What is meant by you have M's left ?

I keep hearing that you have so many M's left and the only M's I know are the chocolate covered. At my age, I don't think well enough to study each hand to determine the many things that I hear. I've learned the different positions at the table, but many times I get tied up in playing and don't realize where I am at the time of my play and make some bad call occasionally. I'm learning somewhat more and it is better, but still need to improve.

I know about 'OUTS' at the ball games, but my pitiful old mind doesn't calculate very well on each hand on how many outs I have. I somewhat know what it means, but don't have a quick mathmatical mind on a flop to figure out how many I might have. Wish everyone a "Happy New Year" and good play on the felts.

I am not great at calculating outs quickly unless it is a simple hand.
You "M' though is basically how many rounds you have. You would add what the small blind, plus the big blind is and divide that into your stack size which would tell you your "M"
If the blinds are 1000 and 500, one rotation would be 1500. If your stack is 3000 your "M' would be 2.
Someone else might be able to explain that better, I am not the greatest at explaining things but that should give you the idea.

You forgot to add antes

M zone is calculated like this
(your stack) ÷ (small blind + big blind + (ante x # of players))

I usually don't get that far in a tournament, lol

Story Up, LOL

As for the OP, best way to calculate outs would be say your On a Flush Draw+ Open ender, so that's 9 for your Flush outs+6 for your open Ended outs which=15 now that you know your number of outs multiply that by 4 if of the flop or 2 if on the turn...

So it would look like this for instance, your Hand 9/10s Flop 87A (2 of the cards your suit), so your Open ended+Flush Draws=15X4=60% give or take, and if on the turn it would be half that which is 30%...

If I'm wrong some one correct me, There's better ways to do it, but this is the easiest way for me

Harrington's M - Definition Of M And Basic / Effective M Scores
‘M’ in it’s simplest form is simply the ratio of the blinds (and antes if applicable) to your current chip stack. At a full table you add the 2 blinds together and divide your chips by this number to give you an ‘M’ number. For example if you have 3000 chips and the total blinds are equal to 600 then your ‘M’ is 5.
What this number tells you is how many more ‘rounds’ of the table you can survive without being blinded away. In the above example, assuming you played no hands, you can last for 5 rounds.
The basic ‘M’ score assumes a full table of 9 or 10 players. When there are less players the blinds will come around faster – and so your M is adjusted to compensate. Dividing your current M by the ratio of players at the table is know as ‘Effective M’. For example, you have 5000 chips with 5 players left – the blinds total 500, your M now equals 5000/500 = 10, however only 50% of a full table are playing so you divide by 2 for an effective M of 5.

Harrington's M - Once You Know Your M You Can Adjust Your Strategy
Knowing your M score helps you by making tournament strategy adjustments based on this score. This is where Dan Harrington’s Poker Zone Theory comes into play. Your ‘M’ level (and the M of your opponents) determines which ‘zone’ you are in and so what your current strategy should be. There are 5 zones in total from the highest to the lowest these are.

Level Zone Correct Play
1 Green Zone When your M is above 20 you have many poker tournament strategy options available. Here you can raise, re-raise and still have chips left if you lose a hand.
2 Yellow Zone Here your M is between 10 and 20. Loosen up now to stop the blinds eating away at your stack. Small pairs and suited connectors are less desirable now as your implied odds (chance of winning a big pot from a small investments) are lower.
3 Orange Zone Your M is now between 6 and 10. Here you have lost the ability to ‘resteal’ and your stack is dwindling, you must now play aggressively to stay alive in the tournament.
4 Red Zone M is 5 or less. Here you have lost all flexibility if you play a hand it should be all-in, try to be first into a pot to maximize the chance opponents will fold.
5 Dead Zone M of less than one: Here you are on the tournament critical list – any high cards are good enough for an all-in move, but expect to be called!
Harrington-M-Zones-Inflection-Points


Dan Harrington's M Scores - Maintaining Maximum Flexibility
Dan Harrington’s poker tournament strategy revolves around maintaining as high an M score as possible. As your zone moves from green to red you lose flexibility in your play and must be more aggressive to compensate. Try to maintain as high an M as you can for as long as possible.

Hope this helps, Wally

Or simply put M=your stack/pot before the under the gun person acts.

Thanks for clarifying this, I kept seeing this term in the chats and forums and didn't understand it. Much appreciated.

I'm not sure why they were called Ms. It would have made more sense to call them Os. Since this calculation tells you how many Orbits your stack can withstand at the current blinds and antes.