The ICM concept (Independent Chip Modeling) is an extremely important tool for playing sit and goes at the $50 level. In essence, it’s a way of calculating your SNG equity during any part of the game, taking into account your stack size, the stack size of the remaining players, and the payoff structure.

All long-term SNG players should take the time to learn ICM, as it increases your expected value by helping you decide when to call, fold or shove against opponents, along with the hand ranges required for doing so.

Calculating Your Equity

Example: You’re playing in a 10 man sit and go, where the top 3 players get payoffs of 50%, 30% and 20%. There are five players left and you have 70% of the chips. What this means is that in a normal SNG where everyone is the same skill, you’d have about 43% equity.

This long term calculation is based on the amount of chips you have, the payoff structure, and the chips of others. Although you have 70% of the chips, you’re still not guaranteed to come first, which is why your average equity is only 43%.

To put this idea in contrast, if the same situation happened in a winner takes all tournament, your 70% of chips on the table would directly represent 70% equity of the prize pool (since that is your chance of winning in the long term if everyone were exactly the same skill).

Importance of ICM in the Bubble

The concept of ICM probably seems confusing at the moment, so I’ll show you how it can be used in your game.  Basically, knowing your ICM allows you to make calculated decisions risking your stack that takes into account the rewards/risks of making a move with complete respect to your equity.  If you risk your stack during an SNG, you need to know whether the rewards in expected equity from a move outweighs the risk taken.

For example, imagine there are 4 players left (including yourself), and the top 3 places get paid.  One of the players has a 1BB stack.  You hold a great hand like AK or AQ and a player with double your chip stack shoves in front of you.  Even if you know you have him beat, ICM will virtually always tell you to fold.

This is because folding here will keep you on a higher equity than calling and risking your stack in the long term. If you fold, the chances are the player on 1BB will go out soon and you’ll be in the money. ICM states that calling would be wrong because even if you were, say, a 60/40 favorite, you are still risking your tournament life. If you lose the hand, you would drop to zero equity.

How to Calculate Your ICM

The best way to calculate your ICM is to use SNG software such as SNG Wizard.  The best way to improve your ICM game is to look through your history and see where the software suggests you played the hand badly.  By scrolling through your hands, you might see you’re calling too often, or not folding enough, not pushing when you should do, or something else – with regards to risk/reward equity decisions.

How ICM Affects Your Decisions

Using ICM affects your SNG play in three main ways.  Firstly, it makes you call with far fewer hands, especially when you’re approaching the bubble.  This is because the negative equity of losing chips is usually greater than the positive equity of gaining the same amount of chips (if that makes sense).

Secondly, because it makes your play much more mathematical, players aware of ICM will be tighter overall, and only call all-ins with stronger hands then they normally would.

Thirdly, ICM makes it much more advantageous to call a player’s all in if you have him stacked, rather than someone with 5 times your stack.  Calling the former means if you win, you eliminate him and significantly increase your equity. When you call the former however, even if you win, your opponent is still in a healthy position (thus your expected equity would be greater if you folded, than if you took the risk of losing you entire stack).

This article was written by MTT Strategy

It’s understandably frustrating at times to play against fish but remember that the fish are not your enemy. The fish are your friends. These are the people that make poker a profitable game for those of us who play it more than just recreationally. The fish are your entire source of profit. Without fish, poker would be a highly unprofitable waste of time.

Getting Sucked Out On

When you play in fishy poker games, it’s true that you get sucked out on more often. There are more players calling your bets and chasing their draws so you’ll see more suckouts. It might sound crazy but that’s actually a good thing! You want people to chase their draws against the odds and make stupid plays. The math eventually catches up to them and it sends their money in your direction.

Sure, you have to deal with suckouts in fishy games but that’s made up for the fact that you win bigger pots more often. In fishy games, you get more action on your strong hands. In non-fishy games, people are more likely to fold to your bets. I can’t think of many other ways to win money in poker other than to get people to call your bets.

The Schooling Effect

Sometimes there is so much fishiness in a game that it actually creates a schooling effect. What that means is when enough players chase draws at the same time, it becomes mathematically correct for them to call because there is so much money in the pot. It’s sort of like the fish are accidentally colluding with each other to give themselves the right odds to make the calls they make.

This does not mean you shouldn’t bet your hands. On the contrary, you should bet your strong hands even more aggressively when lots of players are calling. With strong hands, you want to build big pots and win lots of money! Yes, you will get sucked out on occasionally but that’s how poker goes. As a serious poker player, it’s necessary for you to learn how to shake off bad beats.

