Before creating a blind structure for your poker tournament, you will have to decide on the starting stack. The starting stack is the total value of the chips each player starts the tournament with. The starting stack and the number of players will determine the total number of chips in play for the tournament. After this value is determined you will decide how long you want the tournament to last. With the planned duration and the total number of chips in play you can create a blind structure to ensure that your tournament will finish on time. But first you need to determine the starting stack for your tournament.

The starting stack must be determined as a function of the chip set that you will be using for your poker tournament. If you have chips of values 1, 5, 25, 100; you are not going to have a starting stack of 20,000 because it would not work with your chip set. With the Blind Valet blind structure creator, you can enter your parameters, leave the starting stack blank, and Blind Valet will recommend a starting stack for you. But if you want to decide on your own this is how I would recommend approaching it.

Step 1: Determine the initial blinds

My recommendation is to make the initial small blind twice your smallest value chip and the big blind twice the small blind. If we assume the same chip values as above (1, 5, 25, 100) then I would make the initial blinds 2/4. This allows the blinds to increase without doubling. If we start with blinds at 1/2 then the next level would be 2/4, a 100% increase. If we start at 2/4 like I recommend, then we can make the 2nd level 3/6, only a 50% increase. So if your smallest chip has a value of 5 then I would recommend initial blinds of 10/20.

Step 2: Set the starting stack as a multiple of the initial big blind

The lowest multiple I would recommend is 50BB (read as 50 times the big blind). If you get below that, then the blinds put too much pressure on the players too early in the tournament and luck becomes a much bigger factor.

100BB is a good starting stack for most poker tournaments. As you get above 100BB and up towards 200BB the tournament becomes a "deepstack" tournament which will allow for a lot of play early in the tournament but requires more time to complete.

You have to choose your starting stack multiple as a function of the number of players, the allotted time for the tournament and your personal preferences. You will see that having a "deepstack" tournament doesn't make sense if you don't have much time to play. Likewise, if you want the tournament to last a long time and allow for the most play possible, then you shouldn't start with a low multiple.

The following table shows the starting stacks for different multiples based on the initial big blind.