Ante Games

Most of the non-community draw games tend to be ante games. Ante games are also forced bets; however, they differ from the community card games in that ante bets should be placed by every player who is participating in the play before any hole card has been dealt.

The purpose of the ante in any casino game is because the players will be serious enough to play in the game if they invest money. If there were no ante, the hole cards can be taken for a free ride by those who will not play until they get the best cards they should be getting. If there were no ante, there will be lot of players playing the game and until they see real good pockets they might be folding every now and then. Having such players is not going to contribute to the profits of the site in anyway and it is going to be irritable for other players in the big table.

Some games tend to have antes and blinds. It depends upon the site and the kind of game and the exclusive rules applicable to the site where you are playing at. Ante games are played for all kinds of betting structures including the no-limit, pot-limit and the spread limit kind of games.

After the antes are made, the game and the betting process proceeds like any other game with the regular applicable norms for call, raise and re-raise. Most of the ante games have restrictions for check-raise in the first round of play and again this varies between casino sites and the place where you are playing your game at.

Some of the sites provide with penny ante games and some provide with $1 ante games also. Depending upon the betting limit and the permitted legal limits ante limits can be as high as the site proposes.

Ante games are interesting than the regular ring games because the first bet that you will be making in the table will be worth the pot. All the players in the game would have made the ante including you and the bets would be worth the juicy pot.

Bring ins are used in ante games and very rarely are the small blind and the big blind bets used in ante games like in community board games. Rarely are ante games played with the "small blind and big blind bets."

Bring in refers to the first bet made in the table after the antes are made. In some games, bring in is done by the player clockwise next to the dealer. In some games like stud the bring in is positional where the first bet will be made by the high rank up card or the low rank card per the rules applicable for the game that you are playing.

5 card Stud poker, 7 card stud, and draw poker games and related variants are the major games which use the ante bets as a part of their gaming procedure. In an attempt to make the games different some of the game developers are working to integrate ante system in community games too.