T1000 -Which one do you prefer?. Discuss T1000 -Which one do you prefer?, on ChipTalk.net the place to go for your Poker chips and gambling tips. Read it in Tournament Structures.
I'll vote for the 2nd (or something in between) because I've never been a fan of suddenly doubling the blinds from 25-50 to 50-100. That announces to everyone that the levels up to that point meant nothing and you'd might as well have sat out until the 5's were coloured up.
On the other hand, your 2nd structure really slows down the early levels... maybe too much. You could easily go:
5-10
10-20
15-30
25-50
35-70
50-100
75-150
...
That way, you still have the "doubling every other level" going on for higher levels, but get through the really early levels fairly smoothly (no sudden increases)... and you colour out the 5's after level 5 - rather than level 3 or 6, as in your suggestions.
This is how my T1000 starts, anyway. The only problem with it (that I've noticed) is you typically have to put up with people making change from the pot during the 35-70 level...
I'd go with two. You might have to up the blinds on the latter rounds and add ante to the structure. It might be too slow in the later rounds. I think 20 min might be long enough.
If the buy in was like $125 then I'd like the 25 min blinds.
We use the first one. Almost exactly, except we cap it at 500/1000. This usually happens when it's heads up (we have 12-15 players). This way the short stack isn't blinded off. This will prove real poker skills.
We use a 25 minute blind schedule and color-up the 5's after 15-30. and color-up the 25's after 150-300.
I'll vote for the 2nd (or something in between) because I've never been a fan of suddenly doubling the blinds from 25-50 to 50-100. That announces to everyone that the levels up to that point meant nothing and you'd might as well have sat out until the 5's were coloured up.
On the other hand, your 2nd structure really slows down the early levels... maybe too much. You could easily go:
5-10
10-20
15-30
25-50
35-70
50-100
75-150
...
That way, you still have the "doubling every other level" going on for higher levels, but get through the really early levels fairly smoothly (no sudden increases)... and you colour out the 5's after level 5 - rather than level 3 or 6, as in your suggestions.
This is how my T1000 starts, anyway. The only problem with it (that I've noticed) is you typically have to put up with people making change from the pot during the 35-70 level...
I agree this would be a better level of increase, but as you say the 35-70 level is a bit of a pain in the a** when using 5-25-100 denoms, and the main reason I don't want to use it.
You can throw a 25/75 level in between 25/50 and 50/100. M goes from 75 to 100 to 150. Nice and smooth. I did a tournament with "rational" increases in blinds and decided that it was just too much of a PITA to use the 5's to make the blinds "correct". Everyone just bet in normal increments with 100's and 25's after the blinds were posted anyway. My next set is simply eliminating the problematic 5's altogether.
We regularly do a T200 but with 99%Evil's new chips (look for a M2M offering soon as he will look for new set) we multiplied everything by 5 to get a T1000
15 minute blinds (if someone will be late we do the 1st round for 30 min)
5-10
10-20
15-30
20-40 (color up 5s)
25-50 (end of rebuys - only one per player)
50-100
75-150 (color up 25s)
100-200
200-400 (usually doesn't ever go past this)
300-600
400-800 etc.
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