Guides · Setting up
“What stakes are we playing?” is really two questions: how much does it cost to sit down, and how deep is that in big blinds. Get the second one wrong and the game plays badly however friendly the table is.
The 100 big blind standard
A starting stack of 100 big blinds is the default in cash games everywhere, and it is the default for a reason: it leaves room to play after the flop without anyone being committed by their first raise.
So the blinds fall out of the buy-in rather than the other way round. Divide by 100 and you have your big blind:
- $20 buy-in → 10c/20c
- $50 buy-in → 25c/50c
- $100 buy-in → 50c/$1
Pick the buy-in your group is comfortable losing on a bad night, then let the blinds follow. That order matters: a table that sets blinds first tends to arrive at a buy-in nobody quite agreed to.
Why too shallow plays worse than too small
A 30 big blind stack is not a cheaper game, it is a different one. Every hand becomes a decision about whether to commit everything before the flop, which is neither much fun nor much poker.
If the stakes feel too high, lower the buy-in and the blinds together. Keep the ratio; change the numbers.
The opposite — 300 big blinds deep — makes for a slow, cautious game where the blinds are too small to be worth contesting. Some groups like it. Most find the night drags.
Top-ups during the night
In a cash game a player can usually buy back up to the starting stack whenever they like. Agree whether they can go deeper than it — a player sitting 300 big blinds deep against a table of 100 changes the game for everyone else.
Whatever you decide, each top-up is a separate buy-in and has to be recorded as one, or the count will not reconcile at the end of the night. More on recording rebuys here.
If you are running a tournament
Tournaments need blinds that rise, and the structure decides how long the night is far more than the buy-in does.
- Starting stack: 50 to 100 big blinds. Deeper is a longer night.
- Levels: 15 to 20 minutes for a weeknight game; 20 to 30 if you want real play.
- Progression: roughly 1.5× each level. Doubling ends things abruptly.
- Antes: skip them for a casual game. They speed things up and complicate the count.
The difference between the two formats is mostly a money question rather than a poker one — there is a guide on choosing between them.
Do not move the blinds mid-game
Raising the stakes at midnight because the game got quiet is how somebody ends up playing for money they did not agree to. If the stakes are wrong, note it and change them next time.