Big Stack vs. Blind Structure? - Finding the Sweet Spot

[Paulie_D]

Shhhh...don"t interrupt me...I"m trying to figure out the blind structure for a 90 day tourney...starting stack 2 billion with initial blinds of 1m/2m

Somewhere I have to figure in a 100k ante.

[thinsy147]

Shhhh...don"t interrupt me...I"m trying to figure out the blind structure for a 90 day tourney...starting stack 2 billion with initial blinds of 1m/2m

Somewhere I have to figure in a 100k ante.

If you increase the starting stack to 5 billion, start blinds at 25/50 and increase the blinds every 5 minutes would this then become a:

90 day megastack superturbo

[Swinebag]

smooth structure over deep stack for me any day.

A starting stack should allow for one "accident" and still a chance to recover.

Stacks that are too big allowing for "more play" are far too forgiving and can encourage poor decisions (well they do from me  anyway  )

300BBs is the most you would need as a starting stack though 150-200 is probably fine as well

[WYoung83]

for me, it isnt the statng stack, but its the clock and the levels.....

i hope liverpool are beating them at half time/ and i hope we are f***king them by full time..........

[Joker161]

It"s all about the blind structure. When I was in Vegas this year I avoided the $60 tournies like the plague with their 15-20 min blinds. The starting stack was irrelevant as it was always a crap-shoot very quickly. Also, you need to look out for missing levels (like 75/150 and 150/300). The $150/$200 tounies often had 40 min levels - much better.

At the WSOP I was amazed that the $1000 tournie had better play than the $1500, even though the latter had a 50% larger starting stack. Why? Because they added a 25/25 level in at the start of the $1000. One extra level more than makes up for 50% extra chips. Says it all. The 60 min levels helped!

[Waz1892]

3 things are important for a great tournament IMO,

Blind Struture.

Mins per level.

Decent BB at the Final Table, with this being arguably the most important.  As I believe that if this isn"t correct, then it encourages "bad"play at the start of the tournament as people feel they need a big stack at the FT, so the whole dynamic of the game is changed from Level 1.

Starting Stacks are irrelavant if any of the above are not set right.

[Paulie_D]

Decent BB at the Final Table, with this being arguably the most important. 

This cannot be factored in at the start of the tournament purely because you don"t know at what level the FT will form.

That might be 50BB or 2BB.

However, if "playability" is important then there is an argument to wind back the blinds so that the table average is 30BB.

[Waz1892]

Decent BB at the Final Table, with this being arguably the most important. 

This cannot be factored in at the start of the tournament purely because you don"t know at what level the FT will form.

That might be 50BB or 2BB.

However, if "playability" is important then there is an argument to wind back the blinds so that the table average is 30BB.

Of course, by which I wsa meaning "playability".  You"d have rough idea what the BB would be at the FT, as your blind structure would control this to a certain level.

So, imo, and to ansa the intitial question - Structure not stack.

[Robbiebox]

Starting size stack is all relative to the starting blinds/clock/levels. And number of BB"s on FT is really related to total time of tourney, especially in later stages.
Trend in some bigger tourneys recently has been to increase starting stacks, but also to start with blinds at 50/100 or 100/200 instead of 25/50. This does not cancel each other out though, as the tourney might start at the same number of BB"s, but later levels keep a deeper stack nature in the early levels at least.
There is also a general feeling that if you increase starting stack x5 ( say from 10k to 50k) that the tourney will take x5 longer. However dependent on the level structure the tourney will only take slightly longer, perhaps 4 or 5 levels more. So a 10 hour tourney might turn into a 12 hour tourney.

I agree with those who commented on a smoother structure. I would rather see the clock reduced slightly and have the extra levels in. With regard to APAT events ( and possible new season discusson) I would like to see the starting stack lifted to 15k, clock back to 40 minutes, 500/1000 & 1200/2400 (2500/5000?) levels introduced and an hour start earlier/hour finish later on day 1.

[Paulie_D]

With regard to APAT events ( and possible new season discusson) I would like to see the starting stack lifted to 15k, clock back to 40 minutes, 500/1000 & 1200/2400 (2500/5000?) levels introduced and an hour start earlier/hour finish later on day 1.

I don"t feel the need to get into a discussion of the merits of the APAT structure and any perceived need for changes.

Let"s please keep this on a general discussion level only please. That wasn"t why I started this thread.