Moving Up to Avoid the Fish

I also hear a lot of players say that they feel like they should move up in stakes to where the opposition knows how to fold. This is a flawed idea because you make money in poker by getting players to call when you have strong hands. Every time you move up in stakes, the competition gets a little tougher. These players are less likely to call when you have strong hands.

On top of that, you should never move up in stakes if you can’t beat the stakes at which you play now. If you can’t beat the stakes you play at right now, it means your game isn’t quite ready for you to move up in stakes. The only thing moving up will do is put strain on your bankroll.

How to Beat the Fish

Before you can learn how to move up in stakes and beat the players there, you need to learn how to beat the fish at your current level. The fish are the easiest players to beat but don’t feel bad if you’re having trouble beating them. Everyone has to start somewhere. The first time I played poker, I barely knew which hand beats which.

In order to beat the fish, you need to play a tight, patient and straightforward game. Bluffing is pointless in games where nobody folds. Just sit back, wait for strong hands and bet them when you get them. That’s all there is to it.

I still sometimes hop online and play micro stake games and if you watched me, you’d laugh at how straightforward I play. All I do is sit back, wait for strong hands and then bet when I get them. That’s all there is to it. Anyone who knows basic poker strategy can beat small stakes games. It’s not so much a matter of knowledge as it is a matter of discipline and patience.

Fishiest Poker Site:

These 10 common mistakes are geared more towards players who have a basic understanding of poker rather than complete newbies. This is not a list that includes things like “you are chasing too many draws.” Most of you already know it’s bad to chase too many draws. These mistakes are harder to catch and are therefore much more dangerous in the long term.

In the spirit of The Rich Jerk, I present to you the 10 reasons why you suck at poker. Don’t be a wimp, I’m only kidding. Read this article, laugh at it and learn from it. Enjoy.

10. You make too many continuation bets

This is a mistake that plagued me for a very long time. I knew how to play poker, I knew that continuation bets were important but I didn’t know how to properly utilize them. I played an aggressive style and made continuation bets every single time I raised before the flop. The only time I skipped a c-bet was when 3 or more people were in the pot with me.

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and make a continuation bet every time but you shouldn’t be doing that. Pay attention to your opponents’ playing styles, your table image, your cards and the board texture to decide when you should place c-bets and when you should pass. Although you should bet the majority of the time you raise before the flop, you shouldn’t bet every time you raise before the flop. Check out this useful article about continuation betting.

9. You don’t make enough continuation bets

Whereas some players make too many continuation bets, you don’t make enough. Some of you only bet on the flop if you hit your hand. That strategy might get you by in small stakes games but it’s hardly optimal and it’s probably costing you all kinds of potential earnings. If you miss your hand on the flop, it’s OK to take a stab at the pot.

You can get more details about continuation bets in the article I linked to on number 10 up there but here’s a very quick guide for betting on the flop if you were the raiser before the flop:

• Bet if there is only 1 person in the pot against you

• Don’t bet if there are 3 or more people in the pot

• If there are 2 people in the pot, bet if you are in late position and they both check

• Look at the board texture. If it looks unconnected, bet. If it looks like it could have hit the types of hands people like to play (such as AT, KJ, TJ, 89, etc), don’t bet.

• Bet if there are two low cards and an ace. You will look like you just connected with your AK.

8. You play pocket pairs like a fish

Pocket pairs are sweet hands and they are even sweeter when they turn into sets. But even the possibility of hitting a set doesn’t make it worth playing pocket pairs every single time you get them. There’s a common myth that you can call a raise up to 10% the size of the smallest stack between you and the raiser.

Stop playing your pocket pairs just to hit sets. If you limp in with a pocket pair in early position, you are playing that pocket pair wrong. Either come in with a raise or fold it. In late position, you can limp in behind other players. Don’t call raises from late position stealers with pocket pairs and then fold if you miss your set. Those people are trying to steal the blinds and they probably don’t have much. Either re-steal the pot or get out.

Check out this article about pocket pairs.

7. You play when you’re drunk, depressed and unfocused

Your mindset has a profound affect on how you play. Whether you’re playing after a night of partying or first thing in the morning in a dirty, cluttered room, you’re not playing under optimal conditions. Before you start a poker session, clean up the area around you, clear your mind and take a shower. Yes, I just suggested you take a shower before playing online poker.

