Mr Winberg
Full House
There are different names for this rule and different ways to look at it, but I call it the "20 BBs rule", meaning the tournament should end no later than the level where there are no more than 20 big blinds left. The logic is that even if the opponents are equal in chips, they still only have 10 BBs each and should be shoving a lot.
"When the BB is 5% of the chips in play" is another version, but is equivalent since dividing by 20 an multiplying by 5% is the same thing.
Once you know where it ends, decide when it begins and try to have a smooth progression in between. Divide the desired tournament length (excluding breaks) with the nr of levels and you have the level time. If it's too short, remove or merge levels. Too long, add levels or start deeper.
From my experience, longer tournaments end with more BBs left than shorter ones. Using an ante also ends tournaments a little earlier since the m is reduced.
Beware, this is not fool proof! Read my last post here for a story of when it went south!
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/calculating-end-of-tournament-with-bb-ante.40133/post-759323
