Can Anyone Simplify ICM?

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SteveStaxx

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The best understanding I have of it is during the to give a cash value to each chip as opposed the the amount of chips per player at start of the tourney. How does that apply during the course of the tourney?
 
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Chemist

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ICM, strangely named Independent Chip Model.

Basically works out the proportion of the tournament prize pool each player is currently holding.

It takes the total (or remaining) prize pool and the total amount of chips in play.
So effectively works out what each chip would be worth and multiplies that by the number of chips the player has.

During a tourney it gives a more realistic impression of end position than saying for instance I am 2nd in tournament so should be thinking of winning the second prize, which in mid stage would be much greater than the ICM value.

This is the same as the chip count method at this point, however after reaching the prize paying positions (and when working out deals) it is applied incrementally, so the remaining prize pool and chip values are calculated on the assumption that each player also gets paid the next minimum amount before adding on the value of the chips.
(otherwise just based on chip count a short stacked player could end up with less than the next minimum payout).

There are some calculators that work out the percentage chance of a player finishing in each of the money positions based on the number of chips they have.
The ICM then shows the player’s “equity” in the tournament.
 
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WiZZiM

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You really don't want to dumb down ICM, you really want to learn the ins and outs of it. Once you know why ICM applys to certain spots, then you can simplify decisions in game to help you make use of ICM without having to study your ass off.

but you need to know how it works first, before you get into ICM calculators and such.

Recommendations for learning ICM

Dragthebar.com
Has some really good starting videos by zerosum you should check out, after you get through that, you can advance onto other more advanced SNG pros like "casy151" which has some really solid SNG content on there, plus he's a really nice guy and very smart person in general.

Bluefirepoker.com
This also has some really good content by two players Ryan peterson, who has some really good starting out videos that are very worthwhile checking out. ALso some stuff by Raizin Azian is worth checking out for more advanced topics, plus more that have likely been added.

Book reccomendations include

Moshman book(don't know what it's called) but it will have all the basics and most of the background info on ICM and it's relatively cheap compared to the video poker sites.

If you really want simplified ICM decisions quick, then an expensive option would be to purchase the book "common sense" by 'Glitlr', who was a beast 9man turbo player pre-black friday. His book breaksdown complex ICM decisions and gives you differant ways of utilizing them without knowing all the background info on ICM. It will cost somewhere in the ballpark of around $600, but comes with 4-5 hours of coaching which is included. If you are interested let me know and i can find out for you.


Overall, you are best off learning ICM in depth, most of the SNG regs nowadays have a pretty good knowledge about it, which means you can exploit them by making unorthodox plays, which are essetial to beating anything over the $7 games nowadays.

hope this helps.
 
Jacki Burkhart

Jacki Burkhart

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WizziM is basically the guru for any posts dealing with SnGs and also ICM. so basically just do as he recommends.

but... if you want a simple way to think about ICM think about it like this.

Player A is down to 1,000 chips when blinds are at 25/100/200

Player B is sitting on a stack of 60,000 at the same blind level at the same table.

To Player A 1,000 chips is worth A TON more than to player B. It's everything. 1,000 chips means the difference between potentially getting first place, and getting nothing. Player A can't afford to miss a thing, can't even run to the bathroom because of the effect of losing a couple of antes when he might have had a playable hand.

To Player B 1,000 chips are almost meaningless, and will have generally no effect on player B's range, goals, playing style or results.

That is the concept grossly oversimplified.
 
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