It determines how you should play over time. The blind structure is a very important part of tournament poker. It's helpful to think of your stack size in terms of how many big blinds it is made up of. In tournaments the blinds increase over time, creating a blind structure. In cash games, the blind-sizes are fixed and used to determine the stake. Texas Hold'em uses blinds in both cash games and tournaments.

Don't confuse this with a straddle, which is not a forced bet. Some poker games will have a third blind, which is usually paid by the Button. In some rare scenarios, the small and big blinds will be the same size. The small blind is usually half the big blind. The big blind is usually the size of the table's minimum bet. Generally, seasoned poker players will become very tight whilst being the small or big blind. Whilst you are the last to speak preflop, you will be the first ones to speak post-flop. In most poker strategies, the blinds are considered horrible positions to play a mid-range hand from.

These positions are called the Big Blind and the Small Blind, which are the two positions to the left of the Dealer Button. Blind PositionsĪ blind in poker is a forced bet paid only by certain players who are in specific positions at the table.

The fundamentals of poker blind structure are explained below. The rising poker blind structure in tournaments encourages action and ensures the tournament doesn't last too long. There are three types of blinds in Texas Hold'em poker:Īntes have a similar role in other forms of poker and in Hold'em tournaments. Poker blinds are forced pre-flop bets which play a massively important role in Poker.

Poker hyper turbo strategy