Blinds Structure

[Ben4040]

I am setting up a 10 player no-limit texas holdem tournament for some of my friends. The buy-in is only $5.00. The second place winner gets $5.00 and first place gets $45.00. I have searched the forum for an answer to my question, but it didn't turn up anything. My question involves blind structure and how to best raise them in order to keep the game moving.

For my tournament, I have structured the blinds to increase every time a person is eliminated from the tournament. The blinds start out at 4% of the average amount of chips held by each player (which begins at $5.00, so the blinds are $0.10 and $0.20; .20/5 * 100% = 4%). They then increase to 7.2%, then 9.6%, then 11.2%, then 12%, then 14%, then 14.4%, then 15.6%, and then finally 16% of the average amount held by each player. When the final two are playing heads up, the big blind will be 16% of the average amount of chips held by each player (which would be $25, so the blinds are $2/$4).

My question is: Are these percentages too much or will they be good for making sure that the game moves on at a nice pace. If at all possible, I don't want the tournaments to run more than 2 or 3 hours each. I don't want the people who get eliminated waiting too long for the next match.

To do all of this math, I set up an excel spreadsheet for blind structures of tournaments involving 5 to 10 players. All differ slightly, but once the final two players are at the table the blinds are generally at 8% - 16%.

[Silencer]

For the most part my reply is totally irrelevant for your situation but still fun. I played a small 3 player tournament with two friends for fun not to long ago. We started with 55,000 each in chips and started the blinds at 100/200. I didn't have all my stuff but we had a dice so every hand we rotated the dice by one, and every time we got back to 1 we doubled the blinds

By the end of the game the blinds were something liker 12,800/25,600 and it was crazy. Really put the pressure on, considering that as the chip leader I had like 100k and it was still 1/4 my chips for the big blind. Mega fun, though something like this would be useless for a serious game (unless you used something other than a dice, hehe, cus 6 hands just ain't enough).

[Leo]

you could use a time limit to raise blinds. if you don't want the tourny to last longer than 2-3 hours then raise the blind every 10-15 minutes.

[Ben4040]

So, you think my current plan for the blinds would probably cause the tournaments to run over 2 hours each?

[jwrussell]

I would definately change the plan on changing the blinds. Depending on everyone's skill level and how they play, you could have a very long game on your hand. If the majority are tight players you could be 2 hours without raising the blinds, let alone the entire tournament. I would go every X minutes or X number of hands. Standards seem to be 10-15 minutes or 10 hands.

Good luck and let us know how it goes. I'm putting together a tournament soon myself, so I'd be interested to here anything you learn from your experience.

[Ben4040]

Thanks for all the ideas. I particularly like the idea of raising the blinds every certain number of hands. What I had done in the past is doubled the blinds every 4 rotations of the table... but with up to 10 people playing, one rotation of the table could take a very long time. I have decided that the blinds are going to begin at $0.10 / $0.20 and double every 10 hands. The tournament is Sunday, I will be sure to let you know how it turns out. Thanks again.

[Ben4040]

The blinds begining at $0.10 / $0.20 and doubling every 10 hands seemed to work out great. Thank you all for the suggestions.