Who plays their M?

[got 6 aces]

I wonder what Harrington and Sklansky's opinions on playing a hand when you've got 30-40,000 chips afer a night of tireless scraping and collecting and bluffing and pushing. And the blinds are 10,000/20,000.

[LPL_Mike]

Originally Posted by got 6 aces

I wonder what Harrington and Sklansky's opinions on playing a hand when you've got 30-40,000 chips afer a night of tireless scraping and collecting and bluffing and pushing. And the blinds are 10,000/20,000.

Means you made the final table....its late the pub wants to shut and the organizer wants to go home...so all in!

[FL1CKER]

The letter M is used to define the ratio of your stack divided by the total blinds and antes to be posted in one complete circuit of the table. This theory was initially championed by Paul Magriel, aka X22. Hence the "M". Dan Harrington just borrowed the idea and stuck it in his books.

Before I read the Harrington books I had already reached the conclusion that as long I had ten big blinds left I was comfortable and did not need to panic. The biggest problem I have is that when I do the big push, there is always a calling station who has been very lucky with a big stack, and they inevitably suck me out on the river.

I think Dan Harrington's books are brilliant, but he makes the assumption that you are playing other "good" poker players. Unfortunately the LPL has players ranging from very good to not very good. I am happy playing the opponents who are paying attention. It is the others which give me trouble. The ones who call your all in raise when they are holding top pair, the board is four flushed and they do not have a card of that suit. Or the ones who have a bare ace and call your continuation bets all the way to the river where they spike an ace to beat your pocket kings.

So the other night I applied the low M theory and suckout principle in reverse. One of my good poker buddies, renowned for his tight play, pushed all in under the gun with his last 2750 chips. I was holding A2 clubs in middle position, so I decided to call with my remaining 2400 chips. He turned over pocket kings. One club came on the flop, then runner runner clubs on the turn and the river. Sorry mate. I went on from there to make the final table and eventually lost in the heads up to come 2nd. That's poker!