WSOP 2018 Blind Ante Model Introduced for Eight Events

Every year, World Series of Poker tries to introduce few novelties to the schedule with regards to the number of events as well as their structures. This year will be no different, as organizes have already announced some interesting changes coming our way. The WSOP 2018 blind ante model will be one these.

Although this new model won’t be featured across the board, we can expect to see it in eight of the bracelet events on the WSOP 2018 schedule, which is a fair number, considering the full schedule contains 78 tournaments.

What’s the deal with WSOP 2018 blind ante?

Depending on how much you’re involved with tournament poker (and poker in general), the idea of blind ante may or may not sound familiar. The practice is often found in cash games, where it helps move the things along and speed up the play.

In tournaments, once the ante stage is reached, all players are required to post antes on every hand. This can sometimes lead to confusion as to who did and didn’t post the ante and it also takes the dealer a few seconds to go around the table and pick up all the antes.

With WSOP 2018 blind ante events, the organizers hope to avoid all this. Instead of having every player post the ante every hand, the player in the big blind will post the full ante amount alongside their big blind.

How does this work in practice?

Although it may seem slightly confusing as it is a format not often seen in tournament poker, the WSOP 2018 blind ante idea is rather simple and straightforward. For example, with the blinds of 600/1,200 chip and an ante of 100, there are nine players at the table. If each of them posted an ante, the total added to the pot would be 900 chips.

In this new scenario, the player in the big blind will post their 1,200 big blind followed by 900 chips (the total amount of all antes). Once the hand is over, the big blind and the ante move along to the next player, as is customary in No Limit Hold’em.

Is WSOP 2018 blind ante model fair to all?

The way the WSOP has set things up, the blind ante model will be fair to everyone and short stacks will not be hurt. If the player in the big blind doesn’t have a big enough amount to cover both antes and the blind, the big blind is always posted first. That way, players with short stacks aren’t hurt by an unfavorable draw.

Furthermore, since everybody gets to be the big blind the same number of times on average, the WSOP 2018 blind ante should work out just fine. Of course, some players could get lucky and avoid having to pay an ante here and there due to table movements, but since this is all random, no one can really profit from it or get hurt by it.

Some of the bracelet events where the blind ante model will be tested include $100,000 High Roller (Event #5), Event #20 ($5,000 NLHE), as well as the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop. The blind ante will also be featured in Daily Deepstack and Mega Satellite events during the series.

Do you like the new ante structure for the 2018 WSOP, or do you wish they would just leave the old-school ante rules in place? Share your thoughts in the comments below.