In many varieties of poker, including Texas Hold’em, blinds must be paid. Blinds are a type of forced bet that players must make in order to be able to participate in the game. The number of blinds paid per hand is usually 2, the big blind and the small blind. The small blind is placed by the player that sits directly to the left of the dealer, and the big blind by the player to the next left, so running clockwise around the table it goes dealer, or ‘button’ then small blind then big blind. Once the cards are dealt and the hand begins it is the player to the left of the big blind that starts the hand, and that bet must be equal to or bigger than the big blind.
In general the small blind is half the amount of the big blind and they are paid so that there is a starting point to the hand, i.e a minimum amount that each player must pay to be included in the hand.
Blinds in tournament play
As well as being used in tournament play for the above reasons, blinds can also determine the length of a tournament. As a tournament progresses the blind levels increase, and before the tournament begins each player will be made aware of the blind structure. You will notice than when you play sit n go tourneys that there are various types, turbo and hyper turbo being 2 examples and this is in reference to the speed at which the blinds increase. In a hyper turbo sit n go tournament the blinds will increase extremely quickly meaning that the tourney will only last a short amount of time. The speed of the increase in blinds also means that players do not have huge stacks in comparison the blind, meaning that tourneys could go on for way too long. a
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