inverted blinds, why not?
 

In "Omaha Poker" by Bob Ciaffone, he suggested that the game would be improved if the size of the blinds decreased as they got further away from the button, which is the opposite of conventional blind structure. This is so the person with the greatest positional handicap has the biggest incentive to enter the action, stimulating the game.

This seems like a great idea for all forms of poker that use blinds, but unfortunately tradition dies hard as he says. How do you think it would change the games, and do you think these changes would be an improvement? I imagine blind wars would be very different, with the small blind rarely just giving up.

Re: inverted blinds, why not?
 

"RARELY just givin up" b/c now i have an extra half blind out there? i don't think so. the positional disadvantage is still the same. it will never happen not only b/c tradition dies hard but also b/c it puts the small blind @ a bigger disadvantage.

Re: inverted blinds, why not?
 

I'm talking about the "new" small blind, which would be on the left of the "new" big blind.

Re: inverted blinds, why not?
 

Say what?

With inverted blinds it does not put small blind at disadvantage. If SB raises the BB is OOP -> raising from SB is better than with normal blinds.

This of course makes the most difference if just the blinds are left (no one called preflop before getting to big blind).

Re: inverted blinds, why not?
 

this would be kindof weird

if it gets raised and im in the sb (now bb)
id call a lot more instead of 3b
to try to knock the bb out (now sb)

and if it gets folded arounded to the blinds

id raise more from the sb (now bb)

say the blinds are 10/5

its like youre betting $10 to win $15
instead of betting $15 to win $15

and the bb (now sb) will be less apt to call
since he only has $5 invested in the pot

Re: inverted blinds, why not?
 

The BB and the SB are clearly the furthest players from the dealer and already at the biggest disadvantage. I suppose you could play with a SB-only arrangement of some kind, with dead-money blinds, or positional ante.

Re: inverted blinds, why not?
 

it would make preflop action super clumsy, which I think is a reason to disregard it in its self (ie if everyone folds to you and you are the big blind, it makes sense that the action closes; it would be weird if there was still one more person to act)

Re: inverted blinds, why not?
 

In normal 100bb cash games I don't think it would make all that big a difference. In single blind and same-size blind games there's only a minor effect.

In smaller stack games, this could wreak all sorts of havoc though. Plus we'd all have to go study new jam/fold tables and whatnot.

I do think it's kind of awkward. The small blind commits less in blinds, but has worse position compared to the big blinds. That seems reasonable.