The Elusive M of Poker Strategy

In the James Bond stories "M" is the codename for the leader of British intelligence, the person who makes the strategic decisions that govern actions of the "00" Agents. In Poker M represents the number of small blinds plus big blinds you can pay with your current chip stack. Quite different, but still a factor that governs many a poker players decision-making.

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First an illustration of how to calculate M. When you start at tournament with $2000 in chips and the blinds are at $5/$10, you add the blinds together ($15) and divide into the chip stack ($2,000/$15), which in this case would give you an M of 133. Let's say it's later in the tournament and the blinds are at $100 / $200, you've added 50% your chip stack ($3000 / $300) which gives you an M. of 10. Quite a difference.

Now what exactly does this mean? M is used as a factor to determine how large your starting hand options are. The bigger your M the less risk you take paying the blinds to play in, and conversely the small your M the bigger your risk.

Most poker players will say when they get down to an M of 10 or less it's time to go all-in with the best hand they can find. This is because if they wait much longer a double-up or even a triple-up won't get them out of the danger zone.

Your M is always changing, based on how much you have in your chip stack and what the blinds are. Practice counting your M until it becomes second nature and your starting hand selection will benefit.

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