Tournament Blinds

[rich8]

We have a yearend tournament in December. Chips have been earned throughout the year based upon finishes in the monthly tournaments. We will have about 6,000 or 7,000 worth of chips in play (depends on optional extra buyins) and 15 players. Chip stacks will vary from 200 to 800.

I want/think I need to cap the blinds at some point. At what level should I cap it based upon 6,000 or 7000 chips in play? Is there a formula for a max blinds for a certain amount of chips in play.

Currently blinds are

1-2
2-4
4-8
5-10
10-20
20-40
25-50
50-100
75-150 (capped)
100-200 (when down to 2 players)

Thanks in advance.

[jimmer]

It really depends on you.

How long do you want the tourney to last?
How often are you going to increase the blinds?
Why do you want to cap the blinds?
Why are you planning to only play 100-200 blinds with two players?

Different tourney's have different structures. The better players should be aware of the structure and adjust their game accordingly.

[rich8]

I want to cap the blinds because there should be "real" poker instead of just all ins at the end. Assume the final 2 both have 50% of the chips 3000 vs 3000

If the blinds are 100-200, that means each player will have only 15x the bb. I thought I read somewhere that you should have about 50x the bb in cash games.

Should that same number apply to a tournament?

The plan was to increase the blinds every 20 or 25 minutes. Should finish in about 3 or 4 hrs.

[Jauron]

Maybe throw in a 35-70 round, that jump is pretty brutal from 25-50 to 50-100. I'd cut the cap before 2 players left, no reason to cap then uncap. I think 100/200 is good cap, will allow for some play late, at least allow someone to fold a hand or two.

The only thing I'm confused about is why are you figuring blinds out if this tourney is the result of others? Same blind structure should exist IMO, just add blinds past normal cap to compensate for extra chips.

[HalfSugar]

Maybe throw in a 35-70 round, that jump is pretty brutal from 25-50 to 50-100.

The whole structure is brutal. Level 6 is 50 times what level 1 is.

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

1/2
2/4
3/6
5/10
10/20
15/30
20/40
25/50
30/60
40/80
50/100
75/150
100/200

Makes a lot more sense from my perspective, or something similar. Or merge the 2/4 and 3/6 levels into a single 2/5 level.

[jimmer]

1/2
2/4
3/6
5/10
10/20
15/30
20/40
25/50
30/60
40/80
50/100
75/150
100/200

Makes a lot more sense from my perspective, or something similar. Or merge the 2/4 and 3/6 levels into a single 2/5 level.

There's nothing wrong with this, but it will probably mean he needs to shorten the blinds accordingly if he still wants it to finish around the same time.

Rich8, I like the idea that you want to encourage 'real poker'. Well done you. However no matter how much you try to encourage this it doesn't nessasarily mean it will happen. If someone gets a big stack early on, they may end up just bullying the table anyway.