Texas Holdem Starting Chips
What are poker blinds ?
Based on the limit of the poker game the player to the left of the dealer’s button (small blind) and the player two to the left of the dealer (big blind) are required to place mandatory bets in the pot before cards are dealt (Small blind has to put half of the big blinds amount). These bets count toward the first round of betting. So if the pot is not raised pre-flop, small blind will only have to put half a bet to call and big blind has the option of raising or just checking.
In a poker tournament, blinds go up gradually. This is to ensure that the tournament finishes on a timely manner. (the higher the blinds get the more players tend to get eliminated).
Blinds usually go up after predetermined periods of time. (for example every 15 or 20 minutes).
Two main factors determine blind structure of the game:
- Starting chip amount
- How long you want the tournament to last.
Each player should begin with $1000 in tournament chips (ex. $50 buy-in equals $1000 in tournament chips). If you would like the tournament to last longer, the starting number of chips can be increased to $1500. If you would like to speed up a tournament, antes can be added during the later rounds. Notes on Round Length. In a cash game, a player’s chip stack is directly representative of the starting stack. As you win or lose, that stack can grow or decrease. For a $1/$2 No Limit Hold’em cash game, a player might buy into the game for $200. The aim of the game in Texas Holdem poker is to make the best possible decisions in terms of betting to ensure you win as many chips as possible over multiple hands. The first big blind should be 1/50 of the starting chip amount. (or the starting chip amount should be 50 times the starting big blind). So if everyone starts with 1000 in chips the first big blind should be 10/20. Blind period is the time each blind lasts: Typical tournament blind periods are 10, 15, 20, 30, or 60 minutes. Sep 06, 2007 400 poker chips for 6-8 players. 500 poker chips for 8-10 players. You should start seeing a pattern above. For most tournaments, a good starting stack is about 25-50 poker chips for each player.
Poker Blind Structure Tips
- The first big blind should be 1/50 of the starting chip amount. (or the starting chip amount should be 50 times the starting big blind). So if everyone starts with 1000 in chips the first big blind should be 10/20.
- Blind period is the time each blind lasts:
- Typical tournament blind periods are 10, 15, 20, 30, or 60 minutes.
- Blinds period should be the same for every blind.
- The faster the blind period is the faster the tournament ends and the more luck involves. So it’s a good idea to have slightly longer blind periods at your house game. 15 or 20 minute blind periods are good choices. Blinds in online websites tend to go up faster. This is because online poker action is much faster than live poker.
- Blinds typically double after each round. If the first big blind is 10/20, the next one should be 20/40.
Calculate Blind Structure
Follow these simple steps to create blind structure that best fits your game:
- Decide your starting chip amount.
- Divide it by 50. This should be your first big blind.
- Make your final big blind (when the tournament should finish) equal to your starting chip amount.
- Arrange the middle level blinds so that they gradually increase from your first big blind to the last one. It is best to keep the first couple blind periods low.
- Add the period (times) together. If it seems too long takes couple levels off the chart, and if it seems short add couple level to the chart.
Sample Tournament Blind Structure Chart
Following is a chart of recommended blind structures based on different starting chip stacks :
| Blind Period | Chip Stack | |||
| 100 | 1000 | 2500 | 5000 | |
| 1 | 1/2 | 10/20 | 25/50 | 50/100 |
| 2 | 2/4 | 20/40 | 50/100 | 100/200 |
| 3 | 3/6 | 30/60 | 75/150 | 150/300 |
| 4 | 5/10 | 50/100 | 100/200 | 200/400 |
| 5 | 10/20 | 75/150 | 200/400 | 300/600 |
| 6 | 15/30 | 100/200 | 300/600 | 500/1000 |
| 7 | 25/50 | 150/300 | 500/1000 | 750/1500 |
| 8 | 50/100 | 200/400 | 750/1500 | 1000/2000 |
| 9 | 75/150 | 300/600 | 1000/2000 | 1500/3000 |
| 10 | 100/200 | 400/800 | 1500/3000 | 2000/4000 |
| 11 | 150/300 | 500/1000 | 2000/4000 | 3000/6000 |
| 12 | 200/400 | 1000/2000 | 2500/5000 | 5000/10000 |
I'm sure you're capable of buying beer and nuts. If your friends want coke and sweets, fine, that's what you get them. Mussels and red wine? Do it.
I won't touch on that part of your poker night. You should know your friends. However, there are a few small things that may ruin the fun.
If you don't set up a good blind structure and sensible chip values, people will be confused and annoyed. Do it well and your home tournament will run smoothly.
Blind periods
In a home game, I would go with 20 minute periods at least, seeing how slowly most people deal.
If you think the tournament will drag on too long, it's probably better to adjust the starting stacks than the blind periods.
Ending time
There's no way of knowing for sure when a tournament will end, but here's a rule of thumb that will help you avoid disasters.
The tournament will end in the blind period where the big blind is more than 5% of the total chips.
Example: If 10 players start out with 10,000 in chips each, the total chips are 100,000. Hence, the tournament will end in the period where the big blind reaches 5,000.
Again, this is a very crude rule, but you will avoid having to stay up the whole night - unless you want to.
Blind structure
Usually you want to increase the blinds by 50% from level to level, so that the big blind doubles every two levels. If you double it every level, it's a fast structure.
Example: 100/200 - 200/300 - 200/400
On the other hand, you should probably use some 'natural' blind levels that people expect, rather than rigidly doubling every two levels.
Example: rather than 200/400 - 300/600 - 400/800 - 600/1200, you might want to go with 250/500 - 400/800 - 500/1000 - 750/1500.
Texas Holdem Rules Starting Chips
On the third hand, you should avoid mixing in small chip nominations late in the structure. Blinds of 1250 or 3725 will give your friends a really bad headache.
Example: To avoid this, it's quite fine to do 300/500 instead of 250/500, or 800/1500 instead of 750/1500.
There are a lot of parameters, but you'll be fine if you avoid the worst mistakes.
Example blind structure
1. 25/50
2. 50/100
3. 75/150
4. 100/200
5. 150/300
6. 250/500
7. 400/800
8. 500/1000
9. 800/1500
10. 1000/2000
11. 2000/3000
12. 2500/5000
13. 4000/8000
14. 5000/10,000
Starting stack
The standard starting stack would be 100 to 200 times the big blind of the first blind level.
Example: If you start with blinds 25/50, you could use a starting stack of 5,000 or 10,000.
The starting stack affects both how deep stacked the players are and the length of the tournament. Regarding the ending time, see above.
If you want to start with deep stacks to get some real play early on but don't want to play all night, you could use a faster structure.
Example: To get a faster structure, remove level 1, 3, 5 etc. from the blind structure above.
Texas Hold'em Starting Chips
Chip nominations
To make the betting easy, chip values should go up by a factor 4 or 5 between each step.
Example: Avoid using both 100 and 200 chips. It gets messy.
Example: Comfortable chip nominations for the above blind structure would be 25, 100, 500 and 2000. If your people find 2000 too weird, you can go with 1000 or 5000 instead.