LIVE - Blind structure w/ huge antes!

[Yoshi63]

This weekend I played in a pair of NLHE tournaments ($150 and $250) that followed the following blind structure:

http://www.wildhorseresort.com/PDF_F...ureNoLimit.pdf

The thing that struck me as strange (these were my first live MTT tournaments) was the large antes! For example, you can see that at the 1200/2400 level, the antes are 400 (9-way tables). This accounts for as much as the small and big blind combined. I am used to most online tournaments where the combined antes totals up to something between the SB and BB.

Is it normal to see such large antes in live tournaments? What type of adjustments should be made to account for this (besides being looser and playing more pots, obviously). Is it still advisable to look for spots to shove when your M is near 5, especially when the players are folding to shoves very frequently?

[illini43]

Yes, antes are almost always much larger live than online. You need to open up your raising range when tight players are in the blinds to take advantage of this.

There is a thread from a dozen or so days ago about M's related to the structure. Let's say you have an M of 5.

In an online structure, you might reach this point when you have about 10BB's, say you have 40000 at 2000/4000 a250. It's getting to be obvious that you are short stacked.

Now, for a better example of how sneaky large antes can be in regards to M: With that same 40000 chip stack, and blinds at 1200/2400 a400, your M would be ~5.5.

The blinds are almost half of the other example, yet the M's are about the same because of the large antes. Most live players don't understand how much the antes make a difference in the number of hands you should be playing.