The Poker Tournament Formula by Arnold Snyder...

[Trebor the Mad Overlord]

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This is exactly the point that I think Mason seems to be punting on over and over. If your M is 20 and Q is 1 in the WSOP, that is very different from playing at the starting bell of the Riviera tourney ($1500 stack; 25-50 blinds; 15 minute rounds) where your M starts at 20, but is scheduled to drop to 9 in 15 minutes and drop to 4 in 30 minutes (without a playable hand).

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After reading Snyder's book and trying out his suggestions, I found that it improved my play considerably (not that that would be hard... grin)

IMHO, what Snyder adds to "M" is the concept of "M-decay". It's sort of like radioactive half-life. Since doing nothing in a fast tournament will result in your M dropping faster than in a slow tournament, you have to make an adjustment for this. If you have an M of 10 in a slow tournament, your "decayed" M value might be 9.5 -- but in a super-fast tournament, it might be 3!

Snyder's point about taking some risks to stay in the green is also well taken. If you are a better than average player, it's worth taking risks to preserve your ability to deploy your full toolbox, and the faster the tournament, the more risk you should be willing to take. If your M is 30 and the rest of the table is around 10 (and diving fast), you've got a huge edge.

After reading the book, I had a lot better understanding of why the successful "maniac" LAG players do what they do, and why it can be so powerful.