Recently I had a friend tell me about a poker tournament that he wanted to play in. He was excited that the starting stacks for each player was 10,000 chips. That was all he said so I asked him, What are the starting blinds? He just looked at me with confused look and said, I dont know, but we get to start with 10,000 chips!

Poker tournament players can often make this mistake. The problem is that there are no rules about what a starting stack should be and there are no rules regarding the starting blinds or even the blind structure. A poker tournament that starts with 10,000 chips may have starting blinds that are 25/50, which would make it very deep-stacked, or it could have starting blinds of 100/200, which is relatively short-stacked.

Short-stack tournaments may attract some poker players. Tournaments like this can be an opportunity to be aggressive and take advantage of small edges. The reality is that most poker players are more comfortable in a tournament where they have a deep stack. Consideration of the starting blinds and the blind structure is very important when deciding on a poker tournament to play in.

Typically, the lower the buy-in of the poker tournament, the smaller the starting stacks will be. A $40 daily tournament at a casino will usually be very short-stacked with a fast blind structure compared with a $500+ main event poker tournament. The reason is that the casino wants to make as much money as quick as possible. They are not making much money with a $40 tournament so they want it end quickly.

Besides the starting blind level, you must also consider the blind structure. If the starting blinds make it appear to be a deep-stack tournament it may have a blind structure where the blinds double every round and the rounds are only 15 minutes long. While the players may start with a relative deep stack, they will quickly be short-stacked with a structure like that.

The next time you consider a poker tournament make sure you get as much information about the tournament so you can make a fully informed decision. The important facts to know are starting chip stacks, the starting blind level, and the blind structure. There are other considerations to take into account, such as number of players, the vig that the casino takes, and the payout, but for now just make sure that the tournament structure is one that you are most comfortable to play in.

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