My personal ICM strategy for beginners

Peppinotom

Peppinotom

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I am going to tell you the secret of the 1/3 strategy:star:If you always and only stay in the 1st 3rd of a tournament (best is end of 1st 3rd) , you will be 30/90, 3/12, 1/3 and so on. Stay between the 1st third and the half of the field and you may win :icon_boun
 
Peppinotom

Peppinotom

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Don't try with all/in, or you are 0| whatever :toilet:
 
Peppinotom

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Step 2: easy math!From the moment, that there are no more re/buys, late regs or add ons available, you can calculate exactly your ending position regarding your stack size if you stop to play!
Divide the chips in the tournament by the places paid and you know how many chips more you need to sit out, go out and spend the money you are going to win! :bike:I personally prefer the middle of the paid places, so for example 104 players left, 32 places paid, average stack is 4200...104*4200/32 is 13.650 chips and you will land around place 15-20. divide it by 2 and you know if you have a chance to make it to the money. Keep this on track and ICM is old school :) and trust me, 72 of the 104 players have never thought of how to get there so often, did they?
 
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Serjo600

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There are many examples where trailed to far behind the bubble and itm was in the top. I agree that it is necessary to look at the average stack at all stages of the tournament and stick to its values.
 
This Fish Chums

This Fish Chums

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Divide the tourney field into thirds

I totally agree that you should strive to be in the top 1/3rd throughout the tourney. I would take it a step farther and say if you are in the top 1/3rd, don't get caught up trying to make it to the top 10% or higher. Doing that is just going to make you make mistakes while resting comfortably in the top 1/3rd gives you, like he said, a great chance of making the money. I actually have a 1/3rds based strategy to tournaments.
If you're in the bottom 3/3rds then play tight because you don't want to get knocked out.
If you are in the 2/3rds range then play loose because you need to make chips to get to the valuable 1/3rds level.
Once you get to the 1/3rds level then go back to playing tight to preserve your positioning.

The added benefit of this system is that you naturally change up your playing style throughout the course of the tournament, making it more difficult for opponents to get a proper read on you.
 
Peppinotom

Peppinotom

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I totally agree that you should strive to be in the top 1/3rd throughout the tourney. I would take it a step farther and say if you are in the top 1/3rd, don't get caught up trying to make it to the top 10% or higher. Doing that is just going to make you make mistakes while resting comfortably in the top 1/3rd gives you, like he said, a great chance of making the money. I actually have a 1/3rds based strategy to tournaments.
If you're in the bottom 3/3rds then play tight because you don't want to get knocked out.
If you are in the 2/3rds range then play loose because you need to make chips to get to the valuable 1/3rds level.
Once you get to the 1/3rds level then go back to playing tight to preserve your positioning.

The added benefit of this system is that you naturally change up your playing style throughout the course of the tournament, making it more difficult for opponents to get a proper read on you.
Exactly! Besides, in the top ten you will be seated to other bigstacks, and some of them are for sure some donks that got lucky and now don't know what to do. They will raise you just because they haven't raised for a while, or they do not like your name or avatar or country, who knows if a donk thinks at all??? But they can take you out and they don't giva a damn to do so!
 
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one3one

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I really like this philosophy! I always tend to play against the average stack, but I'm not noticing that puts me in really awkward spots especially when I'm running a bit card dead. Definitely going to factor in this "1/3rd" rule when playing from now on!
 
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