[Bindlestiff]

Question... I'm aware that timed blinds are the "proper" way to go but in some not-too serious home games that I've attended we've just raised the blinds every once (or twice) around the table. No particular reason... I guess timed blinds just seems sort of "serious" or overly official for a fun home game (granted buy-ins are usually ~$150 over the course of the night). The "once around the table" method seems to have worked out ok.

How bad is this? Does this result in some sort of bias?

I haven't really thought it through... I guess doing it this way could create an incentive for the big stacks to play fewer hands, allowing the blinds to increase quicker, causing more problems for the short stacks?

Anyways, I figured someone could probably explain the advantage(s) of timed blinds?

[Bindlestiff]

Sorry, I guess one obvious answer to my question is that doing the "once or twice around the table method" means the blinds start going up increasingly fast (to a pre-determined max) once the table starts to get short-handed. In most cases this would probably be annoying but we actually like to wrap things up quickly (if artificially) in order to get another game started with everyone involved. We normally play 3 quick 2-hr tourneys in a night.

The fast blind increases at the end removes some of the skill but that's the trade-off for keeping people involved I suppose...

[Wylecoyo]

I have played the "every time around the table" way and it worked just fine. I think the advantage of the timed blind method is the fact it forces people to play rather than waste time and it is easier to keep track of where the blinds are and when they are to increase.

Play the way you like.

[gmunny]

Originally Posted by Bindlestiff

Question... I'm aware that timed blinds are the "proper" way to go but in some not-too serious home games that I've attended we've just raised the blinds every once (or twice) around the table. No particular reason... I guess timed blinds just seems sort of "serious" or overly official for a fun home game (granted buy-ins are usually ~$150 over the course of the night). The "once around the table" method seems to have worked out ok.

How bad is this? Does this result in some sort of bias?

I haven't really thought it through... I guess doing it this way could create an incentive for the big stacks to play fewer hands, allowing the blinds to increase quicker, causing more problems for the short stacks?

Anyways, I figured someone could probably explain the advantage(s) of timed blinds?

I think time blinds are really necessary for multi-table tourney so everyone's blinds raise at the same rate. If you are playing single table tourney, I don't see a problem with raising the blinds based on rotation. When we play single table tourneys, we raise the blinds every 2nd rotation +1. We add the +1 so the same player does not pay the raised blind every time. We also increase the blinds if someone busts out. This method seems to be okay and we don't really feel like it's a big crap shoot.
G$