How often should you raise the Blinds in Texas Hold 'em (No Limits) Poker?

Question

I was playing with a group of friends last weekend. We each started (9 of us) with 2550 chips, starting the blinds at 5/10, raising them to 10/20, 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 250/500 and finally 500/1000.

The reason for this was because the 5 denominations of chips were 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100.

We had agreed to raise the blinds every 20mins, but it turned into 30 mins because people were complaining and I gave in. After 2 1/2 hrs, only 1 person had gone out and people were complaining because the blinds were going up too quickly and some people would only be able to meet a few blinds.

One argued it forces people to play and that's not poker.

My argument was after that amount of time, surely they must be forced to play as they clearly hadn't played/won enough hands.

Who is right?

Answer 1

It all depends on the buy-in amount combined with how much time is alloted for the tourney.

If the buy-in is high, tournaments tend to last longer, as people want more 'play' for their money.  In the biggest tourneys the blinds go up every two hours.  Soem tournies online go up every 6 minutes.  When i play little tourneys we go up every 4-5 hands.

How long the tourney will last is also a factor.  Are you going to play more than one tourney an evening?  Then the blinds should increase more frequently.  Only one tourney? then maybe more slowly.  My experience with home tourneys is that anything between 15 and 45 minutes is doable with 20-30 being average.  

I think your argument is very valid.  After a certain amount of time has passed, it is reasonable to assume that at some point you will be forced to play because of a diminishing stack. Tourney's can't go on forever and you can't wait for ever for cards.

The blind structure you mentioned seems very reasonable, and the fact that after 2 hours only one person was out proves that it was not too fast.  One thing i would remind you is that you dont have to always double the blinds.  after the 250/500 round you can go up by 50's or 100's, not just double to 500/1000.

As far as the opposing argument that 'being forced to play isn't poker', it is a foundamental truth that in almost every tourny at some point you will be forced to play, and it's not always a bad thing, sometimes desperation or creativity will lead to success.  That's why the blinds increase in the first place.

Everyone waiting for premium cards to play is not poker, thats boring.

cheers

Answer 2

There are basically two ways to do blinds:  Number of minutes or Number of Hands.

At ParadisePoker.com, after ten hands, the blinds go up.  At Poker Stars, after so many minutes (sometimes 20, sometimes 10, sometimes 5, and in massive speed rounds, sometimes 2) the blinds go up.

It depends on the table and the house.

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Answer 3

You can get an online poker clock (download), you put the amount of chips and players etc. and it works it all out for you.  There is also a turbo setting.  It's really good - stops arguments!