A tournament dealer can take two equal piles from the player in the big blind and count only one as the opening wager. The other funds the table's ante. Nobody has raised simply because that seat has pushed forward twice the blind amount.
In a big-blind ante format, one player supplies the ante for the table alongside that player's own blind. PokerStars' guide to dealing a hand, published on 26 January 2022, describes that collection responsibility.
One 400-chip payment, two entries
Take an invented tournament level with a 100 small blind, a 200 big blind and a 200 big-blind ante. Assume everyone can cover the required payments and no other ante or deduction applies. These are tournament units, not a cash denomination; our tournament-chip explainer separates chip counts from prize money.
The small blind supplies 100. The big-blind seat supplies 400 altogether: 200 as its live blind and another 200 as the table ante. There are 500 in the pot before voluntary action begins.
With no raise, a player who has paid neither blind calls 200. The ante has increased the pot without increasing that opening wager to 400. After that call, the pot contains 700. The distinction is between chips collected for the hand and chips credited towards a player's current bet.
When the stack is only 250
The WSOP Circuit structure packet for its July 2026 events gives a concrete payment instruction. Its Mini Main Event #1 sheet, with flights scheduled for 14 to 16 July, lists 100/200 blinds and a 200 ante at level one. The notes say that when the big blind holds less than two big blinds, the blind is posted first and the remainder becomes the ante.
Apply that published instruction to three invented stacks at that level. The numbers below describe compulsory posting, not a reported hand or a prize calculation.
| Stack before posting | Live big blind | Table ante paid |
|---|---|---|
| 400 | 200 | 200 |
| 250 | 200 | 50 |
| 150 | 150 | 0 |
Each row exhausts the stated stack. With 250 available, the first 200 covers the blind and only 50 remains for the ante. With 150, the whole amount goes towards the blind. Reversing the payment order would change those entries, so it cannot be treated as an incidental detail.
The 250-chip payment in the middle row still includes only 200 towards the live wager. Recording the whole 250 as a blind would change the betting record without support from the structure's instruction.
Which version decides the order?
The Poker Tournament Directors Association's 2026 longform rules, version 1.1 dated 21 September, recommend the big-blind-first calculation in Recommended Procedure 11. The downloaded document includes the recommended procedures as well as the numbered rules.
A separate TDA forum copy of the recommended procedures still describes an ante-first calculation in RP-11. That wording must not be substituted for the dated 2026 document. Nor does a TDA recommendation establish the policy of every tournament: its own introduction places the association's rules alongside house rules and applicable gaming requirements.
Posting order is separate from deciding which pots a short stack can win. Our table stops after the forced payments. It does not assign the short stack a maximum winning pot; that requires the event's rule on who can win the ante and the rest of the hand's contributions.
The ordinary side-pot example assumes no separate ante pot. Carrying that assumption into a big-blind-ante dispute would leave out the very payment that needs explaining. Returning after an absence, covered in our missed-blinds article, is another procedure again.
A photograph of two piles cannot establish which payment order the event adopted or how its ante may be won. The structure and the eligibility ruling have to describe the same hand.
