Conventional flop / community card poker uses blinds as the forced betting to start the game. Whilst antes are also used at later stages in main tournaments they are rarely used in cash games. This comparison considers the dynamics of conventional poker using blinds and PTG Poker using antes. Certain assumptions need to be made in order to illustrate the comparison. This does not mean that the comparison is only valid with those assumptions.
Assume a Holdem game that is either no limit or pot limit. Assume stacks are deep. Assume ten players. Assume blinds are 10 / 20 in conventional poker and antes are 5 in PTG Poker with 5 being a minimum call and first position being first to call.
There is 30 in the pot. A caller is risking 20 into a pot of 30 for a value ratio of 1.5 to 1.
There is 50 in the pot. A caller is risking 5 into a pot of 50 for a value ratio of 10 to 1.
The conventional poker caller has a value ratio of only 15% of the PTG Poker caller. There is far more incentive to call, rather than fold, at PTG Poker.
There is 30 in the pot. The raiser raises the size of the pot. So the raiser makes it a total of 70, being the 20 to call and the pot raise of 50. The value ratio of 70 into a pot of 30 is 0.43 to 1.
There is 50 in the pot. The first player to play raises the bring amount to the size of the pot to 50. The value ratio of 50 to 50 is 1 to 1.
The conventional poker raiser has a value ratio of only 43% of the PTG Poker raiser. There is more incentive to raise, rather than fold or call, at PTG Poker.
There is more incentive to call, rather than fold, or raise, rather than fold or call, at PTG Poker. There should be fewer uncontested pots at PTG Poker, less heads-up pots at PTG Poker and more multi-way pots at PTG Poker. As it is harder for a strong player to dominate multiple players than it is to dominate one player heads-up, weaker players have better equity at PTG Poker.
