Tournament Blind Protocol When You Go To Heads Up
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 98
I never thought about this before I ran into it myself. Playing a small cruise NLH tournament yesterday for something to do. We get down to three-handed. Hero is SB. BB and button go all in and button wins. Going to heads up Hero is button. Since BB (who would have been SB in next hand) got knocked out I thought we would play with a BB but no SB. Dealer said otherwise so Hero ended up posting SB. No big deal but I'd like to know if this was the correct ruling. Given that the "cruise" rules were somewhat different from "normal" poker rules (for example, raises had to be at least double the total previous bet) I'd like to get an informed answer to this question.
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 3,616
In heads-up play, the small blind is on the button, always. To determine who is the button for the first hand of heads-up, look at who posted the higher blind on the previous hand. If one of you was the big blind on the previous hand, they are the button for the first hand heads-up. If neither of you was the big blind, then whichever of you posted the small blind on the previous hand gets the button for the first hand of heads-up. If neither of you posted a blind on the previous hand, then whomever was in the earliest position on the previous hand gets the button.
Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 2,993
Is it common protocol to drop the antes once it gets heads up, and only have BB and SB? I guess the theory being when it's heads up, keeping the antes is really just increasing the BB and SB since you'll never just be paying an ante alone, instead always in conjunction with a blind. I've seen some tourny circuits drop antes heads up, and others not. I guess it varies by location.
