stack size's

[cryptic3]

not sure if u guys know Bond18 all about stack size's if it's new to u i hope it helps.

When I read over SSMTT I often see a lot of the same mistakes over and over. I also see a lot of mistakes I used to make a lot, and I’d like to do what I can to try and dispense some concise information that will answer a lot of the basic questions. Sometimes there are habits you make or misinformation you’re given and end up creating bad habits, so I’d like to write a series of posts/articles to address some stuff, that may seem fairly basic to some but will hopefully clear up some common misconceptions.

I’d like to start with stack sizes and their relevance.

1.   10 BB’s and under. Basically, any hand you’re playing at this stack size is a shove. This is pretty common knowledge. However, with the increase in stars antes, and the high antes tilt already has, it very often becomes correct to start open shoving in the area of 15 BB’s.

When talking about shoving ranges with antes I’ve recently been turned on to a way of adding up your stacks relative size that I really like, known as ‘true BB’. What it comes down to is that the ‘true BB’ is 2/3rds of the starting pot. So if the blinds are 500/1000 with 100 ante at a 10 handed table then the starting pot is 2500 with a true BB of 1666. So if you’re sitting on the button with a hand like A5s and 15 BB’s, you can simply open shove since you have under 10 true BB’s.

2.   14-21 BB’s. Most (but not all) of the time you have a 14-20 BB stack you shouldn’t be open raising with hands that can’t call a 3-bet. There will, in fact, be spots where because of very weak/tight players behind you that you can raise/fold this stack size, but for the most part, this kind of stack's usefulness is more for restealing all in than open raising. This is in fact an optimal-sized stack to resteal, though many players these days are very aware that this is an optimal resteal all in stack so be mindful of players who are aware of what this stack size indicates.

3.   22-30 BB’s. With this kind of stack you have more room for open raising, but for the most part restealing all in has become a bit to large in most (again, not all) circumstances. Also, when I say restealing I mean shoving hands that don’t really want calls. However, with this stack you should be restricting your open raising range a little bit more than 30+, moreso in early position. With this kind of stack though, I would still be highly aggressive in opening pots in late position as long as the players behind me aren’t huge risks to resteal. In the low 30 BB’s a go and go is very often the best option when thinking of how to play a big unpaired hand pre OOP. Say you have 32 BB’s and a villain in LP makes it 3X. If you have AQ you should be going to like 9-12X and shoving most flops, although if you really hit it hard and think villain will bet you should check shove instead.

4.   30-40 BB’s. The important part about this stack size is that a lot of people try to resteal with it pre-flop. For the most part, especially in out of position spots, 3-betting this stack intending to fold to a 4-bet shove is pretty bad. This can be done in the upper 30’s in a few spots (and I would vastly prefer to do this in position than out with this stack) but for the most part if you 3 bet a stack of 35 BB’s or less you are putting to much of your stack to justify a fold pre-flop unless villain flips up his hand and shows you that you’re 2-outing or something. At this stack size you can open raise a ton, especially if you’re playing at lower stakes where people won’t resteal on you even after the antes kick in.

5.   Over 40 BB’s. At this stack you mostly have the full arsenal available to you. You can resteal with the intention of folding, you can raise pre, get 3-bet, and 4-bet hoping to cause a fold, you can flat call in position, and you can open you’re full range.


Thoughts on what your opponents know about stack sizes: Most people have a good idea that when they're 10 BB’s or under they should be open shoving anything they play. When you see someone at 8 or 9 BB’s who’s been open shoving suddenly min-raise or 3X you need to be aware that he’s got a big hand a ton of the time. A really important thing to watch in people is their understanding in stack sizes and what their shoving range is light on a short stack.

When it comes to restealing stack sizes most villains have a concept of this without actually knowing they know. Yea, that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but let me put it this way; most villains know to shove a bigger range over your button raise with 15 BB’s than 25 BB’s. Even though they're bad, and they don’t understand why they're doing this, they can tell that 25 BB’s feels like too many chips. However, some villains will be totally unaware of these things and try restealing marginal hands for a huge amount of BB’s, especially out of position since playing in a reraised pot OOP is most bad players' absolute nightmare.

