A big blind ante is an ante bet posted by the player in the big blind. In a big blind ante setup, instead of every player posting their own ante every hand, the player in the big blind posts the full amount.
For example, in a Texas Hold’em tournament playing 1,000/2,000 with 2,000 big blind ante, the player in the big blind will post a total of 4,000 (their blind bet plus the full ante bet).
The concept was introduced to speed up the play and remove the confusion that can often ensue when every player at the table has to post an ante with every hand. This is much harder for the dealer to track and can lead to unnecessary delays.
Nowadays, almost all of the biggest poker tournaments are played with a big blind ante, and this concept has become the industry standard.
