Blinds versus antes.

Many newcomers to poker know what antes are, but are confused when it comes to blinds. Both are similar in the fact that both are placed on the table before a hand is dealt. People refer to placing blinds as posting blinds normally. Most poker games require you to put money into the pot before you see cards. This is done to ensure that people will not just sit around and twittle their thumbs until the perfect hand comes along. That would take forever. Therefore, you can think of blinds and antes as a goad to make you play hands eventually, even if that is not right away.


Antes are a set amount that is placed into the pot by every player before the start of the hand. If you got to take a wiz, and you don't want to play the hand. Don't put in an ante. Because antes are placed in before the hand, it is possible to merely check through the first round of betting, unlike blinds. Also, every starting hand you decide not to play, you are losing money which is also unlike blinds. Antes are mostly used in small home cash games.


Blinds are used in most poker games, including Texas Hold'em. There are two blinds at any given time. They are the small blind and the big blind. The small blind is the position one spot directly to the left of the dealer, and the big blind is the position two spots to the left of the dealer. The small blind is always exactly half of the big blind. In most tournament formats, blinds start at a set amount, and increase at certain time intervals. For example, blinds could start at $1 for the small and $2 for the big (normally represented as 1-2), and they could double in amount every hour. The big difference from antes is that you can see your cards for absolutely free in any spot at the table other than the two blinds. Yet in the first round of betting, you must call the amount of the big blind in order to stay in the hand. If there is no raise, the small blind puts in enough to match the big blind, and the big blind can check.



For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, here's an example. Say you are not a blind at the table, and you get dealt 7d-3c as your hole cards. These are no good, so you will probably fold. The beauty is that you went through a hand with crummy cards without paying a cent.

Okay, same situation as before, but you receive Ad-Ks. That's a pretty good hand, so in order to stay in you must at least call the big blind. In antes, you can check if their is no bet in front of you.

That's basically the just of the two. If I missed anything please let me know.