It sounds crazy but trust me, poker is not the same as playing video games in your underwear on Saturday morning with a bowl of cereal in your lap. Poker is a form of self-employment. I know all about being self-employed and let me tell you that it’s vital that you treat it like a real job (that you enjoy). Take a shower, get focused and play under the right mindset.

Remember also that your mindset can change randomly in the middle of a session. I’ve even had it happen during great sessions. For example, I got off to a great start one time and couldn’t shake this feeling that I was about to suffer a bad beat. I quit the game. Not because I’m superstitious but because I knew it was affecting my play. If you get a bad feeling that you can’t shake or start surfing the web while you play, you need to quit the game.

6. You turn into a mindless robot

After a while, poker turns into a grind and it’s easy to become a mindless robot, no matter how much money you have sitting in front of you. The same situation comes up time and time again and you can play 8 tables without breaking a sweat. The robot part comes into play when you stop focusing on your tables and just start making decisions because you’ve seen the same situations so many times.

In one way, this could almost sound like a good thing but it’s not. Poker is never a concrete game, no matter how many times you see similar situations. You need to stay sharp, watch your opponents and take notes. There’s no way to quantify how mindless play affects your bottom line but it does. You need to stay aware and awake at all times.

5. You spend your money like a teeny bopper at the mall

A large determinant of your success in poker is how well you manage your bankroll. Not only does this include playing at the stakes for which you are properly rolled, but it also includes how often you cash out and what you do with your poker money.

If you like to make cashouts to buy bottle service at cheesy clubs and mad bling to show off to your poker-newbie friends, you are absolutely destroying future earnings. It’s OK to make the occasional withdrawal to reward yourself but you should keep it at a minimum. The money you save can be used to move up in stakes and earn even more money. Every time you make a withdrawal, it has consequences that extend far into the future.

4. You can’t control your temper

In poker, a temper problem doesn’t have to include things like punching the monitor, kicking the puppy or going all-in every hand. A temper can cause you to make other costly mistakes such as playing for revenge, failing to leave bad tables and not quitting when you should.

Call it “soft rage” if you want. What I’m talking about isn’t as obvious as holes in the wall. This soft rage is more like a slowly burning cigarette stuck in your gut. You don’t feel super pissed, but you make decisions that aren’t optimal. You can be anything you want outside of poker but when you’re sitting at the tables, you need to be as emotionless as a brick wall. If the game sucks, move to a new table. Don’t stick around to prove it to anyone or to get your money back from someone.

3. You tell the fish how to play better

OK seriously, this belongs on the “Top 10 mistakes for newbies list” but you just can’t quite seem to get it right. You probably already know what this bullet point is all about but here it is anyways: if a fish makes a stupid play, don’t berate the fish! Why do you want the fish to play better? Are you trying to make the games worse for everyone else, including yourself? Speaking of which, why do I even run this strategy website?

It’s frustrating to lose a pot to poor play but remember those are the dues you pay to keep the fish coming back for more. If the fish never got lucky, they’d never play. Instead of inflating that vein on the side of your neck and smashing out poorly-spelled obscenities on the keyboard, try congratulating the fish for winning a nice pot. That will probably encourage them to give the money back faster than rattling off a bunch of math stats.

2. You suffer from a disease called Fancy Play Syndrome

Fancy Play Syndrome, also called FPS, is a common mistake in which poker players play strong hands with too much of an emphasis on needless deception rather than betting for value. One of the most common forms of FPS is slow playing strong hands.

It’s OK to slow play strong hands for a street or two if the board looks like crap but most of the time you should bet your strong hands. Why? Because the object of poker is to win money. It’s a proven fact that if you have a strong hand and get money in the pot, you’ll usually win that money. Also, sometimes the most deceptive tactic is to play your hand straightforward. That way it will be difficult for your opponents to distinguish between your bluffs and your strong hands.

1. You lie to yourself

Honesty to others isn’t exactly a winning virtue at the poker tables but honesty to yourself most definitely is. Be honest with yourself when you analyze your current state in poker. Are you sure you’re a winning player at the stakes you play at? After moving up, it can be difficult to admit the fact that you’re being outplayed. This also applies to other situations such as playing heads up matches against better players or differentiating between bad luck and poor play.

