World Series of Poker to Introduce Big Blind Antes to Bracelet Events

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The World Series of Poker is famous for helping to push innovation in the game and this summer is no exception. On Wednesday, WSOP officials announced that they will start implementing a Big Blind Ante in various events during the summer. 

Eight bracelet events will feature the BB-Ante along with the weekly High Roller tournaments, some Daily Deepstack events, and selected satellite tournaments.

What is a Big Blind Ante?

The BB-Ante is a new way of posting antes during a Texas Hold’em game. Instead of each player posting an ante each hand, the Big Blind posts an ante each round. The ante amount is the equivalent of the Big Blind.

For example, if blinds are 400-800, the Big Blind would post an ante of 800 in addition to the blind amount. They would effectively have contributed 1,600 to the pot. Other players would only have to call 800 as the ante would become dead in the pot.

In the past, each player would ante each hand and after an orbit, they would have contributed the equivalent of another Big Blind.

With the BB-Ante, the game is sped up because the Big Blind is forced to ante each hand and thus preventing any confusion on whether a player had posted an ante.

One additional rule that will be in play during tournaments involves short stacks. Let’s review the same scenario but the Big Blind player only has 200 chips left. What happens in this case is that they are part of the main pot for 200 from each players that stays in the hand PLUS they will receive the equivalent of the ante.

In essence, a short stack player will always be playing for at least the ante in a hand.

WSOP Adds BB-Ante to Eight Bracelet Events

The WSOP decided that they would try the new BB-Ante format in eight of the 78 bracelet events this summer in Las Vegas. The format is available at multiple pricing points, including the $50k and $100k NL High Roller bracelet events.

Here’s a list of the bracelet events using the BB-Ante format:

In addition, the WSOP will use BB-Ante in their 4 pm and 10 pm Daily Deepstack events as well as their weekly $25k and $50k NL Events in the King’s Lounge.

For those wanting to try out the format in a satellite structure, the WSOP will offer BB-Ante in various Mega Satellites during the series. Additional details will be available at the Rio during the 2018 WSOP.

Expect Complaints from Some Players

Before we even see the first event spread in this format, we can predict that complaints will be raised from players. The first complaint will involve short stacks having the ability to pick up antes even if they don’t have a stack.

It is entirely feasible to see someone with an uber short stack of under 2 big blinds just waiting to be dealt into the big blind so they can have a chance to triple up rather than merely double their present stack. In the WSOP’s example in their press release, they revealed a scenario where a player with a single $1k chip could win as much as 11 chips due to the BB-Ante rules.

Next, casual players will likely not like the fact that they have to double post a big blind once each orbit. While over the course of an orbit the amounts posted will be the same, casual players would rather have the slow bleed of chips in a standard ante than the full hit of a BB-Ante.

Our prediction is that the pros will enjoy the BB-Ante while other players will massively balk at the idea. Ultimately, we may see the BB-Ante return in 2019 with a smaller footprint, such as in higher stake events or in elite-field events such as the $50k Poker Player’s Championship.