3. Classification of the chip stacks on the basis of chip value

On the basis of the previous mention that players are in the same group if their stacks differ by 35% at the most, we can divide the 8 players of the prior example into 4 groups. The following chart shows both the actual chip stacks and the lower margins on which a player would drop out of the group.

MP2 has with 1,005 chips about 26% more in chips than MP3, who has 840 chips. Thus both players are in one group. 623 is the lower limit which MP2 must not fall under to avoid dropping from the group, as with 623 chips he'd have about 35% less in chips available than MP3 with 840 chips.

On the other hand MP3 would still be in this group with 745 chips, as in this case MP2 would have 35% more chips than him. This might sound a bit confusing now, but you should be able to understand it if you re-read it again a couple of times.

And this is the case with all 4 groups. With the two short stacks it's a bit borderline, as they only have 4 or 5 big blinds respectively, and the Push-or-Fold concept is above the one with the different chip values. They were still included in the calculations for the sake of completeness though.

Let's cast our mind back to the previous hand:
The BB (Gigabet) has realized that the 410 chips, with which the button pushes all-in, don't harm him in any way. Should he lose these 410 chips, he'd still be in the blue group with 1,725 chips, as the lower limit for him lies at 1,540 chips. Only with a smaller stack he'd be more than 35% away from UTG+1 and would drop from the blue group.

The push is thus relatively easy to explain: He wants to press both limpers out of the hand. If he only calls, he would risk that at least one of the two limpers calls as well, or even pushes himself, which would make the hand quite expensive for Gigabet. This is the reason why he immediately pushes himself. Whether this is a good or a bad move, especially considering the open limp from MP2, is not an issue in this article.

Fact is that Gigabet assumed that he manages to play his hand heads-up against the button, despite the risk that further players call his push.

But do the extra chips cut the mustard? If the limpers really fold and he wins against the short stack, he'll have a stack of 2,795 chips. Thus he'd have about 34% more chips than his group member UTG+1 and he'd still be in this group, albeit barely. Didn't we just learn that it hardly makes a difference how many chips you have as long as you stay in the same group?

The answer reads as follows:
Regardless if the average player now knows it or not – up till now it hardly mattered if he had a few more or less chips than another player with a similar sized stack. Gigabet on the other hand found an advantage for these less valuable chips, which will be explained in the following chapter of this article.