To Ante or Not to Ante

I often debate this question... Do you prefer to enter a tournament with or without antes.

Personally I dislike the antes and also like to start deep stacked. I play a mathematical game and prefer to play on the tighter side and carefully pick my spots to put in big money into a pot. Ante play changes that whole dynamic. It really speeds up a game because it puts almost make it an extra money in middle every time. That in turn causes bigger base betting before getting multiplied by three or four betting.

Do you guys think that antes in a tournament really play to a stronger or weaker player?

Patrick

Antes only help the better players. It makes pots inherantly bigger, Ill play really snug until the ante levels start

The real poker doesn't even begin until the antes kick in, IMO. Remember, at it's very essence, poker is a battle for the blinds and antes. Clearly, tight players would prefer no antes, but then ultimately, wouldn't we all like a game where we were only ever required to play the top 10% of hands?
To me, removing the antes is like taking the clock out of a football game. Some teams are great at no-huddle hurry-up, and others struggle. In poker you don't always get to have a say in the structure, so you have to be able to adapt as the situations arise.

A tournament without antes is a joke. I often hate tournaments because the antes start so late. It is hard to actually play poker when there are no antes. Tight/new players probably like it because they just sit back and play their big hands. But it shouldn't be like that.

some freeze out style tourneys introduce an ever increasing ante in the final periods of the tourney.... I don't like that.... but if you have blinds and antes from the start... then it's the same for everyone and doesn't really matter