Ante

Also known as: antes, traditional ante

A forced bet every player posts before the deal, adding dead money to the pot and incentivizing wider play.

An ante is a mandatory contribution from each player before cards are dealt, separate from the blinds. Traditionally every player posts a small amount each hand; the modern tournament shortcut is the Big Blind Ante (BBA), where one player posts the lot. Either way the effect is identical: more dead money sits in the middle.

That dead money changes preflop incentives. The price to win the pot improves, so opening ranges widen, steal attempts increase, and the blinds defend wider because they are getting a better immediate price. Antes also accelerate the tournament by growing pots relative to stacks, pushing play toward push/fold sooner.

Always fold antes into your stack metrics — M-ratio explicitly includes total antes in the orbit cost, and the effective pot you are attacking is the blinds plus every ante.