Tourney T100 25k Multi Table Blind Structure (6 Viewers)

[Ace10Spades]

Hello

I want to start by saying I am new to the group, but not to poker. I am part of a monthly poker club and also run a yearly poker tournament. I am always looking to improve my yearly tournament so I wanted feedback/opinions on my blind levels. The tournament is 3-4 tables, I do a 25K Starting Stack, Bounty.

In the attached picture total CIP (Chips in Play) is based off 40 entries.

Let me know what you guys think.

 

[RofoPoker]

Hi and welcome. Still relatively new myself compared to others. There are a lot of good resources here, so I think you've come to the right place.

Based on what I've learned here from other TDs more experienced than I the starting stacks seem fine, but I'd say your blind progressions are too inconsistent. You have some levels that are in the range of a 20-25% increase (e.g. levels 5-6, 6-7, 8-9, and 13-14) which is too low compared to other levels that increase by 50%.

Aim for 33-50% for each increase. I'd suggest something like this (credit to @BGinGA from whom I first saw this structure):

1. 100/200
2. 100/300
3. 200/400
4. 300/600
5. 400/800
6. 600/1200
7. 800/1600
8. 1100/2200
9. 1500/3000 (color up T100 and T500 after this level)
10. 2000/4000
11. 3000/6000
12. 4000/8000
13. 6000/12000
14. 8000/16000
15. 11K/22K (color up T1000 after this level)
16. 15K/30K
17. 20K/40K

You can see the pattern here; levels 10-16 are the same as 3-9 just increased by a factor of 10. You might need another level or two after this if you have the full complement of 40 players so just keep the pattern going.

This puts all blind increases in the 33-50% range which smooths out your curve, and also you can get rid of all the T100s and T500s in the same color-up instead of two separate ones. You don't currently have a T1000 color-up in yours but this would add one. Or I suppose if you really wanted to since you have T10K chips you could remove T1000 and T5000 after L16 the same way you would T100 and T500 earlier. YMMV but I'd probably just stick with T5K as my highest denom and do all color ups with that.

Anyway, hope this helps. Welcome again!

 

[Preditor]

Aim for 33-50% for each increase. I'd suggest something like this (credit to @BGinGA from whom I first saw this structure):

I overall agree with this; though I do make an exception for the 1600 increase. I go to 2K even instead of 2.2K. This comes right during a break, and I feel a single 25% increase is worth the convenience of coloring up the blacks during the break.

 

[BKisback]

@Ace10Spades , I like the structure in the first post. I would probably ditch 100-300 and 7k-14k, then add levels 6k-12k and 8k-16k instead. I like the spirit of the blinds progressing to something like 1100/2200, but those values are impractical for a tournament because of the extra hundreds tacked on. Just use 1000-2000 then go to 1500-3000; you can take the 100s off the table, at 10k-20k you can take the 1ks off the table, etc. Overall, it's a pretty nice structure for a longer tournament.

 

[TheRealStephen12]

Often you'll want to have at least 200BBs to start with in a tournament. The following adds that, and sticks close to your structure (the blind jumps are smaller, but are slightly more frequent to keep similar pace). Blind increases starting level after the first break range from 17-33% (20-33% if you used a BBA equal to the BB).

20 Minute Levels
100/100
100/200
100/300
200/400
200/500
Break
300/600
400/800
500/1,000
600/1,200
800/1,600
Break - Color Up 100s
1,000/2,000
1,000/2,500
1,500/3,000
2,000/4,000
2,500/5,000
Break - Color Up 500s
3K/6K
4K/8K
5K/10K
6K/12K
8K/16K

 

[RofoPoker]

I go to 2K even instead of 2.2K. This comes right during a break, and I feel a single 25% increase is worth the convenience of coloring up the blacks during the break.

I like the spirit of the blinds progressing to something like 1100/2200, but those values are impractical for a tournament because of the extra hundreds tacked on.

Hear you both and I used to think this way too. Then one poker night I just threw it in there to see how it went and no one even batted an eye, and I found that combining the T100 and T500 into one color up was a bonus. The fewer times I need to stop the game for a color up the better.

As far as practicality, 1100/2200 is functionally the same as 600/1200 in terms of "extra hundreds tacked on," yet 600/1200 doesn't bother people's brains. I think what's actually making it feel weird is the multiple of 11. Even numbers make sense to us, prime numbers not so much. But 1100/2200 is really no different in terms of extra chips than any other level that needs multiple denoms.

