How Antes Affect Strategy

It is common knowledge that at the beginning of a poker tournament, many players play extra tight. Often, these tight players will fold every hand they pick up besides Aces, Kings and AK. The reason for their extremely tight play is because the pots are too small and not worth fighting over and thus, players feel as if they can wait for the premium starting hands. They ask themselves, “Why risk chips to win a 45 chips pot when the player has a 3000 chip stack?”

As the tournament progresses, players slowly open up and play more hands. The question each player must think about is this: “Why do players open up as the tournament progresses?”

It may sound very simple and most players will simply believe it is because the pots are bigger. This is the answer, but the more accurate reason behind it is the antes. In the middle of every tournament, antes kick in, so there is more money in the pot in addition to merely the small and big blinds. When antes kick in, pots all of the sudden become much bigger compared to stack sizes and each pot is worth winning. The moment antes kick in is when most poker players say the tournament really starts.

Strategy

Since poker is a game of numbers, the size of the pots and the stack sizes dictate how loose or aggressive a player should play. The more pots a player has in his stack, the more conservative he can be.

Think about this: A player has 3000 chips at 100-200 blinds. He therefore has 10 pots, which is not that much, but he still does not have to panic. After a minute, all of the sudden antes kick in, and every player contributes 50 chips to the pot in addition to the blind. Now all of the sudden there is 750 in the pot and the players 10 pot stack has turned into a 4-pot chip between hands. Now he is in panic mode and needs to shove all in with his first playable hand.

This example shows how important and crucial antes become on a players strategy. Now most cases will not be a drastic, but player’s stack actually shrinks significantly (on a relative basis) when antes start. This is the time when players have to really open up and start fighting for pots since they become so valuable.

Some online poker sites have even created tournaments where antes kick in from the beginning. These tournaments require aggression from beginning to end, since each pot will be significant. Every player has to keep in mind why he is raising. Most of the time, antes is the reason.