📶 Stack depth in big blinds
chips lie — blinds tell the truth
In tournaments, your chip count in dollars is a distraction — what matters is your stack measured in big blinds. Stack depth in big blinds decides which hands you can play and how, and it changes constantly as the blinds rise. This lesson explains why blinds tell the truth.
In a tournament, “how many chips do you have?” is the wrong question. Blinds rise relentlessly, so the same 6,000 chips can be a fortress or a crisis. The real measure is big blinds: 6,000 at blinds 100/200 is a comfortable 30bb; at 500/1,000 it’s a desperate 6bb.
The zones set your playbook. 25bb+: full poker — raise, c-bet, fold, manoeuvre. 10–25bb: tighten up; re-shoving over raises beats calling them. Under ~10bb: the fancy game is over — you’re in the push/fold zone, next lesson’s subject.
And check the clock, not just your stack: doing nothing costs a full orbit of blinds and antes every round — at 10bb, an orbit of patience burns 15% of everything you have. Waiting has a price.
💡 Key idea: re-count your stack in big blinds after every level change. The number changes even when your chips don’t — and your whole strategy hangs on it.
A “big” 40,000 stack is huge at 200-blind depth and desperate at 5-blind depth. Deep (50+ big blinds), you can play speculative hands, see flops, and outplay opponents on later streets. Medium (20–40), pots get committing and post-flop mistakes are costly. Short (under ~15), the game simplifies toward all-in-or-fold, because there’s no room to maneuver after the flop.
The practical habit is to check your stack in big blinds before every decision, not your chip count. Divide your stack by the big blind: 12,000 with a 600 big blind is 20 big blinds — time to tighten up and look for spots to move all-in rather than make small raises you can’t back up. Players who track dollars instead of blinds routinely play the wrong strategy for their depth.
Questions
Why measure your stack in big blinds?
Because the same chip count plays completely differently as blinds rise. Big blinds tell you how much room you have to maneuver — deep stacks can play poker, short stacks must simplify toward push/fold.
What is a short stack in a tournament?
Roughly 15 big blinds or fewer. At that depth there’s little room to play after the flop, so the correct strategy shifts toward moving all-in first or folding.