tools
Poker blind timer.
Most timers hand you a blind structure and hope it fits your evening. This one works the other way around. Say how many players, how many chips and how long you want the game to run, and it builds a schedule that ends when you said it would, then counts it down.
level 1
20:00
Blinds now
25 / 50
Next level
30 / 60
The space bar starts and pauses the timer while you are not typing in a field.
your schedule
| Level | Starts after | Small blind | Big blind | Average stack |
|---|
how the schedule is built
Work backwards from the end of the night.
A tournament ends when the last players are short of chips relative to the blinds, and that moment can be aimed at. Take the chips on the table, which is players times starting stack and never changes. Three players left means each has a third of them on average, and a game with ten big blinds each is in its final stretch. So the last big blind should be the chip total divided by thirty. That is the target the schedule aims at.
The rest is arithmetic. The first big blind is a hundredth of the starting stack, so everyone starts a hundred big blinds deep. The number of levels is your evening divided by your level length. The growth per level is whatever gets you from the first big blind to the last one across those levels, which for a typical home game lands near a third per level. Every level is then rounded to an amount you can actually pay with chips, which is why the steps are not perfectly even, and why the last level lands near ten big blinds rather than exactly on it. The summary above the timer always states where your schedule really ends.
The average stack column is the number to read. It is the chips in play divided by three, measured in big blinds, so it tells you what the game looks like for the last three players if they reach that level. Above forty big blinds there is real poker to play. Below twenty it is mostly all in or fold, which is fine at the end of a night and a shame at the start of one.
This page is deliberately thin. No antes, no breaks, no chip counts, because the fewer things there are on screen the less anyone argues with it. When you want a full structure with breaks in the right places and an ante from level five, the tournament clock runs a fixed twenty level ladder and keeps track of the chips in play as players bust.
Two things to settle before you press start, because both come up every single home game and neither is a timer question. What a minimum raise is when someone moves all in for less, which is in the Texas Hold'em rules, and who wins a pot that looks tied, which is the hand ranking and the kicker. Agreeing on both at level one costs a minute. Arguing about them at level nine costs the evening. If money changes hands at your table, it is also worth knowing what a buy-in should be next to the money you play with.
blind timer questions
How fast should blinds go up in a home game?
Fast enough that the game ends, slowly enough that it is poker. In practice that means the big blind grows by about a third each level, so it doubles roughly every two levels. This timer works the rate out from the two things you actually know: how long you want to play and how many chips are on the table.
What blinds should I start with?
A hundred big blinds each is the standard opening depth, so with 5,000 chips you start at 25 and 50. Starting shallower than 50 big blinds makes the first hour a coin flipping contest, and no blind schedule can repair that later.
How long should a poker tournament last?
Decide it first and build the blinds around it, which is the whole idea of this page. Three to four hours suits most home games with six to ten players. Type in the number and the schedule stretches or compresses to fit, ending with the last few players at about ten big blinds each, which is where tournaments actually finish.
Do I need antes in a home game?
No. Antes speed a tournament up and they slow the table down, because someone has to collect them every hand. This timer leaves them out on purpose. If you want them, the tournament clock uses a fixed structure with an ante equal to the big blind from level five.
Is this poker blind timer free?
Yes, with no account and nothing to install. The schedule and the countdown run in your browser, so once the page is open it keeps working even if the connection drops.
What happens when the timer reaches the last level?
It stops there and holds the final blinds, because a home game that lasts longer than planned should not have its blinds run away into numbers nobody has chips for. If you get that far, keep playing the last level, or press back a level and give the table some air.
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further in the app
In Pokiq the tournament you just ran sits with your results, with your return per buy-in over all of them. Your first import and your most expensive leak are free, with no payment details.
Open in Pokiq →