Poker Tournament Blind Structure Generator
Set your starting stack, expected players, level length, and how long you want the tournament to run — get a complete blind schedule with antes and suggested break levels. The math targets a clean end-of-tournament big-blind level proportional to your starting stack, then works backward.
Tournament inputs
Generated structure
| Level | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante | Duration |
|---|
How the structure is generated
The generator targets a "clean" final big-blind level — roughly one big blind per starting stack worth of chips in play — and works backward from there using a geometric progression. Each level's big blind is approximately 1.4× the previous level's, which is the sweet spot most well-known structures (WSOP, MSPT, HPT) cluster around.
Round numbers get prioritized: blind values snap to standard denominations (25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000, 5000, etc.) so cashier and dealer math stays simple at the table.
Picking the right inputs
Starting stack
Common values: 5,000 (turbo/satellite), 10,000 (standard), 20,000–30,000 (deepstack), 50,000+ (event main). Bigger stack = more play, longer tournament.
Level length
Short (12–15 min) for turbo events, 20 min for standard tournaments, 30+ min for deepstack/championship. Longer levels = more decisions per level = more skill expression.
Target length
The total wall-clock time you want the tournament to last. The generator picks how many levels to schedule. Real tournaments often run shorter than scheduled (busts come faster than the math predicts) — pad your target by 10–20% if your players play tight.
Re-entries
If re-entries are allowed, total chips in play grows beyond players × starting stack. The generator accounts for this by treating the effective stack count as higher, which extends the structure so the tournament doesn't end with everyone deep-stacked.
Ante style
Big-blind ante (modern, used by WSOP since 2018) — only the big blind posts a single ante for the table. Faster than per-player antes. Per-player ante — every player posts an ante each hand. Same total contribution but slower. No antes for small home games.
Want to customize?
Copy the structure as text, paste it into your tournament software, then tweak individual levels by hand. Marquee Poker lets you import or hand-edit blind structures, save them as reusable profiles, and re-apply across tournaments.
Related tools
Calculating the prize pool too? Use the prize pool calculator. Setting up chip stacks? See the chip allocation calculator.
Running tournaments regularly?
This generator gives you a structure — but you still need to run the clock, push blind changes to a TV, track players, and handle re-entries. Marquee Poker automates all of it. Free tier covers single-tournament use.
See Marquee Poker