The blind structure (or schedule) is one of the most important details of running a successful tournament. Gradual increases of the blinds at each level and finishing on time are characteristics of a good blind structure.

1. How Long Do Online Poker Tournaments Last
2. How Long Do Pokerstars Tournaments Last

Overview of Online Poker Tournaments. Online poker was made for tournaments. If you want to have fun while you play poker, and maybe bag some giant cash prizes along the way, Bovada Poker is the place to be. There are hundreds of poker tournaments to play every week, with. How to Play Sit and Go Rules Sit and Go poker Tournaments Rules. Sit and Go tournaments (a.k.a SnG's, Sit & Go's, Single Table Tournaments, STT's) are an exciting format of poker than has become very popular. Sit and Go's offer the thrill of a regular multi-table tournament but every game is like you've reached the final table. One of the other attractive features of Sit and Go's, and where.

To calculate a blind structure, the minimum information you need is the number of players, target duration, and the starting blind level (which is usually the smallest chip denomination you have). It is also necessary to know how many chips there will be in play and how many rounds there will be. The blind calculator tool below can take care of that and help set up your perfect structure.

To calculate a blind structure, you need the starting blind level, the estimated total value of the tournament chips in play (initial buy-ins plus rebuys and add-ons) and the desired length of the tournament. Use the tool below to help set up your perfect structure.

This section discusses some tournament blind structure theory, which explains why the PokerSoup.com tournament blind structure calculator suggests blind levels the way it does and what you can change to create the right blind structure for your game.

Starting Number of Blinds

Most tournaments start with 50-100 big blinds. Anything around 200 big blinds is considered a 'deep stack' tournament. Deep stack tournaments are considered to be full of skillful poker play and not just pushing your money all in before the flop. The latter occurs quickly in tournaments that start with less than 50 big blinds, which are also aptly nick-named 'luck-fests'. There just aren't enough chips to maneuver and play real poker.

If all other variables are held constant, starting a tournament with larger chip stacks will increase the length of the game.

Rebuys and Add-ons

The number of rebuys and add-ons in a tournament also effect the total number of chips in play during a tournament. If no other changes are made, more rebuys and add-ons make for a longer tournament.

Blind Level Round Length

Most live tournaments employ blind level lengths of 15, 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes. The blind calculator can calculate blinds for any of these blind levels. With a set tournament length, longer blind levels result in less number of rounds and shorter blind levels result in more rounds.

Gradual Blind Increase

The greatest benefit of using the PokerSoup.com tournament blind structure calculator is the assurance of constantly increasing blind amounts. This is an important aspect of tournament play. If the blinds increase (preferably slowly) at a constant rate, players do not spend an inordinate amount of time being deep- or short-stacked and there are no game-altering blind increases in the middle of the tournament.

For example, if the blinds increase from 150/300 to 200/400, that is an increase of 33%, or (200+400)/(150+300). This is a comfortable increase. Similarly, in the later stages of the tournament after many players are knocked out, a blind increase from 3000/6000 to 4000/8000 is also 33%.

End Goal

Eventually, the blinds (and antes) induce action to end the tournament. After all, a tournament usually does have a set duration (or a goal, anyway). As a player, it is up to you to figure out how aggressive it is necessary to play in order to keep up with the blinds. Constant gradual increases make this easier to figure out.

A lot of you (and frankly, a lot of us) wondered how long it might take to finish a PokerStars Turbo Championship of Online Poker event. After all, it sometimes takes a couple of days to win a championship in SCOOP or WCOOP tournaments. Accounting for the time investment in addition to the buy-in is not an easy thing.

So, when PokerStars announced TCOOP, a lot of people like Ivan Demidov were understandable excited.

'Turbo COOP is a great idea for me,' Demidov told us. 'I don't really have time to play 15 hour sessions anymore, so turbo tournaments are my best way to participate in big tournaments.'

Like Demidov, we're all pressed for time. So, we asked the people with the calculators and abacuses at PokerStars to look into their crystal balls and offer some sort of prediction on how long it will take to finish each event.

This is not an easy thing to do. There is variance in all of life's endeavors, and this is no exception. However, we at least have some sort of idea about how long each event might take to finish.

How Long Do Online Poker Tournaments Last

If you're gearing up to play one of the TCOOP events, here is a handy little primer on how long you should expect your championship run to take.

Remember, these are all just estimations, and they could be wildly off. Or as they say, your results may vary. In any case, this thing is going to be big, it's going to be fast, and it's going to award no less than $10 million over the course of the next week and half. It all kicks off tomorrow at noon ET.

How Long Do Pokerstars Tournaments Last

As If you needed further proof this series is the real deal, the PokerStars Blog writers are limbering up their fingers at the very moment to cover every final table of the festival. Beginning tomorrow afternoon, you will be able to find a recap up every event on our TCOOP coverage page.

For full information, a schedule, and satellites for the series, check out the TCOOP home page.