Also, a ton of your villains (and way more ranked p5’s than you could imagine) don’t realize how bad it is to open raise with the intention of folding at 13-20 BB’s so once you see a guy do this you realize that you can resteal off them when effective stacks are this size.


Dan Harrington Poker Strategy

Harrington's 'M', Zone Theory and Inflection Points

Concise Intro To Dan Harrington’s Tournament Poker Strategy
Inc Explanations of ‘M’, Zones And Inflection Point Play.
 
Consecutive World Series Final Table appearances, and the huge popularity of the ‘Harrington On Holdem’ book series have turned Dan Harrington into a poker household name! This article gives a quick overview of the key concepts in Harrington’s poker tournament strategy and notes how these can be used to think about key situations at the tables. The poker concepts of ‘M’, Zones and Inflection Points are actually all inter-related. Understanding the concept of M will allow you to utilize the other aspects of poker tournament strategy and theory.

Harrington's M - Definition Of M And Basic / Effective M Scores
‘M’ in it’s simplest form is simply the ratio of the blinds (and antes if applicable) to your current chip stack. At a full table you add the 2 blinds together and divide your chips by this number to give you an ‘M’ number. For example if you have 3000 chips and the total blinds are equal to 600 then your ‘M’ is 5.
What this number tells you is how many more ‘rounds’ of the table you can survive without being blinded away. In the above example, assuming you played no hands, you can last for 5 rounds.
The basic ‘M’ score assumes a full table of 9 or 10 players. When there are less players the blinds will come around faster – and so your M is adjusted to compensate. Dividing your current M by the ratio of players at the table is know as ‘Effective M’. For example, you have 5000 chips with 5 players left – the blinds total 500, your M now equals 5000/500 = 10, however only 50% of a full table are playing so you divide by 2 for an effective M of 5.

Harrington's M - Once You Know Your M You Can Adjust Your Strategy
Knowing your M score helps you by making tournament strategy adjustments based on this score. This is where Dan Harrington’s Poker Zone Theory comes into play. Your ‘M’ level (and the M of your opponents) determines which ‘zone’ you are in and so what your current strategy should be. There are 5 zones in total from the highest to the lowest these are.



 
Level
Zone

Correct Play



1
Green Zone

When your M is above 20 you have many poker tournament strategy options available. Here you can raise, re-raise and still have chips left if you lose a hand.




2
Yellow Zone

Here your M is between 10 and 20. Loosen up now to stop the blinds eating away at your stack. Small pairs and suited connectors are less desirable now as your implied odds (chance of winning a big pot from a small investments) are lower.




3
Orange Zone

Your M is now between 6 and 10. Here you have lost the ability to ‘resteal’ and your stack is dwindling, you must now play aggressively to stay alive in the tournament.



4
Red Zone

M is 5 or less. Here you have lost all flexibility if you play a hand it should be all-in, try to be first into a pot to maximize the chance opponents will fold.



5
Dead Zone

M of less than one: Here you are on the tournament critical list – any high cards are good enough for an all-in move, but expect to be called!

                                                                 Harrington-M-Zones-Inflection-Points
 




Dan Harrington's M Scores - Maintaining Maximum Flexibility
Dan Harrington’s poker tournament strategy revolves around maintaining as high an M score as possible. As your zone moves from green to red you lose flexibility in your play and must be more aggressive to compensate. Try to maintain as high an M as you can for as long as possible.
Inflection Points are Harrington’s description of the changes between zones. Inflection points can happen when the blinds move up or if you lose a significant pot and your M suddenly changes. Awareness of inflection points tells you when to change your poker tournament strategy to adjust to the new circumstances at the table. Your objective should always be to keep in the highest of Harrington’s zones as possible.


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