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Why short tables cost three times as much
This is exact and it's the reason short-handed play cannot be tight.
You pay one small blind and one big blind per orbit — 1.5 big blinds, every time the button laps the table — no matter how many seats there are. But a short table laps faster.
| Seats | Hands per orbit | Blind cost per hand | Cost per 100 hands of folding everything |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 | 0.375 BB | 37.5 BB |
| 8 | 8 | 0.188 BB | 18.8 BB |
| 12 | 12 | 0.125 BB | 12.5 BB |
Fold every hand at a twelve-handed table and you bleed 12.5 big blinds per hundred hands. Do it four-handed and you bleed 37.5 — three times as fast. Patience is a cheap virtue in a crowd and an expensive one at a short table. The math doesn't care how disciplined you feel; it just bills you.