Antis/No Blinds

[jdag]

Fairly new to game. Any suggestions on how to alter play in a short handed (6) game with antis, but no blinds? Play more hands obviously b/c more in the pot. How many more? When should you raise? Thanks.

[BigEndian]

It depends on the size of the antes to the bet size. In general, everyone is going to see a flop in a limit game with antes. This is going to makes the swings tougher.

- Jim

[benfranklin]

As BigEndian said, more people will be seeing the flop because they will be checking hands that they would not call with, and some will be "defending" their ante, which should not be done, since once they put it in the pot, it ain't theirs anymore. If someone checks and it is raised behind them, many players will tend to treat it as if they had called and been reraised, even if they would have folded the same hand in a blind game.

Checking is a no-brainer preflop, and the more people in the pot, the more likely someone will hit a good hand. I think it was Caro who said that as the number of people in the pot increases, the winning hand gets closer to the nuts. Or at least you should play it that way.

On pre-flop, it seems to me that if someone raises, that player is now effectively the big blind, and then the next player is UTG, and must play as if in EP in a regular game, and so on around the table. But most people will not be thinking that way, since they already have "money invested in the pot". If you think of any hand with a preflop raise as a normally structured blind game, you should do better than the average player who tries to defend his antes. Probably best to ignore the antes except as they affect pot odds. Play it like a regular blind game, with the difference being that the 1st raiser is the BB, and your opponents will be playing looser than they normally would.

[jdag]

Thanks for your comments. The antis are the same as the minimum bet and the game is no-limit and a tournament. People do seem to play pretty loose. I think I played too tight at 1st given the extra $ in the pot. I loosened up a bit but kept aggressive and won the 1st round...

cheers