How to build your own blind structure (the simple maths)

Somewhere online there's a blind structure for exactly your game: your player count, your stacks, your finishing time. You could hunt for it. Or you could learn the method, which takes about 5 minutes, and build the right structure yourself for any night from now on.

A blind structure is 3 numbers and a fill rule. Work out where the blinds start, where they need to end, and how many levels you have to get there, then fill in the ladder so the big blind roughly doubles every 2 to 3 levels. That's the whole method. This page walks through each step with a real example, then points you at 4 ready-made structures built with exactly this maths if you'd rather not build your own tonight.

Number 1: the opening big blind

Start with the stack, not the blinds. Your opening big blind should be between 1/100th and 1/200th of the starting stack:

• Stack ÷ 100 gives everyone 100 big blinds. Brisk. Pressure arrives early and the game moves.
• Stack ÷ 200 gives everyone 200 big blinds. Roomy. The first hour plays like real poker, with limps, raises, and folds that don't hurt.

So a 10,000 stack opens at 50/100 if you want pace, or 25/50 if you want play. Most home games are happier at the roomy end, because casual players want to see flops in the first hour, not fold for their tournament life at 9:15 pm.

One hard rule sits underneath this: the small blind must be at least as large as your smallest chip in play. If your lowest denomination is a 25, you cannot open at 10/20, because nothing on the table can pay it. If the maths says open below your smallest chip, open at the smallest chip instead. Getting the chips themselves right is a separate job, and our guide to splitting chips for any number of players covers it.

Number 2: the final big blind

A tournament ends when the blinds get big enough to force the last players all-in. If they never get that big, the night never ends, which is the single most common home structure mistake.

The target: final big blind ≈ total chips in play ÷ 15. Total chips in play is just players × starting stack. Anywhere between ÷ 10 and ÷ 20 works, with ÷ 10 producing a faster, cruder finish and ÷ 20 a slower one.

Why 15? At that point the average stack is about 5 big blinds deep if everyone were still in, which they aren't. In practice 2 or 3 players hold everything by then, the shortest is all-in every orbit whether they like it or not, and the whole thing resolves within a level or two. That's what an ending feels like from the inside.

Number 3: the level count

Count backwards from when you want to lift the trophy. Playing time ÷ level length = number of levels. Subtract break time first.

Level length is a genuine choice, not a default:

If the maths hands you fewer than 8 levels, the night is too short for the level length you picked. Shorten the levels or start earlier, because squashing the same blind climb into 6 levels means every jump is savage.

Fill in the ladder

You now have a start, an end, and a number of steps. Fill between them so the big blind roughly doubles every 2 to 3 levels, and stick to natural chip-friendly numbers: 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400, 600, 800, 1,000, 1,200, 1,600, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 6,000. The small blind is always half the big blind. Never let a single level more than double the big blind, because one brutal jump undoes an evening of smooth pacing.

The whole method, worked once

Say you've got 7 players, 7,500 stacks, and you want to be done in about 2.5 hours. You pick 12-minute levels and one 10-minute break.

1. Opening blind. 7,500 ÷ 150 = 50. Open at 25/50, which leaves everyone a comfortable 150 big blinds deep.
2. Final blind. Total chips in play: 7 × 7,500 = 52,500. Divide by 15 and you get 3,500, which rounds to a clean 3,000. The ladder needs to reach 1,500/3,000.
3. Level count. 150 minutes minus the break leaves 140 minutes of play. 140 ÷ 12 is a little under 12, so: 12 levels.

From 50 to 3,000 the big blind multiplies 60 times over, which is about 6 doublings spread across 11 jumps, so the ladder doubles every 2 levels or so:

Put the break after level 6, close rebuys when it starts, and this game finds a winner within a few minutes either side of your 2.5 hours. That's the entire craft.

Or take one off the shelf

We've already run this maths for the 4 most common home game shapes, each with its own page, worked example, and adjustments. First up:

• The 3-hour tournament blind structure that just works, 15 levels of 12 minutes on 10,000 stacks
• A blind structure for a 2-hour home tournament, 12 levels of 10 minutes on 5,000 stacks
• A turbo blind structure for short poker nights, 10 levels of 8 minutes on 5,000 stacks
• Deep stack blind structure for long home games, 18 levels of 15 minutes on 20,000 stacks

All 4 are ready to run tonight.

For the wider theory, including antes and how blind speed trades skill against luck, the blind structure guide goes deeper.

Run it without watching the clock

However good the ladder is, someone has to actually raise the blinds every 12 minutes, and at a home game that someone is usually mid-hand, mid-story, or mid-pizza. A structure that isn't enforced drifts, and a drifting structure is how 2.5-hour tournaments finish at 2 am.

The PokerPall app takes the job over completely: pick or build your structure, and it runs the timer, announces the level changes, and keeps the whole table honest while you play.