 

[Defarse]

I heard of a local MTT tournament here that the blinds were up to 32,000/64,000 when 2 or 3 players left............LOL. It's not against the law to use 30,000/60,000 for convenience. Same with these strange 1100/2200 nonsense.........even 800/1600 is a bit annoying; maybe try 1000/1500.

Having a 1100/2200 level and no 1000/2000 is wild.

 

[RofoPoker]

I heard of a local MTT tournament here that the blinds were up to 32,000/64,000 when 2 or 3 players left............LOL. It's not against the law to use 30,000/60,000 for convenience. Same with these strange 1100/2200 nonsense.........even 800/1600 is a bit annoying; maybe try 1000/1500.

Having a 1100/2200 level and no 1000/2000 is wild.

Well I agree that by the time the blinds get to the 30K/60K range the T1000 denoms should be long gone. My guess is that MTT was simply doubling blinds every time to get to 32K/64K, which is bad on multiple fronts.

As for the rest, I suppose it’s a pick your poison situation. For me, keeping a consistent blind progression is more important than whatever minor gain is had by shoehorning multiples of 500 or 1000. Like, I completely disagree that a weird asymmetrical level like 1000/1500 is going to be better at that point than 800/1600. It’s arguably less sensical in fact.

Like I said I totally get why 1000/2000 feels better than 1100/2200 and I used to use it myself. But after trying the latter I was sold.

Is having one jump of 25% in order to dump the T100s earlier the end of the world? Not at all. But neither is 1100/2200 appreciably harder to manage. Like I said, pick your poison.

 

[Ace10Spades]

I appreciate everyones feedback and opinions. Very helpful!

 

[ScallyWagers]

For a 25K stack with T100s, a lot depends on how long you want levels and how many players. A general rule of thumb: starting blinds around 50/100 and doubling every 20 min gives you about 12-15 levels of meaningful play before antes kick in. If you want to dial it in more precisely, our blind structure builder at ScallyWagers.com is free — plug in your starting stack, chip denominations, and target runtime and it'll generate a full structure. Happy to walk through specifics if you share your player count and target finish time.

 

[TheRealStephen12]

For a 25K stack with T100s, a lot depends on how long you want levels and how many players. A general rule of thumb: starting blinds around 50/100 and doubling every 20 min gives you about 12-15 levels of meaningful play before antes kick in.

Antes shouldn't kick in that late, and doubling every 20 minutes is hyper-turbo speed, where meaningful play would only matter for at most 6 levels.

If you want to dial it in more precisely, our blind structure builder at ScallyWagers.com is free — plug in your starting stack, chip denominations, and target runtime and it'll generate a full structure. Happy to walk through specifics if you share your player count and target finish time.

Your tool doesn't work right. I tried 10K with 18 players, and it has 1,025/2,050/2,050 blinds level "14" (since levels include breaks) despite coloring up 25s at level 5, and never colors up 100s (though it did color up 500s at "level 13"). It also says that the tournament should end with blinds of 750/1,500 with a 750 (per player?) ante with 180K chips in play and 15 minute levels, rather than closer to 6K-10K.

 

[JustinInMN]

@Ace10Spades I like your starting stack and your levels. Only tweak I would offer is change levels 14 and 15 to 6K-12K and 8K-16K instead of 5K-10K and 7K-14K.

If you do get 40 entries I don't think 16 levels will always do the job, I would add L17 15K-30K, L18 20K-40K, L19 30K-60K, L20 40K-80K.

I would expect your event to end on L18 or L19 if you do get 40 entries based on the 20BB rule.

If it's getting long, I think L6, L8, and L15 are the levels to cut.

But really, at a glance, this is an above average designed structure.

 

[ScallyWagers]

Antes shouldn't kick in that late, and doubling every 20 minutes is hyper-turbo speed, where meaningful play would only matter for at most 6 levels.

Your tool doesn't work right. I tried 10K with 18 players, and it has 1,025/2,050/2,050 blinds level "14" (since levels include breaks) despite coloring up 25s at level 5, and never colors up 100s (though it did color up 500s at "level 13"). It also says that the tournament should end with blinds of 750/1,500 with a 750 (per player?) ante with 180K chips in play and 15 minute levels, rather than closer to 6K-10K.

You're probably right about the antes/speed - a lot of my tournament directing experience is from situations where we had strict time limits/end times. I need to open up my thought process!

I'll dig into the math you noted in the tool. I'm a huge proponent of simple blind/ante amounts based on chips available. Complex amounts that require more than one/two chips is not elegant. I thought I'd coded away from that. Thank you for trying it out and for the feedback!