is your "M" really important?

[bonds25]

I dont know what "M" means nore do i care what it means, thats how important i think it is.

[Lloyd]

[ QUOTE ]
I dont know what "M" means nore do i care what it means, thats how important i think it is.

[/ QUOTE ]
If you do not understand the concept then you're playing a very sub-optimal game. I could care less about the term but conceptually it's very important, and much more accurate and useful than simply taking into consideration how many BBs you've got.

I do think it's useful that there is a simple term that can be used since most of us have read HOH and immediately understand what someone means when they say they have an "M of 4". How else can it be described? I guess they could say I've got enough chips to last 4 rounds, or they can expect us to do the math from the hand history, but I think saying "M of 4" is simple and gets the job done efficiently and accurately.

[bonds25]

I understand the concept of adjusting my play depending on how many big blinds i have left. I just mean i dont know what the "M" term means specifically.

[shmoosh]

Paul Magriel coined the phrase, I've always thought M might be for his last initial. In that case you could call it your "Magriel". "My Magriel was 25", personally I like M better, but honestly who gives a [censored] what you call it?

[EdmondDantes]

I monitored a bunch of MTTs to see how the average stacks compared to one orbit of blinds & antes at each level of the tournament. You can see the listing here...

http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACT...RDS_ON_PAGE=25

If you click on the title, you'll get a page with the tournament...e.g. the 'Stars $1 mm...

http://www.tworags.com/index.php?ACT...nt&ID=1275

And if you scroll down, you can see how the average stack measures up to an orbit of blinds and antes. Site's still in beta, but feel free to look around.

And, yeah, the M matters.

Ed

[dontmiss]

csi is crime scene investigator correct

[Ansky]

In general I 'think' in terms of blinds and antes as a ratio of my stack, but I do not really think about the number as M. I make adjustments as I see fit but I do not have guidelines, ie M 1-5, all in or fold, M 5-10 TAG poker etc. I just adjust on my ownnnnn

[Lloyd]

[ QUOTE ]
In general I 'think' in terms of blinds and antes as a ratio of my stack, but I do not really think about the number as M. I make adjustments as I see fit but I do not have guidelines, ie M 1-5, all in or fold, M 5-10 TAG poker etc. I just adjust on my ownnnnn

[/ QUOTE ]
I think the biggest mistake people can make with "M" is to implement the "zones" literally. Common sense should tell you that going from an M of 6 to 5 shouldn't all of a sudden require an absolute change in strategy. It's a continuum. Your strategy should be gradually shifting based on your M and the current table conditions.

[marchron]

Agreed. Kill Phil has that same problem, with guidelines of when to push based on stack sizes of M > 30, 10 < M < 30, 4 < M < 10, and M < 4.

[dmk]

Listen to ansky/lloyd, use common sense.

I've never calculated my M at the table. Its just another way of representing your stack-size. I use BBs. If there are antes, then i say to myself "Self: you have 6BBs...and there's an ante. You need to push more now." Pretty easy, no?