How to Determine Ante and Blinds in a Poker Game

Blinds and antes keep a poker game moving and encourage the players to stay in on poor hands. If you're holding your own amateur poker game, you'll need to determine the blinds and antes ahead of time and communicate them to the rest of the players. Here are some tips on how to make it go smoothly.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Decide what the chip values will be depending on how many colors of chips you have. If you have 5 different colored chips, then the values can be in denominations of 1 through 5 in dollars or cents, for example.

2. Determine your ante, the amount put in the pot by each player at the beginning of the hand. It should be smaller with a lot of people and more expensive with fewer people. For a 10-person table, one or two of the smallest chips will work the best.

3. Utilize a big blind and a small blind instead of, or on top of, the ante. A blind is a required bet that will count toward what the player puts down on that hand. At the start of the game, the small blind is directly left of the dealer with the big blind directly left of the small blind. The small blind should be half to double the ante. The big blind should be double the small blind.

4. Raise the ante and the blinds every half hour to two hours depending on how fast you want the game to go. The blinds should continue to rotate around the table clockwise.