Free tool
Poker tournament blind structure calculator
Tell it how many people are coming, what they start with and when you'd like to be done. It builds the blind schedule, and you tune every blind, ante, level and break before the cards are in the air.
- Players, starting stack, finish time.Opening blinds fill in at about 100 big blinds deep. Change them if your group likes it deeper or faster.
- Blind jumps, antes, breaks.Auto fit spreads the levels across the time you have. Or pick slower and faster jumps, turn on a big-blind ante, and space the breaks.
- Adjust, then send it to the table.Edit any number in the schedule, copy it, share a link with the group, and see how many of each chip to hand every player.
How it's built
Backwards from the last blind
Most blind charts online start at 25/50 and just keep doubling. Ours starts from the end. A single-table tournament usually finishes when the big blind is roughly a tenth of all the chips in play, so the calculator works out that final blind from your players and stacks, then spreads practical levels between your opening blinds and that target, every one of them postable with real chips.
The finish time is a forecast, not a promise. Rebuys, a loose table, a dealer who's also playing: all of it runs long. Take the generated schedule as a starting point and adjust level length, blind jumps, antes and breaks to fit the people at your table.
Starting points
Three structures that work at home
"Eight people, three hours, what do I set?" is the question we hear most. Pick the row that sounds like your night and let the calculator fill in the rest.
| Night | Starting depth | Level length | Pick it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick sit-and-go | 40–60 BB | 6–10 min | You want a winner inside 90 minutes. |
| Regular home tournament | 75–100 BB | 12–18 min | A two- or three-hour game with real poker in the early levels. |
| Deep stack night | 150–200 BB | 18–25 min | A slower four-hour-plus game for a table that likes to play. |
Ten thousand chips isn't automatically deep. It's 100 big blinds at 50/100 and 20 at 250/500. That's why the calculator shows starting depth right next to the opening blinds.
Decide before you shuffle up
Three calls to make before the first hand
Antes
Skip them for the first few levels, especially with new players. Bring them in around level four or five, or once the rebuy period closes. At home, one big-blind ante beats collecting a chip from every seat.
Breaks and rebuys
Five to ten minutes every four or five levels is about right. Use the first break to close rebuys. Every rebuy adds chips to the table, which pushes the finish later. For a casual night, run a freezeout or one rebuy each.
Color-ups
Once no future blind or ante needs a chip, take it off the table. If everything from here is a multiple of 100, the 25s go during the break. The schedule flags exactly which break.
The end game
Where does it end?
A home tournament tends to wrap up when the big blind reaches five to ten percent of the chips in play. Nine players at 10,000 each is 90,000 in play, so expect the last hands around a 4,500 to 9,000 big blind.
Rebuys move that target. Three 10,000-chip rebuys make it 120,000 in play and nudge the finish toward a 6,000 to 12,000 big blind. If your game allows rebuys, tell the calculator a slightly bigger stack or a longer target and it will build the extra levels in.
Seen it happen
Structures that turn a tournament into a shove-fest
- Five-minute levels with a self-dealt table. A casino deals thirty hands an hour. Your friends deal twelve. Short levels skip the poker and go straight to all-in.
- Doubling from level one. Big jumps are fine late. Early on, people need a few orbits to settle in.
- Deep stacks on a short clock. Two hundred big blinds and twenty-minute levels is a lovely structure and a five-hour tournament.
- Forgetting the rebuys. More chips in play means a higher final blind and more levels to get there.
- Antes from the first hand. They work later. Early, they slow down the table and confuse whoever's new.
- Never coloring up. By level eight the 25s are just clutter that makes every pot harder to count.
Questions we get about blind structures
What blind structure should I use for a home poker tournament?
For a single table, start everyone 75 to 100 big blinds deep and run 12- to 18-minute levels. That leaves room for actual poker early without the night dragging. Go shorter on levels or stacks only when you genuinely need a fast game.
How long should each blind level be?
Ten to twelve minutes for a quick game, fifteen to twenty for a normal one, twenty or more for a deep-stack night. Home tables deal far fewer hands per hour than a casino, so a level that feels short online is very short in your kitchen.
How many big blinds should players start with?
Fifty is fast, 75 to 100 is the sensible default, 150 to 200 is deep. Count in big blinds, not chips. A 10,000 stack is deep or shallow depending entirely on what the opening blinds are.
When should antes kick in?
Not in the first few levels. Around level four or five, once rebuys have closed and stacks are big enough that pots need the extra push. Use a big-blind ante: one player posts for the whole table and nobody is fishing for a 25 every hand.
How do I get a tournament to finish in two or three hours?
Start 75 to 100 big blinds deep, run 10- to 15-minute levels, keep the blind increases steady, and don't allow unlimited rebuys. If the calculator's schedule comes out longer than you want, shorten the levels, shrink the stack or pick faster increases.
Which chips do I need for a tournament?
Four values cover nearly every home tournament: T25, T100, T500 and T1000. Add T5000 for deep stacks or a big field. The calculator shows how many of each chip every player gets and what that adds up to for the table. Our poker chip sets print the values right on the chips.
Chips with the values printed on
T25 / T100 / T500 / T1000 sets built to your player count, or design every chip yourself.
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