Standard Ante rates, questions.

[Andy B]

Your assessment of the overhead doesn't take the bring-in into account.

This is subjective, but some rough guidelines:

Over-ante:
Party's $.50/1.00 game with a $.25 ante
Foxwoods' $1-3 game with a $.50 ante

High ante:
Canterbury Park's $2/4 game with a $.50 ante
$75/150 with a $15 ante (Foxwoods, Taj, and other places

Medium ante:
$3/6 with a $.50 ante (CP, Party)
$15/30 with a $2 ante
$30/60 with a $5 ante (CP, Stars)

Low ante:
$5/10 with a $.50 ante (found everywhere)
$10/20 with a $1 ante (found everywhere)
PokerStars' $3/6 game with a $.25 ante

It is my opinion that the structure for $30/60 is ideal.

As for whether you should play the $.50/1.00 game on Party, it should be plenty beatable because the players are so bad. Remember that they're paying the same overhead. A couple of ways that you can gain an edge over your opponents are tossing dead hands when they won't, and extracting value from good draws which most people will just check and call with.

The structure of Party's $.50/1.00 game is so out-of-whack that I would think that it would skew your perception of how stud is played, and that might be a hinderance if you want to move up in limits.

$.10 is actually still a pretty high ante for a $.50/1.00 game. PokerStars has a $.05 ante in their $.50/1.00 game. I'm writing this on a Sunday morning, and there are three tables going right now, so I'm guessing that game goes more or less all the time.