What is a Blind?

Poker blinds are when poker players on the left side of the dealer are forced to place bets, and it usually takes place in flop-style poker card games.

What is a Poker Blind?

The usual amount of blinds is 2, but it’s also possible to be 1 or 3. The poker blinds occur because Texas hold ‘em and Omaha are often played without antes, and this allows players to fold their hands without 1st placing a bet. What the blind bets do is to introduce a normal cost to be part of the game, which means that the player is induced to enter poker pots to try and make up for that expense.

Usually, the "big blind" is the same amount as the min bet, and is also usually twice the size of the "small blind". The small blind is posted by the player to the left of the dealer button while the big blind is posted by the player to the left of the person sitting in the small blind. After the cards are dealt, the player to the left of the big blind is the first to act during the first betting round.

Tournament Play Poker Blinds

Blinds have a dual purpose when it comes to tournament play. They don’t just serve the purpose we have explained above, but are also utilized to control the length of the poker tournament.

Now, before a poker tournament starts, the poker players will all agree on a specific blinds structure – the structure is usually decided by the tournament organizer. The blinds structure will tell you how long every round is and by how much cash it increases per round. Normally, blinds have set increase rates, like a smooth rate of between twenty five and fifty percent per round (this is over the previous poker round). When the poker blinds increase, you will need to also increase your chip counts (also called stacks) in order to stay a player in the game. It is important to note that the blinds will sooner or later consume all of your poker stack if you do not play as well as win more.

Poker Blinds Structure Goals

When we look at the goals behind poker blinds structures, there are two main ones. The first goal is to make sure that tournaments don’t drag on forever. This means that players with only small stacks left, will not be able to stay in the game towards the end of the tournament. This means that players with smaller stacks will make sure that they play aggressively, which leads to them quickly increasing their stacks, or losing everything.

The second goal is to make sure that most players don’t have a big stack when compared to the poker game’s blind level.

It is also possible to increase the antes, and in this way force the players to either win more chips or leave the game.

Poker Ante: Other Forced Bets

Every poker game needs some type of forced bets to take place to ensure that everyone is betting something towards the pot. The betting limits and betting requirements for forced bets are referred to collectively as the game's betting structure.

Poker blinds are when poker players are forced to place bets. These players are on the left side of the dealer, and it usually takes place in flop-style poker card games.

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