The concept in Harrington’s poker tournament strategy.

Understanding the concept of M will allow you to understand the basic concept of chip count and playing strategy.

What is ‘M’

‘M’ is the ratio of the blinds (and antes if applicable) to your current chip stack.  At a  table of 9 or 10 players you add the 2 blinds together (big and small) and divide your chips by this number to give you an ‘M’ number. For example if you have 2000 chips and the total blinds are equal to 400 then your ‘M’ is 5.

What Does It Mean?

The number tells you is how many more times around the table you can survive without being blinded out. In the above example, assuming you played no hands, you can last for 5 rounds.

Effective ‘M”

Te ‘M” assumes a full table of 9 to 10 players. When there are less players, the blinds will come around faster – and so your M must be adjusted. Dividing  your current M by number of players at the table is know as Effective M’. For example, you have 4000 chips with 4 players left and the blinds total 400, your M now equals 4000/400 = 10, since only one half of a full table are playing  you divide by 2 for an Effective M of 5.

Once You Know Your M You Can Adjust Your Strategy

Knowing your M score helps you make tournament strategy adjustments based on the score. This is where Dan Harrington’s Poker Zone Theory comes in. Your ‘M’ level determines which ‘zone’ you are in and so what your current strategy should be. There are 5 zones,  from the highest to the lowest these are.

Green Zone

When your M is above 20 you have many poker tournament strategy options available. You can raise, re-raise and still have chips left if you lose a hand.

Yellow Zone

M is between 10 and 20. You should loosen up a bit to stop the blinds eating away at your stack. Small pairs and suited connectors are less desirable now.

Orange Zone

M is now between 6 and 10. Your stack is dwindling so you must  play aggressively to stay alive.

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.

Dead Zone

M of less than one:  Any high cards are good enough for an all-in move, but expect to be called!

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