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Gold-State • Strategy: The Gigabet Dilemma
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Gold-State • Strategy: The Gigabet Dilemma
by PokerStrategy.com |
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Another concept allocates different values to the individual chips in the stack and sometimes requires a -$EV move as the chips you bet are worth less than those you can win. This may sound abstract, but we are going to try and explain the concept as elaborately and plausibly as possible in this article.
, 3 
What would you do?
Surely most people would now say “Easy fold”. Of course the button has a bigger push range here as he only has a stack of 4 BB. But why should you invest one fifth of your stack into a hand, with which you only have 2 live cards at the most, and further people are still acting behind you? If you assume that the button pushed here with any pair, any 2 Broadway cards and A7s+, then Hero only has an equity of barely 31%. Thus he should probably fold.
But the Hero in this hand had a different opinion: Hero re-raises to t2035 and is all-in.
And this isn't some regular or fish, but “Gigabet”, a very strong SnG player. Why Gigabet made this push will be explained hereafter.
Experience has shown that it hardly makes a difference who has a few more or less chips if two players have an even chip stack.
MP1 would theoretically have to regard this as an all-in situation if he receives a push from the button (disregarding every other player), as he would only have 135 chips left if he loses, which is a bit more than one big blind and won't really help him anymore.
The BB with only 55 chips more than UTG+1 has no advantage either. With 2,135 chips, he is for UTG+1 the same threat he would be with only 1,800 chips: In both cases a lost confrontation with UTG+1 would mean almost certain elimination, as his situation with 280 chips is almost as bad as with 0 chips.
Two (or more) players are in a group, as long as the bigger stack doesn't have >35% more chips than the smaller one.
The reason for this will be explained later. As mentioned before, it hardly matters who of the two has the bigger and who the smaller stack.
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.
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).
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.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the ICM sometimes reaches its limits. Nonetheless you will earn a good ROI, even in SnGs and MTTs with a higher buy-in, with the ICM game in case you really understand and use it. The described concept here is supposed to help players who have already reached higher buy-ins ($55+) and who want to perfect their game even more. It is a complement to the old concepts, but by far not as important as e.g. the comprehension of the Push-or-Fold mode or the Odds & Outs.
The concept was described in the most simple manner possible as it is only meant to be a sort of cornerstone for you. Whoever gives it some thought, will realize that players can be in several groups, that more than two players can be in one group, and that this concept is more important for big stacks than for short stacks, etc. Furthermore it isn't possible to portray the value of the individual chips as "concrete" as was done in the second graphic. Instead there should be a colour shift from light to dark. As you can see, the concept can still be upgraded quite a bit.
Think about it yourself and try to perfect the system for yourself.
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