[bolgenmod]

I believe he's talking about rebuy tournaments: if you bust and don't rebuy right away, you're out. In most regular tournaments, yes, you lose a small and big blind every orbit that you miss. In a ring game, you miss only one small and one big blind no matter how many orbits you miss.

The difference is that in a ring game, the blinds are like a payment for an orbit -- if it's 10-20 10-handed (just to make the math easy), you are paying 15 to see 10 hands whether you play them or not. So if you're away from the table for 3 orbits, you only pay for one orbit. That's also why many B&M players "play to their blind" before they leave: they figure they've paid for their hands and may as well play until they will have to pay another blind.

In a tournament, the blinds are also payment, but they are penalty as well. A fixed amount of chips (no rebuys) and an escalating blind are part of the whole point of a tournament: you have to play sooner or later or everyone would fold into the money. And if the blinds aren't taken out for every orbit you are in (whether you are at the table or not), one could theoretically pay the entry fee and just not show up until late in the tournament and still make it into the money. I've heard stories about people online who lose connection during a tournament, and when they get the connection back after an hour or so are still in contention, so I guess it could happen.

And those WSOP player (Hellmuth) who miss their blinds have pre-paid for a seat, so they get their chips at their assigned seat whether they are there at the start of the tournament or not. They are then blinded down until they show up. There are some rules about when the missing player's chips will be removed, but they're even more complicated. So it's not like Hellmuth (or others) show up for the start of the tourny and then leave -- he shows up an hour or two late, and his stack is just smaller by however many blinds he's missed.

Anyway, I hope this clears it up a little: I'm hitting the bourbon as I peruse 2+2, so I may not be that clear. But since only one person answered you, I thought I'd take a crack at it!