How Poker Blinds Work: Small Blind vs Big Blind for Beginners

Every hand of poker starts with two people putting chips in before anyone has even looked at a card. Those are the blinds and by the end of this video you'll know exactly who posts them, how much they should be, who acts first, and the four blind arguments that stop home games cold like whose blind it is when somebody busts out. Plus there's one heads-up rule almost every home game gets backwards. [music] So why do blinds even exist? Picture a table with no blinds. Nobody has to put anything in so you can just fold every hand until you're dealt pocket aces and so can everybody else. So the whole night is eight friends folding in a circle and the one time somebody finally plays there's nothing in the pot to win. The blinds fix that. Two players put chips in before every hand so there's always something in the middle worth fighting for and waiting around for aces starts to cost you. Here's who posts them. Find the dealer button. The player directly to its left posts the small blind and the next player to the left posts the big blind. The small blind is usually half the big blind so if the big blind is two chips the small blind is one [music] and the big blind is the number that matters because it's the price of playing a hand. If you want to see the flop you have to put in at least the big blind. Now who acts first? Because this is where beginners freeze. Before the flop the action starts with the player to the left of the big blind. That seat has a name, under the gun, because you're first and everybody's watching you. You can fold, call the big blind, or raise. Then it goes around the table to the left and the two blinds act last. That's the one advantage they get for paying before they've seen their cards. When it comes back to the small blind they already have half in so calling just means adding the other half and then the big blind gets something called the option. If nobody raised they can check and see the flop for free because their chips are already in or they can raise. Your friend saying you can't raise you already put your chips in, he's wrong. The big blind can always raise when the action comes back to them. Then the order flips. After the flop the first player still in the hand to the left of the button acts first which is usually the small blind. So the blinds act last before the flop and first on every street after it and that why the button is the best seat at the table. It acts last on the flop, the turn in the river, so it gets to see what everybody else does first. Being the small blind is the opposite. You've already paid, and now you have to act first on every street with no idea what's coming behind you. That's why the small blind is the seat that loses the most chips over a night. After every hand, the button moves one seat to the left and the blinds move with it, so nobody gets picked on. Over one full trip around the table, which is called an orbit, everybody posts the small blind once, the big blind once, and gets the button once. That's why it's fair. You're not losing chips to the blinds. You're paying your share the same as everyone else, and sometimes everybody folds to the big blind. Nobody calls, nobody raises, so the big blind just takes the small blind and the next hand starts. That's called a walk. Or it folds all the way around to the two blinds, and some home games let them chop, which means they both take their chips back and skip the hand. Again, that's a house rule, so pick one and stick with it. That's every normal hand. Now the four arguments. Argument one, somebody busts out. Sam is the big blind next hand, and he loses his last chip. So who's the big blind now? The rule most tables use is simple. The big blind always moves forward one seat to the next player who's still in. Nobody skips it and nobody pays it twice. If that means the button sits in front of an empty seat for one hand, that's fine. It called a dead button and it fixes itself next hand. Argument two is the one I promised, and it happens at the end of every night. It's down to two players and somebody posts the wrong blind. Heads up, the player on the button posts the small blind and the other player posts the big blind. So before the flop, the button acts first. After the flop, the button acts last, same as always. Most home games do it the other way around and give the big blind to the dealer. If your table does that, now you know. Argument three is the player who walks in late or steps outside to take a call and misses his blind. Danny shows up in the middle of the second orbit and wants to be dealt in right away. The fair rule is she can post a big blind to get a hand right now or she waits until the big blind comes to her seat. And if somebody misses their blinds while they're away, they post them when they come back. That way nobody gets free hands by timing their bathroom breaks. It sounds petty, but it's the argument that gets loud at 1:00 in the morning, so say it out loud when the game starts. Argument four is the straddle. Marco is under the gun and he throws in twice the big blind before the cards come out. That's a straddle and it's basically a third blind. It's optional, it makes the pot bigger and it buys him the last word before the flop. Some tables love it, some ban it. It's not right or wrong. It's a house rule, so just decide before the night starts, not in the middle of a hand. So how big should the blinds be in your home game? Don't start with the blinds, start with the stacks. You want everybody starting with about 100 big blinds. So if the big blind is two chips, everybody starts with 200. Any less and people are going all in way too early and nobody gets to actually play. In a cash game, the blinds stay the same all night, so that ratio is the only number you need and use your chip colors to make it easy. Make the small blind one chip and the big blind two of the same color and nobody has to make change or ask what they owe. In a tournament, the blinds go up. Every 15 or 20 minutes they jump to the next level and that's what makes the stacks get short and the tournament end on time. Just never double them from one level to the next. Going straight from 500 to 1,000 cuts everybody's stack in half for no reason. Go up about a third to a half each time, so 500 then 700 then 1,000. The tournament video has the exact ladder for a 3-hour night. And later in the night, a lot of tournaments add an ante, a small extra amount that goes in every hand, so the pots get bigger and nobody can just sit and wait. So here's the whole cheat sheet. The small blind sits left of the button, the big blind left of that, and the small blind is half. The first player left of the big blind acts first before the flop and the blinds act last. After the flop, the small blind acts first. The button moves left every hand. Bust, the big blind moves forward. Heads up, the button is the small blind. Later away, post a big blind or wait. Straddles are a house rule. Take a screenshot and keep it by the table. And if you run tournaments, HG Poker builds the blind structure for you. Pick how deep you want it and how long each level runs and it lays out every level. It takes no bets, holds no money, and moves no money. It just runs the night and keeps the records. So tell me in the comments, what's the blind rule your table argues about? And if you're still deciding which hands to play once the blinds are in, watch the starting hands video next. >> [music]