Bets are an integral part of poker – they make the game way more engaging. The bank consists of bets, and in order to constitute the bank at the beginning of the game, two players have to make forced bets, which are called blinds. 

There are two types of blinds – small blinds and big blinds. A small blind is a half of a minimum bet and is usually made by the player sitting left of the dealer. The value of the big blind is equal to that of a minimal bet itself and is usually made by the player sitting left of the person making a small blind. Those types of forced bets are made before two players sitting left of the dealer receive their cards, hence the name – blinds. Sometimes, the term “blind” also refers to the player making said bet. Since the dealer is the last person to make a bet, the position of those players who have to make blinds is considered to be the hardest – you can’t properly analyze the consecutive bets of your opponents, since you’ve already made one.

The purpose of the blind is to make a game more interesting – if not for them, it would be too easy for players to pass without having strong cards in their starting hands. 

In online poker, the size of the blinds is equal to that of the table limit itself. Since the limits of bets in poker can range from a few cents to thousands of dollars, blinds are used as a standard measurement unit for all mathematical calculations in poker regarding money.