Proper ante structure.

[Duke]

So I'm firmly convinced that the ante structure in the Bellagio 40-80 stud game is horrible. $5 ante, $10 bring-in. Strategy - play no hands. I actually played a gay hand where I had a couple of aces, and was slow-playing heads up to get some more action. By 5th it became apparent that my opponent had made 2 pair so I was waiting to catch up and never did. The problem is that the opponent was a decent player who would have just pitched his hand if I had re-raised early on. He understands how small the ante structure is. It got to be frustrating to me since I feel that I incorrectly adjusted to it at least on that hand. Overcompensated, I guess.

My default stud plays are usually to call a re-raise on 3rd to see what 4th does for my hand. Usually you have enough of something to catch a good card or have your opponent catch really bad on 4th and then make a decision. But with tiny antes, I don't think you do.

I figured there might be some room for discussion of what % antes are the best for a game.

~D

[BeerMoney]

I really like the 3/6 with a $.5 ante with $1 bring in.

The game you describe would is actually a higher ante, lower bring in proportionally to the standard $5/10 of $.50 ante with a $2 bring in, right?

[FeliciaLee]

I like it, but I'm a rock, so what do you expect, lol.

Felicia [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Andy B]

The ante structure for your $3/6 is what I consider ideal. It is the same as the standard $30/60 structure which has a $5 ante and a $10 bring-in. You will note that these are the same as in the $40/80 game, a higher limit. My understanding is that the Mirage has a $40/80 game with a $10 ante and a $10 bring-in, which overcompensates for the problem Duke talks about. I, on the other hand, play in a $40/80 stud/8 home game where the ante is $5 and the bring-in is $20, which is the same structure as the local $4/8 game and a lot of on-line game, and which frankly doesn't make a lot of sense. The high bring-in discourages both limps and first-round raises, and thus discourages action, in my opinion. Since we're using $5 and $25 chips, a $15 bring-in would be a little better than $10, I think, but this $20 bring-in is stupid.

This subject came up a little while ago, and Mason specifically cited $40/80 as a game that fails to flourish because the $5 doesn't punish tight players enough, but the $10 ante punishes them too much. Last time I was at Foxwoods, they had a couple of $20/40 stud games a couple of $75/150 games, and nothing in between. There was an interest list for $40/80, but never any games. I suspect that the ante structure has a little something to do with the difficulty in sustaining interest in that particular limit.

[Iceman]

Low bring-ins encourage action, because a lot more people limp, and more people raise and reraise on third in order to get all the limpers out.

40-80 should be eliminated and replaced by either 30-60 with a $5 ante and $10 bring-in, or 50-100 with a $10 ante and $15 bring-in. The $1 ante in 10-20 works because there are a lot of weak players who limp in a lot, so despite the low ante there's usually a decent amount of money in the pot to play for, and it makes it pay off to narrow the field like in a higher ante stud game. But in 40-80 presumably most people know what they're doing and the game will tend to have little action as a result of the tiny ante. One of the great things about seven-card stud is that if the game has a proper ante, playing too tight is a serious error, so the game doesn't get dominated by rocks and dry up like many forms of poker (you don't see many mid-limit omaha-8 games for example).

[timmer]

An extra buck on the ante should do it . although a .625 structure aint all that tight.

timmer

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I agree with the analysis of you and Andy.

Personally, I always liked the structure of 5-10 with a $2 bring-in and 50c ante. 10-20 with a $3 bring-in and a buck ante will suffice, because I do generally play pretty tight in stud. 30-60 is probably the theoretical ideal game structure tho.

al

[mmcd]

Ante: 1/5 sb Bringin: 1/3 sb is the best structure IMO.