One of the things that I don't like about M is that some people promote using the "M-Zone" chart that was posted above. Gus Hansen in his book suggests that push/folding starts at 7M, others even suggest it at 10M. To me, I just don't know what to do.
With ABB (I still like to call it effective bb, lol, but that seems confusing, so I will stick with ABB, which has a short abbreviation anyway), there aren't any charts like what you see with the M-Zone per se. However I generally apply the same strategy I would if I were just counting bb's - at around 10bb's or less (12bb's for some people), if I am entering the pot, I am going all-in, unless I have a very good reason. That reason could be that you have a monster and you want to induce a bet (although that can also be argued as a good reason), or say you're bvb and your opponent is extremely tight, you can just min-raise or 2.25x raise. This will generally achieve the same fold
equity while also allowing you to get away when your opponent has a monster.
When you get near to 5 ABB's you really need to be getting your chips in, especially in late position. In a MTT, if it's folded to me in the SB, BTN, or even the CO, I will usually push any two cards, depending on the looseness of the blinds. In a STT you can usually push any two cards from the SB, very wide from the BTN, and about 50% from the CO, depending on the blinds of course. When we do this counting by bb's, our goal is to prevent ourselves from blinding below ~3.5bb's, because if we push a stack of that size our opponent is getting 2:1 on a call. This is probably less important if we're counting by ABB's however, because most opponents fail to account for the antes, and interpret your push just in terms of bb's. So while you're ABB is about 3 your actual bb's could be 4 or even 4.5, and you won't be called as wide by a random opponent.
Anything in between is going to depend on your opponent, your stack size, and your hand (probably the least important factor). For example, if it's folded to me in the SB and I have 8 ABB, that is almost always a shove. But if you're in the CO with 8 ABB, then your push range might be 15-20% depending on the blinds - we're pushing tighter if they're loose, looser if they're tight. Generally you're also going to push tighter than that in a STT. So that's a pretty significant difference, just because our position is different.
So I guess my guidelines would be 10 ABB's or less, you push if you want to enter the pot. With 5 ABB's or less, you are trying to steal the blinds with a wide range to maintain your stack, and it usually doesn't matter what your cards are. Anything in between you have to use your judgment.
