KEY LESSONS FROM THE FINAL TABLE - PART 1 +25% DISCOUNT ON EBOOK AND PAPERBACK

KEY LESSONS FROM THE FINAL TABLE - PART 1

+25% DISCOUNT ON EBOOK AND PAPERBACK

Gareth share's key lessons from his book, 'The Final Table' so you can better understand how ICM and risk premium guide your strategies and also how you can set yourself up to improve your approach to final tables every single day.

"Over the last 11 years as a poker player and coach I've had the chance to observe, first hand, just how many mistakes are made on final tables, both live and online, and by both amateurs and pros alike.

The final table is the real business end of the tournament and mistakes you make at this stage can cost you hundreds, thousands or even millions of dollars.

Let's dive in.

1. What is ICM?

Understanding the definition of ICM is important because it will help you to understand and calculate the real monetary value of your chips, which in turn will help you form a winning strategy at the table.

ICM stands for Independent Chip Model. It uses the payouts and the different stack sizes around the table to determine the probability of each player finishing in each of the remaining positions. So if there are 4 players left, how often does each player finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th based on their current stack size of each player?

Let's say you're playing in a 10-person SNG with a $1,000 buy-in and no rake that gives each player 1,000 chips at the start of the tournament.

The payouts are as follows:

1st: $5,000

2nd: $3,000

3rd: $2,000

Now let's say we fast forward to the bubble and miraculously you and the other three remaining players have exactly the same stack size of 2,500 chips. Each player's stack is worth $2,500.

It folds to the small blind (Player D) and they shove, and you (Player A) have a decision in the big blind. If you call and lose you will bust the tournament, losing $2,500 in equity. If you call and win you will increase your equity by $1,333.33.

Notice that if you call and win how the other two players in the tournament have also increased their equity despite folding. They had no risk in this hand, but you took on all the risk to burst the bubble and eliminate Player D.

You would have lost $2,500 in equity if you'd lost and yet only gained $1,333.33 when you won. This means you needed more equity to call the all-in than you would have in a Chip EV scenario. This added risk can be calculated and it's what we'll discuss next."

Parts 2-5 to follow...

Gareth James's own MTTPOKERSCHOOL can be found

HERE

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