Some games begin with forced blinds (Hold’em and Omaha), others have each player ‘ante’ a small bet (Stud). In No Limit Hold’em tournaments, antes are usually added at some point along with the blinds.

The idea for both blinds and antes is to create a pot before the first player to act makes a decision to play or not to play. Try playing without either of these and you will find the game slows down and gets very conservative and quite frankly boring. You need something to compete for and the “seeded pot” that results from blinds and antes does that.

Now there is something very important to consider about tournaments with antes that kick in after several rounds. Let me illustrate. You are playing in round four of a tournament with blinds of 100/200. The player first to act need only call 200 in order to play for a pot of 500 (300 in blinds and the 200 call). A minimum raise to 400 by one player means the Big Blind would only need to call 200 more to be playing for a pot of 900. If one player raises to 400 and another calls, the Big Blind now needs to call 200 to be playing for 1300. So the blinds stimulate action by giving players “odds” to play.

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Nearly every great poker player will tell you that on the way up they had a group of poker buddies who would discuss hands endlessly. It is essential to the improvement of your game that you have different perspectives on how to play a hand. Not only will a variety of views give you ideas on how to change your game but hearing other ways to play a hand will help you improve your reads on other players. It is often difficult to get inside the head of an overly aggressive player when that is not your style. Just as the maniac always misreads the tight player when they finally hit their monster hand.

One way to participate in an ongoing poker discussion is to join our Poker Forum. Join for free right now and get involved in the newest discussions on topics like: Live and Online Game Selection in the Poker News forum. Or get other player’s ideas on Limping with Aces in the Beginner’s Forum. A new topic in the Advanced Discussion Forum is Implied Odds and Expected Value. Let us know who your Favorite Player is. The Poker on TV forum has a debate about the new year of Poker After Dark.

There is a lot going on in the forums, come on over and join us.

-This is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #57

There are several stack considerations you should be aware of at all times in a tournament.

*What is your stack compared to the others at your table?

The big stacks can steal more blinds and push around the other players. Small stacks are likely to move all-in with inferior hands in a race to double-up. You want to pick on small stacks if you are big and avoid confrontations with stacks that can cripple you.

*What is your stack compared to the average stack in the tournament?

It is not enough to know where you stand at your table because you are not just playing against your table in a tournament. The stacks at a tight table that is not eliminating any players can quickly fall behind the chipleaders of the tournament.

*What is your stack compared to the blinds?

This is a very important consideration if you are short-stacked. You will hear a lot of conversation about being less than 10X the big blind. Many poker books will tell you that less than ten big blinds makes you a short stack and that you only really have only one move in a no-limit tournament and that is all-in. In a limit tournament, you have more room and more time to maneuver but not much.

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The size of your chip stack and the relative size of all the stacks at your table should be a factor in how you play your game. Stack size can be a complicated and multi-faceted discussion but there are some basics to remember about stacks in cash games.

If you are playing, let’s say $4/$8 and the house has a four bet limit each round, then the maximum betting for one hand would be: $4 x 4 = $16 before the flop and the same after the flop and then $8 x 4 = $32 on the turn and again on the river. So it is possible to bet $96 on one hand (16 + 16 + 32 + 32). Unlikely, but possible. If you have less than that in front of you, you could be put all-in with a monster hand and not win the maximum from your ’second best’ opponent. You can’t win 96 chips from your opponent, if you don’t have 96 to wager.

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The gutshot straight draw, the back-door flush and the open-ended straight draw. What do these mean?

The gutshot refers to drawing to one card to a straight. Say you hold 56 in your hand and the board is 79J. An eight will give you a 56789 straight, you are drawing to one of four eights and you have a gutshot straight draw.

The much better draw odds-wise is the open-ended straight draw. Here you have say 78 and the board is 69K. Now you have 6789 for the straight and will make your “open-ender” with either a 5 or a 10. Now you have eight outs to make your hand. The open-ender hits twice as often as the gutshot and you should take that into consideration when you make your decision to check, raise or fold before the turn and river cards.

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