Tourney My Blind Structure for T20000, 3.5-hour Tournament. (1 Viewer)

[jkoclanis67]

I've hosted a couple of tournaments recently and I'm trying to tweak my blind structures to fit my group's needs so we can have tournaments roughly every six weeks. We will have 8 players max, at a single table. Most guys in my group want to wrap things up close to 9:00 PM (older group, haha!), so this gives us about 3.5 hours of play with a 5:30 start time. I was doing 15-minute blind levels but would like to bump it to 20-minutes, so each level goes a bit farther around the table, if not all the way.

Starting stack is T20,000, with the following chip breakdown:
T25-12
T100-12
T500-9*
T1000-9
T5000-1
*I know most people would say to use fewer 500s, but my OCD likes the symmetry with this breakdown.

Here is the blind structure I've come up with:

Round​	Start Time​	SB​	BB​	% Increase​
1​	5:30 PM​	25​	50​	0%​
2​	5:50 PM​	50​	100​	100%​
3​	6:10 PM​	75​	150​	50%​
Break​	6:30 PM​	Color-up T25​
4​	6:45 PM​	100​	200​	33%​
5​	7:05 PM​	200​	400​	100%​
6​	7:25 PM​	300​	600​	50%​
Break​	7:45 PM​	Color-up T100
7​	7:55 PM​	500​	1000​	67%​
8​	8:15 PM​	1000​	2000​	100%​
9​	8:35 PM​	1500​	3000​	50%​
Break​	8:55 PM​	Color-up T500
10*​	9:00 PM​	3000​	6000​	100%​
11*​	9:20 PM​	6000​	12000​	100%​
12​	9:40 PM​	9000​	18000​	50%​

*My guess is the tournament should normally end around Round 10 or 11.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

 

[Kentucky]

I would prefer more even increases between the levels. So I would make level 4 125/250. Once I’ve done that I’m moving the break after level 4. I’m then going to make level 8 10x level 3, L9 10x L4 (@1500/2500), and so on. You will end up with an extra level before you get to 6K but id rather that than the uneven jumps. Even if it meant making the rounds 17 minutes to recoup the elapsed time.

 

[allforcharity]

Change it to a T10k with a less aggressive blind structure, 33%-50% increases (except for level 1-2).

 

[buzzmonkey]

Add more levels to even out the increases. If time is that much of a factor, drop the levels from 20 min to 15 min after say, level 6.

 

[springbox]

Agree slightly shorter levels are preferable to large blind jumps. Have you thought about skipping the 25/50 level, and maybe having the first 3 or 4 levels be longer and the rest a little shorter? That lets you make much more even levels throughout.

​

Level​	Duration​	Small Blind​	Big Blind​	% Increase​	Start Time​
Round 1​	20​	50​	100​	​	5:30​
Round 2​	20​	75​	150​	50%​	5:50​
Round 3​	20​	100​	200​	33%​	6:10​
Round 4​	15​	150​	300​	50%​	6:25​
Break​	15​	Color Up T25​	​	​	6:40​
Round 5​	15​	200​	400​	33%​	6:55​
Round 6​	15​	300​	600​	50%​	7:10​
Round 7​	15​	400​	800​	33%​	7:25​
Round 8​	15​	600​	1200​	50%​	7:40​
Break​	15​	Color Up T100​	​	​	7:55​
Round 9​	15​	1000​	2000​	67%​	8:10​
Round 10​	15​	1500​	3000​	50%​	8:25​
Break​	5​	Color Up T500​	​	​	8:40​
Round 11​	15​	2000​	4000​	33%​	8:45​
Round 12​	15​	3000​	6000​	50%​	9:00​
Round 13​	15​	4000​	8000​	33%​	9:15​
Round 14​	15​	6000​	12000​	50%​	9:30​

 

[JustinInMN]

. I was doing 15-minute blind levels but would like to bump it to 20-minutes, so each level goes a bit farther around the table, if not all the way.

I like this adjustment a lot.i would rather drop the starting stack to avoid 15-minute levels. If you find 20 is too long, I like 18 as a middle ground (and it does seem to work to play 5 levels every 90 minutes.)

As for the blind schedule I prefer to avoid any pure doubles. And if you are trying to fit in 3.5 hours a 400 BB starting stack seems excessive, really 100BB is reasonable for this short of a window. I would probably just suggest starting at 50-100 and go like this.

50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300 (remove T25)
200-400
300-600
400-800
600-1200 (remove T100)
1000-2000
1500-3000
2000-4000 (probable end 10K stack)
3000-6000
4000-8000 (probable end 20K stack)

In 3.5 hours you can play 11 levels at 20 minutes or 12 levels at 18 minutes each.

