What are antes?

Like blinds, antes are forced bets, only this time every player (including the blinds) must put in the bet or ‘ante’ before the cards are dealt. If the blinds are 150/300/25, the 25 bit is the ante. They are most common in tournaments and usually come into play after the early levels as a device to force the action. In terms of size an ante is usually somewhere between one-tenth and one-sixth of the big blind. What are the pros?

Just as players dislike leaving their blinds behind, they detest giving up their antes too. So they stay in pots when they shouldn’t.