Best Tournament Blind Structure in use at major card room?
Actually I'm looking for one without antes and one with big blind antes. I don't care about anything but the blind structure. I'm guessing that a consensus exists in the tournament world?
One requirement is 100 chip is lowest denomination.
I work for a big card room that is currently open to changes for the better in its tournament offerings. I would like to suggest the room adopt the 2 best structures out there and then use starting stack and length of levels to control the desired length and speed of our tournaments.
I believe this would be beneficial to tournament sales because players would always know that the blind structure is good.
We run morning dailies that the players want over in 5 hours or less and are happy to ICM chop; all the way to a multiday 1 $1,100 buy in event with a $2,000,000+ prize pool.
Thanks in advance for any guidance or input. Links to structure sheets (PDFs) are great!
3 Replies
I used to play a local $100 tournament every weekend for years where it was structured well and simple, starting stack of about 10k, blinds 50/100 and 30 minute levels. Play would usually last anywhere from 4-6 hours. Imo a tournament with 100BB or more to start and blinds raising at a decent interval will be enough to offer play for the time.
I also find this that might help too.
I try to find games where we have 100bb> for the first hour or two. It's hard to find this structure <$250.
A lot of rooms use the same blinds and blind structure but vary the level times and starting stack based on price. Here's an example from the upcoming Fall Poker Classic at Canterbury Park:
Blinds:
lv ant sb bb
1 100 100 100
2 200 100 200
3 300 200 300
4 400 200 400
5 500 300 500
$85
12,000 Chips
15 Minute Level
$150-250
20,000 Chips
20 Minute Levels
$250-350
20,000 Chips
30 Minute Levels
$400
25,000 Chips
30 Minute Levels
$1100 Main Event
30,000 Chips
40 Minute Levels
$2600 High Roller
40,000 Chips
40 Minute Levels
I like what Venetian runs in their deep stack events. Normally 30-40k starting stack depending on buy in level. Start at 100-100 and doesn’t really skip any levels.
Something like that with 40 min levels is gold to me. 30 min levs can be good too. It all depends on how quick you want a tournament over though- I think the more play is obv better for most players especially if you wanna run some big gtn with multi flights.
These tournies are nice also bc they allow the internet late reg folks to come late and still have life. I’m always going to come on time but will get more late regs also if you give some solid play still at 30-40 bb starting stack.
