Pot Limit Omaha tournament "to ante or not to ante, that's the question"

[DutchTD076]

I'm pretty experienced at NLH but fairly new at PLO and I understand that it is uncommon to use ante's in PLO tournaments. Can anyone explain to me why that is?

Note: Someone allready told me that the first raise otherwise could get too big but I think that's a weak argument. If anyone could explain to me why that isn't a weak argument, my question would be answered as well. 

Thanks in advance!

[Nick C]

Dutch.

I would agree that it's more trouble than it's worth. PLO is one of the most challenging games for dealers and players. Most games have fixed maximum raises established based on the size of the blinds. generally 3 and one-half times the BB or 7 times the SB. Of course, some rooms allow 4 times the BB assuming the SB will be completed to the BB. Including antes would alter the pot size and based on the number of players, could keep changing from hand to hand. I guess you could "wave" the antes for the purpose of the pre-flop pot limit bet. That's all I've got. I rarely play the game so you might want to hear from others.

[Dave Miller]

Dutch -

I see your point that "first raise is too big" is a weak argument. Nick hinted at the real reason: Those little ante chips makes calculating a pot sized raise tricky. I.E. Say it's 100/200/25 seven handed. First player in wants to raise pot. How much does he bet? 875. If there's a re-raise, it really starts to hurt your brain.

So the hard math is why there's no ante.

But now, it's tradition that keeps it that way. After all, if the PLO tourney was done with a Big Blind Ante, 100/200/200, then calculating an under the gun pot sized raise is the same as a no ante tourney but with one limper before the raise. 900.

[Boris]

Hello folks,

I would to like to add that first "raise too big" is not a weak argument.
PLO is a game where the preflop odds are always decent to go to see the flop, because you will hit something on the flop most of the time.

So if the maximum raise is too high, the game lose its momentum.

Also, the Pot Limit system prevent players to go all-in preflop with no action pending which is a huge difference with No Limit.
In PLO, if you have 10 Big Blinds, you need someone to raise before you can move all your chips in. That is part of game strategy.

Anyway, I am glad to see Omaha is getting more popular =)