Icm

[Ice_W0lf 0]

I was reading the newest bluff magazine and they were interviewing a few well known sitngo players. They mentioned Independent Chip Model (ICM) and how's its something essential to know when it comes to sitngos. I was a bit confused about what ICM is and how it applies to sitngo. It sounds to me all it is, is making the +EV decision without any or having little consideration of the cards you hold. Is there anything more to this concept that I am missing out on?

[rog 0]

ICM = Independant Chip ModelIt's a model that is used to approximate tournament EV. In cash games, EV can be precisely calculated because chips = money. In tourneys chips dont equal money, so ICM attempts to bridge that gap. It works like this:Each chip gives you 1/n chance of winning the tournament, all other things being equal, where n is the total number of chips in play. IN other words, under ICM, if you have 30% of the chips in play, it is assumed you will win 30% of the time, and thus you have 30% equity in the first place prize. Other prizes are harder to calculate. Your equity in 2nd is a weighted sum of your odds of winning second for each possible opponent who wins first. Who wins first matters because what percentage of the chips in play you hold in competing for 2nd depends on which opponent's stack is all about first place. Lower place equities are harder to calculate. Really you need to make your computer do it for you, as it becomes the weighted average of a large number of possible outcomes.Nobody really knows if ICM is accurate. Do you really have twice the odds of winning as someone with half your stack? Who knows? It's probably not perfect, but I'm sure it's close enough to support some EV calculations. Besides, we dont really have a better model.

[rog 0]

whoops...wrong forum

[Bellerophon 0]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that ICM is a bunch of crap. Yeah, I said it! Someone's got to say it!