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4. The 35% rule

If you have to invest 35% of your chip stack to call a raise, you don't decide between calling or folding, but rather between pushing or folding as an all-in would give you at least 2:1 pot odds on the flop, and even better ones if there's dead money in the pot. Any hand which was strong enough for a call is also pot-committed on any flop. If you push pre-flop, you might even have some fold equity.

Gigabet assumed that the majority of the high limit players on his table know about this rule. Even if you haven't read it as such, most SnG regulars intuitively know that they can barely call a 350 chips bet from a bigger stack if they themselves only have about 1,000 chips, only to then fold on the flop. As you would commit yourself with a call anyway, you push instead and return the decision to the raiser. If you continue this thought, you realize that 350 chips are enough to confront a player with 1,000 chips with an “all-in or fold” situation.

Or in general:
You only have to invest 35% of the opponent's chip stack to put him all-in.

This is also the reason why you are still in one group with a chip difference of up to 35%, as the bigger one of the two stacks has enough chips to put the other one all-in without having to go all-in himself (even though only a few people actually use this).

Example:
Blinds t50/t100
Seat 1: MP1 ( t1005 )
Seat 2: MP2 ( t1100)
Seat 3: MP3 ( t1040 )
Seat 4: Cutoff ( t490 )
Seat 5: Button ( t410 )
Seat 6: SB (Hero) ( t2015 )
Seat 7: BB (Villain) ( t1495 )
Seat 8: UTG ( t1050)
Seat 9: UTG+1 ( t850 )
Seat 10: UTG+2 ( t545 )


Preflop: Hero is SB
8 folds, Hero raises to t525


Scenario a:
Hero raises to t525, Villain folds
-> Hero wins t100

Scenario b:
Hero raises to t525, Villain re-raises to t1495 and is all-in, Hero folds.
-> Hero loses t525

Hero wins a big blind after Villain's fold and is thus able to extend his lead step by step (similar to the Push-or-Fold mode in heads-up). Hero is confidently able to bow out of his hand if Villain does have a hand though which he deems to be strong enough to push all-in with according to the 35% rule. Now Villain has the bigger chip stack of the group. But since he is a normal regular, he doesn't know the described concept and thus doesn't pull an edge from the extra chips.

There is also the fact that Hero is chip leader and Villain sits at the table with the second-most chips. To tangle with the chip leader with so many smaller stacks on the table, Villain would need a very strong hand. That's why Hero will win the pot pre-flop in most cases.

Thus if Gigabet manages to win against the short stack, he will have 34% more chips than UTG+2 with which will put him under a lot of pressure. He could face him with an all-in situation without committing himself. For him, this advantage is almost as good as a double up. To sit right next to his adversary is another bonus point, although it would be even better if he had position on him.

There is an important point of criticism about this concept though, which should not be concealed:
With a re-raise from Villain, Hero would get pot odds of ~2:1, which might eventually favour a call. But as Hero would have to invest more chips, and these further chips have been proven to be more valuable, than he already bet, the concept of pot odds is neglected in this case and Hero folds despite the good odds.