Ante-Up Poker: More Action & Bigger Pots
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 3:09 PM
We have been noticing lately the growing popularity of Ante-Up Poker, as the newest form of poker to start gaining momentum as a preferred choice for poker. Traditionally, no limit hold'em poker has been played with a small blind and big blind in poker table rules, allowing for two players to start building the pots gradually. On a $1/$2 table, the small blinds and big blinds allow players to start a hand with $3 and then players build upon from there. What happens in some cases is that when players get weak or mediocre starting cards, they usually fold and the player in the big blind picks up the $3 pot. Not too bad, except that the big blind actually put in $2 out of the $3, therefore walking away on the hand with only a $1 profit.From that scenario, a lot of players have complained that there should be more starting chips in the hand and larger pots to win. So from there, it was only normal that the birth of "Ante-Up" poker was created. Ante up poker still has the same blind structure with a small and big blind, but it also has a new feature where ALL poker players in the hand must put out an ante to
receive their hole cards. This now allows for the pots to be much bigger and where players don't get to see their cards without having to put in any chips. A lot of poker players seem tolike the new ante-up poker format, as it forces players to have some equity in each hand and also helps make the pots bigger, thus making each hand more active with stakes from each player and helping to push the game to be more aggressive and more rewarding overall for all poker players in each hand.With ante up poker, more players are more likely to put in money to see the flops as they have money invested in each hand on the table, plus it does seem to make the game more interesting from a player's perspective. Note bigger pots, can mean bigger earnings at the end of the nightand also for less hours needed to make the same earning potential.
Not every poker player will share this enthusiasm for ante up poker, as some players still like to play 8 hands at a 10 handed table, without having to pay any monies to see their initial hole cards. As for the players who play as a career or living, most of them seem to like the BIGGER POTS & MORE ACTION at the tables!You should start seeing more Ante-Up poker tables at a casino near you, as the interest and momentum develops from poker players who like this new poker format.