When should blinds go up?

[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.