A queston on blinds.
My regular poker game consists of a group of 8-10 guys playing mini-NL holdem tournements (generally winner takes all). Several of the guys were hesitant to intruduce blinds in to the game, feeling it was too much money to anti. We all buy in for $20, and get $30 in chips, no re- buyins allowed. Everyone is now convinced that blinds are the way to go, so I was wondering how much they should start at, and how often they should increase, and to how much?
thanks,
Irah
thanks,
Irah
Comments
1-2
1-3
2-4
3-6
4-8
5-10
with maybe 10 or 15 minutes per round.
You could tweak this a little and make the initial stack sizes 40, and delete the 1-3 level. (Hey, that looks familiar...)
Do you mean to say that you previously had no blinds in your tournaments? Was there any ante? Having blinds is pretty standard, it's usually the *ante* that's optional (or in the case of tournaments, usually there's no ante at the beginning but it may be added to the later levels).
ScottyZ
If we went to your blind structure, would you suggest keeping the antes, or removing them?
And if you like having units of 0.25 tournament chips (although, I find a minimum unit of 1 to be less confusing), you can change the blind structure around a little bit. For example, the blinds in the first few rounds could even be something like:
0.75-1.50
1.50-3.00
2.00-4.00
etc
If you do like to use antes (there are some good reasons to do this, although it's non-standard), you'd have to keep the blinds *really* small with an initial stack of 30. Maybe something like:
0.25-0.50, ante 0.25
0.50-1.00, ante 0.25
1.00-2.00, ante 0.50
1.50-3.00, ante 0.50
2.00-4.00, ante 1.00
What I'd really suggest to make things easier is to make the starting stacks much bigger. Then a nice tournament structure (if you prefer antes) could be something like:
Initial stacks 400
2-4, ante 1
3-6, ante 1
4-8, ante 2
5-10, ante 2
10-15, ante 3
10-20, ante 5
15-30, ante 5
20-40, ante 10
This structure is pretty unusual in that the antes are much higher than usual (relative to the blinds). Note that in most rounds you are actually paying more ante than blinds.
If you don't really prefer antes all that much, you could even try the same blind structure (but with the antes removed) and maybe lower the initial stacks to 200 or 300.
As with all tournament structures, I can really only give you a rough idea, and you always want to be looking for ways to adjust the structure to meet your needs. E.g. Would you like the tournament to run longer or storter next time? Was the outcome based too much on luck rather than skill? Or did the skilled players have an overwhelming advantage?
ScottyZ
I think the only problem with such large initial stacks (400), is the tourney length. Sometimes we try to play more than one in a night, thats the reason for the small stacks; however, I like the blind structures you provided, and well test it out this weekend.
thanks,
It's actually not the initial stack size by itself that makes the tournament longer, it's the stack size relative to the blinds that matters. As a silly example, you can have a very quick tournament with initial stack size 10,000 (huge!), and 5,000-10,000 blinds.
However, if you leave the blinds *fixed* larger stacks will certainly lead to longer tournaments in general. I certainly wouldn't suggest starting with 400 chips and playing the structure:
0.25-0.50, ante 0.25
0.50-1.00, ante 0.25
1.00-2.00, ante 0.50
1.50-3.00, ante 0.50
2.00-4.00, ante 1.00
ScottyZ
Right. Also, this is (at least partially) the *reason* to have blinds instead of antes alone. You are taking away some of the power of the button by making the button act 3rd last pre-flop. The blinds are also positioned to force the two players in the worst (post-flop) position to put some money in the pot, which both gets the action going, and draws into the action the two least likely players who would have come in voluntarily.
ScottyZ
IMO, a tournament where the small blind in round one is 1 tournament chip is the nuts. 8)
ScottyZ
?
I just mean that it is usually a sign of a well-thought out (and easy to play) blind structure when the first round blinds are something like 1-2.
Of course, that's not all that matters, but it's a good start.
I think there are also some very subtle advantages that a good player has over bad players when tournament blind structures are small.
ScottyZ
ScottyZ