Hi all,
Just wanted to open a discussion about optimal blind structures for MTTs. I’ve posted a couple of alternatives to the standard 1 million chip MTT structure above. But what do people prefer in a structure?
I like a structure that has jeopardy the whole way through. By that I mean the blinds are neither too small to matter to the eventual tournament outcome or too big to allow you to play when you have an average sized stack.
Based on the current structure I feel like the first 30 minutes of the tournament structure is largely pointless. With standard betting sizes (obviously sometimes people will overbet for whatever reason) you don’t really see much movement in stack sizes. By adjusting the structure slightly there is more to play for in this first half hour and you avoid the significant jumps in blind level from 30/60 to 50/100 and from 50/100 to 100/200.
You should be aware that Black Hole, PKO Solar Eclipse, and Warp Speed have a different and more accelerated blind structure that causes faster play compared to the other 5 1M MTT’s. The blinds start at 15/30 and the structure skips the 400/800, 600/1200 levels, and 1250/2500 levels to where the 3K/6K level is 4 levels sooner (Level 14 instead of Level 18 for the other 5 1M’s).
One thing I will for certain push for is to NEVER lessen the starting stack for the tournaments 1M and above. 5K is good…3K is not good. Just look at the mess the 500K’s usually are with the shallower play.
Just to clarify I’m not pushing for quicker blind levels, I’m suggesting we could have a flatter structure that starts with less BBs but sees smaller rises each level. So you don’t go from having say 50BB to 25BB over the course of a single hand.
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I fully support this. I’ve taken to Late Reg being my default as the early stages are quite pointless in terms of “actual play.” The blinds are so small that unless you size up considerably, a limp and a 3x raise have the EXACT same effect.
Of course some of this is down to how players respond to relative vs. absolute bet size (the weaker the player, the less the former matters), but I would absolutely prefer your proposed blind structure.
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@RyRyRobe agree with you as well; 3,000 chips (or worse, 2,500) is just silly. I can’t take those tournaments seriously; I just hope to get lucky and if I double early, THEN I start playing poker.
Off 2,500 chips you literally lose a single 3-bet pot and you’re already in push/fold territory. Ew!
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@Chasetheriver any thoughts from the pit bosses?
Hi @Batman1517
Thanks for the suggestion.
Lots to digest and some thoughts have been stirred up for sure.
We want to make the games consistent, yet give variety. There have been only 8 1 million chip MTT, so it has been tricky to make them all match what players want. There are now three Daily 2.5M or 5M MTT. I am hoping this will give us some flexibility.
I should be able to have a look into the blind structures and possibly polish them up, depending on feedback and how I perceive the new games run.
Rob
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