[FeelLikeANut]

I was on here about a week ago asking about chips, chip sets, and the like. What I also got was some advice about blinds and starting stacks. So I made some changes, and I'd like to see what people think.

Here is my new blind schedule. This is for a T1000 with ten players.

1. 5 / 10
2. 10 / 20
3. 15 / 30
4. 20 / 40
5. 30 / 60
6. 40 / 80
   (COLOR-UP 5-VALUE CHIPS)
7. 50 / 100
8. 75 / 150
9. 100 / 200
10. 125 / 250
11. 150 / 300
12. 200 / 400
13. 250 / 500
    (COLOR-UP 25-VALUE CHIPS)
14. 300 / 600
15. 400 / 800
16. 500 / 1,000

And for the starting stack, I came up with:

• 5-value x 20 -- 100 in chips
• 25-value x 12 -- 300 in chips
• 100-value x 6 -- 600 in chips

I know people told me that I should have more 25-value chips because they will be the most frequently used chip, but while they may be used for betting pre-flop and after the flop, players will probably dip into the 100-value chips for betting after the turn and after the river, even at the low-level blinds if the betting was heavy.

I also tried to consider what the stacks would look like when the tournament got down to 4 players or heads-up. At this point, the 100-value chip would almost certainly be the most common betting chip, and I didn't want the 25-value chips to completely dwarf the 100-value chips at this point in the game.

Using the starting stack I noted above and with four players left out of the original ten, the average stack would be 25-value x 32 and 100-value x 17; at heads-up, the average stack would be 25-value x 60 and 100-value x 35.

At least that was my reasoning for it all.
Let me know what you all think!

[jello-broom]

How long are your blind levels? I'm guessing 15 minutes?

[Lucky Louie]

Thats about a 4 hour tourney if you do 15 minute blinds. Also, you will need 30 100's to chip up the 25's and an extra 40 25's to chip up your 5's (on top of the 60 and 200 you issue originally) You might get a wee bit short on the 25's but the way you have your blinds, there aren't as many times you need them as some other structures I see. On the surface, I would say it looks reasonable.

[pkf655]

When my game has a T1000 we have a pretty similur structure, but we would take out the 30/60 and the 40/80 blind levels and do a 25/50, then color up the 5's at this point then next level is 50/100. Takes out one blind level and shortens the game just a little bit.

[jdunford]

That looks pretty good. Give it a try.

After that tournament, you might find that 20 x T5 chips to start is more than you need... I use 15-13-6 just because it saves some time during the first colour-up. I've also done 20-16-5 for players who like big stacks... but most of the people I play with don't like too many chips on the table. You'll still have the same number of T100 chips in play after the 2nd colour-ups.

As pkf655 mentioned, you might also find that it's less confusing to have longer levels that go up by more, rather than shorter levels that don't go up much (especially early on). My T1000 tournaments start with:

5 / 10
10 / 20
15 / 30
20 / 40
35 / 70
colour-up
50 / 100
:
or

5 / 10
10 / 20
15 / 30
25 / 50
40 / 80
colour-up
50 / 100
:
and even that's a lot of levels (I'm thinking of removing some). Then you could make them slightly longer at each level (if, say, you still want the first colour-up a the 90-minute mark, change your 15 minute levels to 18 minute levels).

I do like the way your big blind doubles every 2 levels until later in the tournament... That's usually what I aim for, and I always prefer the blinds to move slowly early on so everyone has a chance to play good poker without risk of getting blinded out early on... So try what you have there, and you can always change whatever you didn't like and keep what worked.

[dboy1970]

I am one that prefer a larger starting stacks--- it does slows down our play --we dont do color ups so adding those 5 and 10 chips is always a pain. For t1000 i start with
t5= 10
t1-=15
t25-16
100=4

for a t4000 i start with (SMALL NPS Paulson set)
8-t25s
10-t50
8-t100
4-t500
1-t1000

[CallToSee]

That does seem like a slow blind progression to me, although perhaps you like a longer, slower game (which is cool). I know everyone has their own preferences, but here is what I use, and it works very well (using 5/25/100 denoms):

5/10
10/20
15/30
(colorup)
25/50
50/100
(optional color up)
100/200
200/400
300/600
500/1000
1000/2000

This starts kind of slow, making it fairly easy for most people to stay in for the first three rounds, then accelerates as the table gets smaller.

I do 20 minute rounds, and usually wrap up a tournament in about 2.5 hours. As a result, I usually run two tourns back to back in an evening. These blinds work well in part because most people get to play for the first hour, and once several people are out, it's only about an hour until the next game starts, so folks aren't waiting too long.

For what it's worth

[FeelLikeANut]

you might find that 20 x T5 chips to start is more than you need

Well, one thing that I never liked at games is players constantly needing to make change. I think they should have enough to splash around a little bit until they win a hand and collect some 5-value chips back again, but no more than is needed for that purpose.

I do 20 minute rounds, and usually wrap up a tournament in about 2.5 hours.

I had something more similar to this at first, but then the first few people out play for only an hour or so. One hour seems unsatisfying, especially considering a player might be involved in only one-third of the hands or fewer. If it's a home game, then it's a little less about winning, and a little more about just playing. I think the blinds shouldn't force people to move fast until about two hours into the game.

Besides, blinds creep up faster than it looks. When blinds double, in a single moment you can go from a solid stack of 50xBB to a semi-comfortable stack of 25xBB; one round later and you're down to a nearly-desperate stack of 12xBB.

[FeelLikeANut]

Just for something a little extra: I got a little too mathematical and came up with two blind strucutres -- both based on the golden ratio (one of those crazy-looking numbers that just happens to appear again and again in nature and mathematics).

1. 5 / 10
2. 10 / 20
3. 20 / 40
4. 30 / 60
5. 60 / 120
   REMOVE 5-VALUE CHIPS
6. 100 / 200
7. 150 / 300
   REMOVE 25-VALUE CHIPS
8. 200 / 400
9. 400 / 800
10. 600 / 1,200

This is, I think, a moderately-fast blind structure -- about as fast as what CallToSee posted, but without the back-to-back doubling. To slow it down, I used the square-root of the golden ratio in place of the golden ratio itself.

1. 5 / 10
2. 10 / 20
3. 15 / 30
4. 20 / 40
5. 30 / 60
6. 45 / 90
7. 60 / 120
8. 80 / 160
   REMOVE 5-VALUE CHIPS
9. 100 / 200
10. 150 / 300
11. 200 / 400
12. 250 / 500
13. REMOVE 25-VALUE CHIPS
14. 300 / 600
15. 400 / 800
16. 500 / 1,000
17. 600 / 1,200

[jello-broom]

Originally Posted by FeelLikeANut

This is, I think, a moderately-fast blind structure --

Blind levels that creep up slowly are great ... but when the levels only last 10 or 15 minutes, it's not so great (imo). I would prefer a blind schedule that doesn't have ALOT of levels that appears "agressive" but has longer lasting levels (about 30 minutes or more) ... with 9 blind levels (at 30 minutes) it's still approximately 4.5+ hours of playing ... but I say this with a preference for longer running tourneys.

I like the 1st blind schedule you recently posted ... I like something like this ... but with AT LEAST 30 minute levels (or more) :

1. 5 - 10
2. 10 - 20
3. 15 - 30
4. 30 - 60
5. 50 - 100
6. 100 - 200
7. 200 - 400
8. 400 - 800
9. 500 - 1000