Hope this helps.

 

[Trihonda]

Agree slightly shorter levels are preferable to large blind jumps. Have you thought about skipping the 25/50 level, and maybe having the first 3 or 4 levels be longer and the rest a little shorter? That lets you make much more even levels throughout.

​

Level​	Duration​	Small Blind​	Big Blind​	% Increase​	Start Time​
Round 1​	20​	50​	100​	​	5:30​
Round 2​	20​	75​	150​	50%​	5:50​
Round 3​	20​	100​	200​	33%​	6:10​
Round 4​	15​	150​	300​	50%​	6:25​
Break​	15​	Color Up T25​	​	​	6:40​
Round 5​	15​	200​	400​	33%​	6:55​
Round 6​	15​	300​	600​	50%​	7:10​
Round 7​	15​	400​	800​	33%​	7:25​
Round 8​	15​	600​	1200​	50%​	7:40​
Break​	15​	Color Up T100​	​	​	7:55​
Round 9​	15​	1000​	2000​	67%​	8:10​
Round 10​	15​	1500​	3000​	50%​	8:25​
Break​	5​	Color Up T500​	​	​	8:40​
Round 11​	15​	2000​	4000​	33%​	8:45​
Round 12​	15​	3000​	6000​	50%​	9:00​
Round 13​	15​	4000​	8000​	33%​	9:15​
Round 14​	15​	6000​	12000​	50%​	9:30​

If you start at T 100 you can eliminate the 25 chips for efficiency. Otherwise they have very short usefulness in the game.

 

[BGinGA]

Using an avg 59% structure (50%-67% increases) with 20 minute levels will run roughly the same overall length of time as an avg 41% structure (33%-50% increases) with 15 minute levels, but the event with the longer blind levels will feel less rushed to the players.

Starting stack sizing can also be modified to be somewhere between 125bb-200bb to meet your time requirements, by adjusting either the actual starting stack size or the size of the opening blind level amounts to reach the best total bb-in-play ratio to finish with your blind schedule in the allotted time period.

 

[Natskule]

I like this adjustment a lot.i would rather drop the starting stack to avoid 15-minute levels. If you find 20 is too long, I like 18 as a middle ground (and it does seem to work to play 5 levels every 90 minutes.)

As for the blind schedule I prefer to avoid any pure doubles. And if you are trying to fit in 3.5 hours a 400 BB starting stack seems excessive, really 100BB is reasonable for this short of a window. I would probably just suggest starting at 50-100 and go like this.

50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300 (remove T25)
200-400
300-600
400-800
600-1200 (remove T100)
1000-2000
1500-3000
2000-4000 (probable end 10K stack)
3000-6000
4000-8000 (probable end 20K stack)

In 3.5 hours you can play 11 levels at 20 minutes or 12 levels at 18 minutes each.

Hope this helps.

I agree 400BB starting stack is excessive, if you are worried about time. Since time is a major concern I'd much rather play in a smooth structure with no 100% jumps and a smaller starting stack. 100BB is plenty for a single table tournament.

 

[jkoclanis67]

Agree slightly shorter levels are preferable to large blind jumps. Have you thought about skipping the 25/50 level, and maybe having the first 3 or 4 levels be longer and the rest a little shorter? That lets you make much more even levels throughout.

​

Level​	Duration​	Small Blind​	Big Blind​	% Increase​	Start Time​
Round 1​	20​	50​	100​	​	5:30​
Round 2​	20​	75​	150​	50%​	5:50​
Round 3​	20​	100​	200​	33%​	6:10​
Round 4​	15​	150​	300​	50%​	6:25​
Break​	15​	Color Up T25​	​	​	6:40​
Round 5​	15​	200​	400​	33%​	6:55​
Round 6​	15​	300​	600​	50%​	7:10​
Round 7​	15​	400​	800​	33%​	7:25​
Round 8​	15​	600​	1200​	50%​	7:40​
Break​	15​	Color Up T100​	​	​	7:55​
Round 9​	15​	1000​	2000​	67%​	8:10​
Round 10​	15​	1500​	3000​	50%​	8:25​
Break​	5​	Color Up T500​	​	​	8:40​
Round 11​	15​	2000​	4000​	33%​	8:45​
Round 12​	15​	3000​	6000​	50%​	9:00​
Round 13​	15​	4000​	8000​	33%​	9:15​
Round 14​	15​	6000​	12000​	50%​	9:30​

Thanks for this! Those % increases are undoubtedly more desirable. My OCD brain (as I said in my original post) always wants to put things in evenly distributed groups (blind times, breaks, etc.). If I can allow myself to get over that hangup I would probably give this a try. Thanks for your efforts!