ALL THE Aces

BIG BLIND ANTE

WSOP Event #74, the ‘Big Blind Antes

$10,000 NLH 6-Handed Championship’, is one of eight tournaments at this year’s WSOP to introduce the big blind ante format to speed up tournament play. Rather than the dealer having to collect antes from every player at the table, one player (the big blind position) pays the ante for everyone, which from level 2 in this tournament is the same size as the big blind bet for each level. So, if you’re on level 12, with the blinds are 1,2002,400, after putting in 2,400 for the big blind, the player in that seat must contribute a 2,400 ante too. Stack erosion: Playing 6-handed means players will be going through the blinds more often than at regular full tables, requiring ‘significantly looser’ play than you’d get at 9- or 10-player tables.

DEAD MONEY HUNTER

Playing low-to-mid stakes online tournaments or live tournaments with antes? Upswing Poker coach, Curtis Knights, suggests how much your open-raise ranges should widen from early, middle, and late positions when antes come into play. In UTG1, he suggests playing 10% of your hands pre-ante and 20% post-ante, for example; in middle position, it’s a spread of 16% pre-ante to 28% post-ante. Asking, ‘Who are the players behind?’ and ‘Who is the player in the big blind?’ helps you adjust those ranges with information. And big blind ante tourneys? You “may need to loosen …shoving ranges depending on stack-size and if the full ante is approaching” to avoid a big percentage of your stack “being committed in one hand before even being dealt any cards.” (www.tinyurl.com/BigAnte)