Blind Structure Generator (BETA)

A good structure raises the blinds geometrically — each level is a roughly constant multiple of the one before, so the pressure ramps up smoothly rather than in sudden jumps. This generator spreads that climb evenly from your first big blind up to your starting stack.

The classic rule of thumb: a big blind should be no more than double the previous one. Most levels here land around 1.3×–1.6×, which keeps play feeling continuous. If a level would jump more than 2×, you'll see a warning — usually a sign to lengthen the tournament or start with smaller blinds.

The starting ratio is how many starting chips each player has relative to the first big blind. A 50:1 ratio (big blind = 2% of the stack) is a safe default for a home game. Deeper ratios like 100:1 give more play and a longer, more skillful tournament; shallower ratios like 25:1 speed things up.

Pick the ratio and target length together: deeper stacks need more levels (or longer levels) to finish on time.

Predicting a finish time is part math, part experience. This tool blends four common methods — the level where the big blind reaches the starting stack, where the small + big blind hit ~10% of all chips in play, and two based on the big blind as a share of total chips — and shows the result as a range, because real games genuinely vary.

Wild, loose games end early; patient, rocky tables run long. Treat the prediction as a planning guide, not a guarantee.

Antes force more chips into every pot, speeding up the later stages. For a small, short home tournament you can skip them entirely. For bigger fields or slow-playing groups, turning them on in the middle levels keeps things moving.

The modern standard is the big-blind ante: instead of every player posting a small ante, the big blind posts one ante for the whole table each hand. It's faster to deal and easier to track. A traditional per-player ante (~10–15% of the big blind) is also available.

As blinds grow, the smallest chips stop being useful and get removed from play — a "color-up." Two things make it go smoothly: timing (only remove a denomination once no blind or ante still needs it) and doing the exchange fairly.

Chip racing — the precise way. Group players so the chips being removed add up to the next denomination — four T25 chips make one T100, for example. Deal one card for each chip being raced off; the highest card wins each new chip, with ties broken by suit (♠ > ♥ > ♦ > ♣). Done correctly, the table holds exactly the same total value after the race as before it.

Rounding up — the quick way. After the straight exchange, any player left with spare small chips is bumped up to the next denomination. It's faster and friendlier at a casual table, though it nudges a little extra value into the pool.

Bring in the right chip while you're at it. Your starting stacks already include plenty of small chips, so adding more small chips as color-up chips is wasteful. Use each color-up to introduce the next "workhorse" denomination instead — the one you're about to run short of:

• Color up the T25s and T100s by bringing in T1000s (a clean 10:1 or 40:1 exchange) — this tops up the T1000s right as they become the chip you lean on most.
• Color up the T500s by bringing in T5000s (10:1), since the bigger late-tournament bets burn through them.
• Very large or multi-table events may eventually introduce T25,000 chips (25:1).

That keeps the process efficient and puts the chips you'll need on the table at exactly the moment you need them. A sensible smallest-chip setting (in Advanced options) also helps the generator round every blind to a clean, payable number.

A printed structure is a plan, not a contract. If the game is running long, it's better to make small adjustments in the middle levels — a slightly longer jump, an earlier ante — than to slam on huge blinds at the very end and turn it into a coin-flip.

If you have a hard stop ("everyone's out by midnight"), decide in advance how you'll speed things up, and tell the table up front so it feels fair.