Poker Blinds

Blinds in the game of Poker are basically forced bets. Considering the limit of the poker game, the player seated to the left of the dealer's button, called the small blind and the player positioned on the left of the dealer (big blind) are both required to place the blinds in the pot before cards are dealt. The amount put by the Small blind is half that of the big blind. Thus if the pot is not raised preflop, small blind would only have to put half a bet to call while the big blind has the option of raising or just checking.

In a poker tournament, blinds mount only gradually say at intervals of 15 or 20 minutes. This ensures that the tournament finishes in a timebound way since the higher the blinds go, more are the players that get eliminated.

The blind structure of the game is determined by two key factors:

1. Initial chip amount.
2. The duration you want the tournament to last.
3. The first big blind ought to be 1/50 of the starting chip amount. Or better the starting chip amount should be 50 times the starting big blind). As an illustration, if everyone starts with 1000 in chips the first big blind should be 10/20.
4. Blind period or the time each blind lasts is also a factor. Usually the tournament blind periods are 10, 15, 20, 30, or 60 minutes. Ideally they should be similar for every blind.
5. Blinds normally double after each round. If the first big blind is 10/20, the next one should be of the order 20/40

If we keep these information well internalized, then we can move towards playing better and winning poker.