much. I was just curious how I would calculate my opening sizes in any ante variation game, even if the antes were more reasonable.

My thoughts were to make it similarly equitable to as far as risk/reward calculations. If I was stealing blinds in a routine $1/$2 with a 3bb ( $6) raise - I am risking $6 to win a pot of $3. From my opponents view, they have to call $6 for a total pot of $15 (their required equity is 40%).

So for any situation, such as $55 dead money, I would want to create a similar situation for my opponent. My opponent would need to call.

Using the required equity calculation -
RE = Amount to call / Amount to call + total pot

In that example a preflop raise of $100 would give Opponents similar required equity, and not give them extra incentive to call super light.

as other have stated, that would require a large buy-in, of 4-5k in this example.
 
Yeah, a $5 ante game NOT the same as a std $5/5 game haha. LATB used to run a weekly $5 ante game that essentially plays about like a $20/40 game. Std opens were in the $60-100 range and stacks were in the $4-15k range to be decently deep.
 
You should be raising at least half the pot, you just count that differently in an ante game. So with 8 antes + 2 blinds + any calls (including the amount to you). So I think if first in, the standard open should be 25-30 or 5-6x the ante.

In a 5-5 blind game with no ante, being first in opening to 20 would be a "pot size" open. Opening to 15 would be 2/3 pot.

In a 1-2 game opening to 7 (3.5bb) is "pot size," opening to 6 is 80% pot, opening to 5 is 60% pot. So that's why the 3x or 3.5x sizings are common.

But for a similar game with antes, antes are in the pot too, so really the equivalent is 5-6x the ante.

Hope it helps.
 

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