Be critical of yourself at all times. It’s OK to admit that you’re not the best player in the world and need to improve in certain areas. Nobody is the best player in the world. It’s not possible to be the best player in the world. You can always improve and there will always be someone who can beat you. Admit it to yourself and then move on with your life. When you learn to be 100% honest with yourself, you’ll feel liberated. Who cares how many people are better than you when you’re swimming around in cash and can buy a new car whenever you feel like it?

Click here to learn how to play poker

We humans tend to fall into patterns no matter how hard we try to avoid it. That’s why it’s best to keep your game as simple as possible. The less you have to keep track of, the easier it is to keep your opponents off guard. Here are several little tricks you can use to keep your play hard to read.

Simple Ways to Stay Unreadable

1. Use a system to size all your preflop raises.

If you keep your preflop raises the same size no matter what you have, you will give out zero information about the strength of your starting cards.  What I recommend you do is make every preflop raise 4 x BB + 1.  This means your default raise is 4 big blinds in size plus 1 big blind for every limper already in the pot.

2. Use a system to size all your continuation bets

Make every flop bet equal to 75% the size of the pot no matter what you have.  By using this rule, the size of your flop bet will never give away the strength of your hand.  Even if your opponents know you always bet 75%, they won’t know what you have.  The size of your bet will change with the size of the pot so it’s not always obvious that you’re using a system. But even if your opponents know you’re using a system, what can they do about it? Nothing.

3. Mix Up Your Continuation Bets

Your opponents will mess with your continuation bets more and more as you move up in stakes. What I mean by “messing with your continuation bets” is that they will pull more floats, attempt more bluff-raises and anything else they can think of to keep you off guard.

By mixing up the way you play your hands on the flop, you can keep them guessing about what you have. Don’t throw out a continuation bet every single time you raise preflop. Mix in the occasional check/raise and check/fold with both strong hands and weak hands. When you keep your play varied, your opponents won’t know how to react because you could have just about anything.

It’s possible to get too tricky so don’t overdo your play on the flop. Keep it simple for the most part. All it takes is the occasional strange play to keep your opponents wondering about you. This is most important against opponents you see at the tables often.

But Remember:

There are no absolutes in poker. Even the above section where I said you can use systems to keep your opponents guessing has its own exceptions. Sometimes you’ll want to make different plays before the flop or in the size of your raises – that’s perfectly normal. But for the most part, these 3 simple tips will keep you unreadable and keep your opponents guessing.

Now go try out your new knowledge against the fish at PokerStars or check out these related articles:

Bluffing
Taking Notes On Your Opponents

These tips are geared for experienced online poker players making the switch to live poker play. If you’re already a live pro, you can probably skip this article and be just fine without it. If you have a live game coming up or you’re thinking about making the switch to live play, this article is just for you.

1. Be confident

I haven’t played a ton of live poker in my life and I still get extremely nervous during live poker games. I have gone straight from playing $1,000NL online to playing in a $10 live tournament and gone from super laid back on the computer to literally trembling during live hands.

It helps if you remember the competition at live poker games is significantly weaker than what you’ll find online. Live $1/$2 NL games play as bad as $.10/$.25 online in most cases, which is a great thing for you. In all likelihood, you’ll be the best poker player in the room or at least in the top 5%.

2. Stack your chips slowly

When you’re still getting the hang of live play, make all your bets slowly and deliberately. I usually feel like I’m wearing two sets of mittens when stacking live chips so I have to be extra careful.

There are two reasons you need to be extra careful when stacking your chips. First, you don’t want to splash the pot or cause any of your chips to roll on its edge all around the table. Trust me, it’s embarrassing. Second, you don’t want to give away big hands or bluffs by knocking all your chips over out of nervousness.

3. Don’t worry about tells

Unless you have a super obvious tell or you notice a super obvious tell, don’t waste too much effort looking for tells when you’re still getting used to live play. Just keep a poker face, try not to tap or chew gum at the table and you’ll be fine.

Some tells do exist but at the lower stake games you will have the huge advantage of playing thousands of hands online already. Use the same hand reading skills you use online to read hands and make decisions.

One note – I don’t want you to skip out on tells so much so that you never pick up on them or that you start giving your hands away like an idiot. All I’m saying is don’t obsess over them a) during your first forays into live poker and b) at small stakes live games.

4. Hide your cards

You don’t want people to see your cards and you don’t want to look like a noob so get in the habit of looking at your cards once, memorizing them and then putting them back down for good. You don’t have to be perfect, but at least keep yourself from looking at your cards every ten seconds.

