Poker Lesson 17: Playing With a Large Ante

Here is something most guys don’t want to hear. Size does matter. Anybody who tells you any different has one eye on your wallet. We are, of course, only talking about the size of your ante, and how it effects how you will play.

There is a general rule here. The higher the ante, the more hands you play. Mathematically speaking, playing more hands is the right thing to do. The fact that there is more money in the pot means your pot odds are better, and this results in folding fewer hands. There are other reasons that playing more hands in a high ante game is beneficial.

A high ante game is not a place where patience is a virtue. Waiting for a very good hand can be damaging to your wallet. If you win the occasional big pot by folding everything except a big hand, you will have lost more money by anteing up on hands you didn’t play, than you actually won on the hand you did play. Also, the other players will notice you only play when you have something worth playing, and will back off when you do decide to go for it. This will reduce the size of the pot because they will know not to challenge you.

A marginal hand you wouldn’t play in a low ante game is one that you should thinking about going forward with in a high ante game. To avoid being bled to death by the ante, you need to lower the requirements you have for playing a hand. Remember, your opponents will also be playing weaker hands, so you stand a good chance of winning some extra pots.

The pot odds inherent with the high ante game affect the dynamic of the play. More players are getting favorable pot odds just based on the sheer amount of money involved, so you get more multi-way pots. The style of play here becomes different from a heads up with a high ante. Playing one-on-one, a mediocre pair of sevens or nines has value, but as we said, a larger pot increases the pot odds, and encourages players to stay in because they are getting good odds to draw to a big hand. In short, drawing hands have more value in a multi-way pot then a mediocre pair.

If you are playing against competitors who have not adjusted their game to the higher ante, this opens the door for you to steal some pots. For example, it may cost you $9 to raise on a $12 pot. You are putting in that $9 on the hope that the other players will give up and fold. You should be able to figure out the percentage of time you can get away with this and make money. Against tight players, you should be able to succeed almost 60% of the time. Considering the fact that you only need to score around 40% to make ante stealing profitable, this should be a tool you keep in the kit.

Lastly, you will occasionally get that big hand that is hard to beat. If your first instinct is to slowplay, you should stifle this reaction. The pot odds come into play here as well. Your opponents are getting pot odds that will encourage them to stay in, you do not need to go for deception at this point. Slowplaying will cost you money in a high ante game.

Remember when playing a high ante game play looser and lower the bar for what you consider a playable hand is. Patience is a killer in this sort of game.