Articles
How to decide on a starting stack for your poker tournament? Thursday, 21 January 2010 21:57 |  |  | 
Before creating a blind structure for your poker tournament, you will have to decide on the starting stack. The starting stack is the total value of the chips each player starts the tournament with. The starting stack and the number of players will determine the total number of chips in play for the tournament. After this value is determined you will decide how long you want the tournament to last. With the planned duration and the total number of chips in play you can create a blind structure to ensure that your tournament will finish on time. But first you need to determine the starting stack for your tournament.
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How to determine at what blind level a poker tournament will endThursday, 21 January 2010 21:56 | | |
Poker tournaments have blinds that increase over time in order to force action and bring the tournament to an end. As a tournament is not over until one player has all the chips, the mounting blinds are a necessity or the tournament could go on forever. The question is, how high they have to get to end the tournament? Figuring this out is the first step towards building a good tournament blind structure. I will walk you through the logic I use for determining this end point:
Step 1: Determine total chips in play
Is it better to have longer blind levels or a smoother structure?Thursday, 21 January 2010 21:54 | | |
When planning a poker tournament there is never a single blind structure that will work given your requirements. You will need to make certain decisions that will affect the blind structure. One of these decisions is the length of the blind levels. Let’s look at an example. If you are planning a 6 hour freezeout tournament (no rebuys) for 18 players with starting stacks of 1500 and an initial big blind of 20; either one of the following structures would meet your requirements:
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About Blind ValetThursday, 21 January 2010 14:40 | | |
I am Jeff Kelley, the creator of Blind Valet. I am an American living and working in France since 2001. I have a full-time job, a wife and 2 children. So, Blind Valet, is just a little side project for me. I am an avid poker player. I play some online, although much less than I used to, and I occasionally play in cardrooms and casinos but my real preference is playing in home games. I love the camaraderie and atmosphere of playing with a group of friends. I started a regular home game with some friends in 2007 and we consistently have 8-15 people for the poker nights that are usually a mixture of No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournaments and cash games.
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