Elaine

There are numerous details to monitor in online No Limit Holdem Tournaments. Some of them may be as unique and challenging as the chat you try to decipher coming from your opponents. When playing online though, you do have tools and indicators available which can help you make a solid decision, at least mathematically based on calculable conditions at any given time.

Two of those conditions are often used by professional players at live tournaments and are critical to success online as well. The indicators are M and Q.

M stands for M ratio which is basically a stack comparison between yourself and the size of the current minimum pot. A minimum pot is made up of a combination of blinds and antes which constantly escalate as a tournament progresses. As your stack (or M) gets lower, other players with better Ms will start to steal your blinds and risk losing a pot in order to eliminate you from competition.

Q is a comparison of your stack to other players stacks by determining the average of stack size of all players left in the tournament and affixing a representative comparison value of one to your stack. So if your stack is half the size of the average stack, then you would have a Q of .5. If on the other hand you had 3 times the average stack, your Q would be 3.

You should know both of these numbers at all times in the tournament, and depending on the structure and/or dynamics of play, either the Q or the M may be more important as an indicator at any given time.

M is usually more relevant than Q within normally structured tournament and should always be known as well as its corresponding color zone. Green is for an M of 20 or more, yellow will be from 15 to 20, while orange is from 10 to 15. The lower mzones are red which is from 1 to 5 and the all but out grey mzone which means your M ratio is actually below 1. However, M isnt always the main indicator to consider. You may indeed be more compelled to act a certain way in a tournament based on your Q.

The reason why Q may be more relevant than the M is because of stack parity at a game critical intersect. In other words, if most of the players at your table have similar (low) M ratios that put them in Orange or red Mzones, then the Mzone really dont matter much at all. You need to know what that strength of your hole cards are and use position to take down as many pots preflop as possible.

Knowing the difference between M and Q in poker tournaments can be critical to your success in moving up the money and playing mathematically correct at game critical intersects.

Marty Smith is webmaster and a regular online poker player. He has a FREE Multi-Table Tournament Video Strategy Series on his website at http://www.MZoneReport.com He also has a free poker tournament calculator you can download at http://www.QMCalculator.com