How to play when the ante’s on the up

Legendary player Daniel Negreanu has been chatting about the effect of the ante in a game of Texas Hold’Em in his weekly syndicated poker column.

The popular Canadian says: “Playing with an ante changes the game significantly and necessitates a change in playing strategy.”

He believes you have to change your game as the situation becomes more aggressive.

The bearded wonder continued: “So how can you be successful at both the ante and no ante forms of No Limit Hold’em? Well, it comes down to math and pot odds.”

And here is his example.

“In a No Limit game, the blinds are 0-0 and there’s no ante. You’re holding 7d-8h sitting in the big blind. A player from late position raises the bet to ,400; it will cost you ,600 more to call.

“Obviously, this isn’t a great starting hand. You are, however, getting some pot odds since you already have 0 invested. It will cost you another ,600 to win ,600 which calculates to 2.25-to-1 odds on your money. Those odds aren’t terrible, but your real concern is that you’ll have to play the hand from out of position. As a result, the correct play would be to fold.”

Fair Enough.

But tell us Daniel, how does it affect the game?

“Exactly the same situation, only this time there’s an additional 0 ante posted by each of the nine players at the table. The raiser makes it ,400; you have to call ,600 to defend your blind. In this case, the additional antes have changed the pot odds significantly. Now you stand to win ,500, putting your pot odds at closer to 3-to-1.”

He continues: “When antes are in play, there’s simply more incentive to defend your blind with marginal hands. There’s also an increased financial reward for playing aggressively to try to steal blinds and antes.”

Daniel Negreanu is one of my favourite players. I think it is because he comes across as being such a nice bloke and it’s always heartwarming to know that nice guys can win at poker.

By all means be aggressive when you need to in poker but manners and humility in defeat and victory will not only enrich the world of poker but also your soul.

Tags: Daniel Negreanu, play poker, poker, win at poker

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 12:34 pm and is filed under News & Promotions Blog, Poker Strategy.