When should blinds go up?

[jdAA88]

thanks alot, this seems like a good idea.....another problem i've run into is with chip values...we have 500 chips to be split between 6 people....and with blinds like that what would you suggest?

[cabiness42]

500 chips should be more than enough for 6 people.

I'll assume you have 100 each of 5 different colors unless you tell me otherwise.

each player starts with 15 white = 0.10
each player starts with 14 red = 0.25
each player starts with 10 blue = 1.00
each player starts with 1 green = 5.00

When the blinds get to 0.50/1.00, you can remove the white chips and add in some black (10.00) chips.

Also, just so you know, unlike a cash game, the starting chip stack for each player does not have to equal the buy-in for a tournament. There's nothing wrong with doing it that way though.

[Lottery Larry]

[ QUOTE ]
each player starts with 15 white = 0.10
each player starts with 14 red = 0.25

[/ QUOTE ]

ugh ugh UGH! Never have chips that you can't divide into one another/make change for.

[cabiness42]

Well, you can change two 0.25 for five 0.10. If they have more than 100 of one color, they can make the smallest amoun 0.05 and start with a larger number of those. Otherwise, you're constantly making change and it slows the game down.

I guess to be ideal, I'd abandon the concept of having the starting chip stack equal the buy-in and just make the lowest blind level $25/50 like I do at my game.

[jdAA88]

okay so if i forget the idea of the chip stack = the buy in amount........how do i do it?

[EnsignVix]

What cabiness was saying is that you don't necessarily have to make your starting stack equal to your buy-in since you are playing a tournament. Another words, if you buy-in for $20, you do not need to start with $20 worth of tournament chips. It's fine how you are doing it, but not quite standard. Typically you would all start with a set amount, say $5,000, then make the initial blinds $25/$50.

If you are doing a cash game you should keep your low value chips and allow people to buy-in and cash out whenever they want.

[cabiness42]

Well, I use $25 as my smallest chip for the reason that it's only 4 chips up to the next value ($100) where if you use $5 it's 5 chips up to $25 or if you use $10 it's 5 chips up to $50. For a 6-player game it doesn't make much of a difference but if you ever grow to having more players it really saves on the number of chips you need.

Now, the standard would be to start blinds at 25/50 and then go to 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 150/300, 200/400, 300/600, 500/1000. I personally don't like doubling the blinds from level 1 to 2 so I start at 50/100 and then go to 75/150, 100/200, and so on, but that's really a matter of personal preference. In either case, just set your starting stack to be 50-100 times the first BB and then go from there.

I guess to sum it up in general terms, my order of thinking goes like this:

1) Determine chip values based on the number of players in the tournament and the number of each color chips that I have to use

2) Set the first BB = 2 times the value of the smallest chip (or 4 times if you're like me and don't want to double after the first level)

3) Set the starting chip stack to 50-100 times the first BB

4) Set the BB for your target end time to be about 2% of the total chips in play

5) Fill in the blind levels in between your start and end levels, plus add another level or two after your end level just in case you need them.