When the Small Blinds busts... and other NLTHE tournament procedure questions

Here are some poker tournament procedure questions:

Assumptions:
-- There is a small blind and a big blind.
-- Each blind must be taken by someone each hand.
-- The tournament is at the knockout stage (i.e., no rebuys)
-- For the question below, assume there are 9 players with player 1 as the button, 2 the small blind (SB), and 3 the big blind (BB)
-- The Small Blind (player 2) just busted out (Let's call this Hand 1), I think the Button/Blinds assignments for Hand 2 are:
Button: P3
SB: P3
BB: P4
BB2: P5

Then Hand 3 (assuming no one gets knocked out):
Button: P4
SB: P4
SB2: P5
BB: P6

Then Hand 4, back to normal (assuming no one gets knocked out):
Button: P5
SB: P6
BB: P7


Question:
-- What would be the procedure in Hand 4, if Player 4 (the Button+SB) busts at the end of Hand 3?
Hand 4A
Button: P5
SB: ??
BB: P5
BB: P6


-- Similar to the above, but with only four players remaining. Will players take the same blinds back to back?
Four player hand 1
Button: P1
SB: P2
BB: P3
P2 busts at the end of this hand

Hand 2
Button: P3
SB: P3
BB: P4
BB2: P1

Hand 3
Button: P4
SB: P4
SB2: P1
BB: P3
P4 busts a the end of this round.

Hand 4 (only P1 and P3 remain)
Button: P1
SB: P1 (again?)
BB: P3 (again?)

There are basically 2 methods deployed for blinds. I believe the first one is the most common:
1. Big blind ALWAYS advances to the next player.
So hand 1 is:
Player 1 button
Player 2 small blind
Player 3 big blind
Players, 4,5,6,7,8
-------------------------------
if player 3 busts out on hand 1, hand 2 will look like this
Player 2 button
No small blind
Player 4 Big blind
Players 5,6,7,8,1
----------------------------------
If player 4 had busted out on hand 1, hand 2 will look like this
Player 2 button
Player 3 small blind
Player 5 Big blind
Players 6,7,8,1
------------------------------------
When you get down to 2 people, the big blind is advanced to the next person. The button and small blind are then assigned to the other person, and play proceeds from that point.


The other method advances the button 1 position every time, and then sets the blinds to the next 2 players. This method is not usually used, as it results in blinds sometimes skipping people, which is not really fair to the other players.

I know this is not addressing your question, but...

If the small blind player #2 busts out on hand #1, I'd place the button on the empty #2 position for hand #2. Then players 3 and 4 are the SB and BB respectively.

In the tournaments I have run, at no time other than in heads up play is any player both a blind and the button. If the small blind gets knocked out of any hand then the button is "dead" ie not assigned to a player and the blinds carry on with the previous big blind becoming small blind, and the Under The Gun player the BB.

Pretty much what PapaChubby said.

Edit - also, no player posts the same blind two hands in succesion. If the BB of a hand were to be eliminated, then play continues with BB only on the UTG player, and the button on the previous SB. The button then becomes dead on the next hand.