When you’re looking at your cards, use one hand to hide the tops of your cards from the rest of the table and use your other hand to lift up the corners of the cards. Don’t bend the corners – just lift them up a little, OK?

5. Protect your cards

After you check your cards, place a chip or a chip protector on top of your hand. This will let the dealer know that you don’t want to fold your hand. If you have a strong hand and the dealer unknowingly mucks it, you’re out of luck.

Note – Don’t be one of those players who only places a chip on his cards when he has a strong hand. Protect your cards every time or else people will know exactly when you have the goods.

6. Shut your hole

Don’t talk during hands, don’t discuss strategy, don’t gloat and don’t berate players. I know, I sound like I’m no fun but those are the only times/topics during which you really need to keep your mouth shut.

It’s rude to talk during hands and it can also cause you to inadvertently give out information that your opponents don’t want you to give out. Like when someone is pulling a bluff and you blurt out that you can’t believe you folded the one hand your opponent is trying to represent.

You want to avoid discussing straetegy, gloating and berating players not because it’s rude but because it hurts your bottom line. All these topics make your opponents try to play better. If you act like a fun, happy-go-lucky guy who doesn’t care, your opponents will play looser against you.

7. Avoid string bets

I have messed up this rule more times than I care to remember and it’s embarrassing every time. When you intend to make a bet or a raise, you have to state the total amount of that bet or raise all at once.

What you can’t do is say something like “I call your bet….and I raise you 300 more!” When you say call, you’re held to the call and the raise you throw in later is ignored. This is used to keep angle-shooters from trying to confuse players and get an unfair advantage.

8.  Pay attention

Live poker can be a little confusing at first if you’re used to the computer keeping the game going and telling you when to act. Stay alert and be ready to act when it’s your turn. You don’t want to be the guy who holds up the game every time it’s his turn.

9.  Tip the dealer

Live poker dealers work hard for their money so be generous. Tip them when you win a pot and throw an extra one out every once in a while even when you’re not winning. The dealers can’t help it if you win or lose but they do keep the game going smoothly and make the game way more enjoyable for everyone.

10.  Have fun

Live poker is a lot of fun so don’t let this list of rules bog you down. Just be cool, stay courteous and have a good time. Not only is live poker a lot of fun but its also quite profitable because the competition is so soft. So get out there, play strong and enjoy the money. If you have a bad day at the tables…well, have fun anyways!

For even more strategy advice, check out my Kill No Limit poker e-book.

Micro Stakes Tips
Value Betting the River

The Slowplay

Not only do slowplays work to make your opponents feel more confident about their marginal hands but slowplays can also induce bluffs from opponents who don’t have anything at all.

Slowplays work great in certain circumstances but you don’t want to get into the habit of slowplaying too often. There are two risks you assume when slowplaying a hand: the chance that you give your opponents the free cards they need to make better hands and the chance that you miss out on making value bets that would have been called.

The Check on the River

If you suspect your opponent was on a draw and the draw doesn’t complete by the river, you can check instead of bet to induce a bluff. You won’t get any value by betting because your opponent will just fold his missed draw.

Instead, you can check to your opponent and hope he tries to bluff his missed draw. This isn’t a guaranteed way to get more money but it at least gives you the chance to make money with your hand. If you’re reasonably sure your opponent was on a draw, you should check on the river to induce a bluff.

Inducing Bluffs before the Flop

One fun way to induce bluffs is to make small bets with strong hands before the flop. This is best used when you are in late position and it has been folded around to you. If you have a strong hand and want to generate some action, you can make a small raise before the flop to make it look like you’re trying to steal the blinds.

Occasionally this will get your opponents to make a preflop re-raise. When that happens, you can just call the re-raise and check on the flop. With the big pot sitting out there and you looking weak, there’s a pretty good chance your opponent will take another stab at the pot.

You have to be careful when playing like this, however, because it gives your opponents a chance to hit real hands. This move is best used with top hands like AA, KK and sometimes QQ. It helps a lot to use this move against opponents with whom you’re familiar.

Summary

Inducing bluffs is a great poker tactic but you have to be very selective in its use or you could easily end up missing out on lots of value bets. Inexperienced poker players can easily get stuck in this fancy play syndrome where they try to induce bluffs left and right instead of making value bets. Trust me; I still catch myself occasionally trying to induce bluffs when I should be making value bets.

Visit PokerStars to try this new trick out at the biggest poker site on the internet.

Related Articles:

The Slap-a-Clown Move
Value Betting the River