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I play: Fixed Limit | No-Limit | Sit and Goes

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Strategy: SNG: Sit and Go Tournaments

Independent Chip Model (ICM)

by Morgoth

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3. Summary

Some will be disappointed that this article did not provide the philosopher's stone for making a winning player on all SNG limits with the wave of a hand. It is much more about building a foundation for analyzing your endgame play in SNG's and also MTT's and for making rational decisions in those contexts. It is not about how to act in special situations. Such examples are addressed in following articles and in the example hand forums.

A knowledge of the ICM is without question a prerequisite for a successful SNG player. It is a good model for describing the $EV in a tournament and for drawing conclusions from it. It is, however, only a model and both it and the decisions based upon it are fallible.

An important axiom follows from the limitations mentioned above, with which I will end the article:

Given calculations by the ICM, make all +$EV pushes and make no -$EV calls. However, sometimes you should make a -$EV push or leave a +$EV call.

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Next article: Loose Blind Steals - the LAG Approach

Comments (13)

Write a comment

#1 styc0, 15 Apr 08 19:14

iyo

#2 mouse89, 06 Oct 08 16:01

#3 Vargan, 05 Feb 09 20:20

This article is full of Harry Potter references. Hermine vs Harry, Philosopher stone, wave of a hand. Very niceky written, though ICM still is not 100% clear to me. ;>

#4 SuperHandz, 17 Feb 09 19:30

erm, yeah. Gonna need to read through that a few more times but the penny will drop!

#5 tigerace999, 02 Jun 09 10:36

if you have read all the previous articles and used ICM trainer this should be very clear. it is to me ;

#6 oFISHnCHIPSo, 24 Oct 09 23:46

How to use ICM is the easy part. How to get it right by correctly assessing your opponents' various ranges is the hard part, and a slight error there can make using ICM completely -$EV in itself. :)

#7 Hahaownedlolz, 30 Nov 09 09:13

i don't see how the ICM could affect your play in a bad way. You don't have to follow it 100%. you don't have to push with a 4-8 suited when it tells you to.

For me it just made it so much easier to push with for example a K high or 6-7 suited. i understand the true value of a hand way better now.

#8 HarveyFP, 09 Dec 09 15:14

It hurts my head thinking about it - will need to come back and work out how to apply on the fly.

#9 pokerplayer05, 28 Jan 10 19:32

i try to understand how to calculate the $EV but i can't.can anyone give an example on a table with players and so on??
thank you

#10 Koshburger, 10 Feb 10 03:25

#11 Asaf92, 05 Apr 10 09:34

I didn't understand this article one little bit.
How do you calculate how much your chips are worth in real money?

#12 SPADES1, 03 Feb 11 19:06

About: Mathematically, there is a closed-form solution for obtaining the probabilities of placement using conditional probabilities. But I think this metaphor is sufficient for our explanation.

I'm sorry to contraddict the author but you don't need to explain in detail conditional probabilities. It's much easier with an example and the only mathematical concept you need is very intuitive i.e. events occurring together (by the way it's a mere multiplication).

I suggest to readers, in order to have a clearer idea, to have a look to the book of Dan Harrigton: 'Harrington on Holdem Volume 3'.

#13 werall1, 23 Feb 11 11:09

no clue...gonna go read all the other articles,tiger...just came here cos this just opened up for me....fairly new to the site...love all the great info that ive checked out so far...goodluck every1