In the zone

**CRKURNUTZ** · 02-01-2012, 02:38 PM

Has anyone here read about Dan Harrington's Zone Poker Concepts? I will briefly discuss his theory about the "M" Zone. This is based on an ancient mathematical concept, the M-Ratio. Dan Harrington has applied this formula to poker. Some of you may already be familiar with this concept. I find this to be a very useful application when playing MTT's. I've simplified it here without delving too deep into details just so you can get the main idea.

The formula indicates how many rounds you could survive without playing a single hand. The formula divides your stack size by the amount of chips in the pot before any action takes place:

M = stack / (SB + BB + Antes)

This gives you a better idea of where your stack stands in a MTT and uses the small blind and antes. Harrington defined 5 critical zones and also outlined corresponding strategy depending on your M.

M ≥ 20
10 ≤ M < 20
6 ≤ M < 10
1 ≤ M < 6
M < 1

You're in the GREEN ZONE when you have 20 + M. You can play any way you want here. You can play aggro-donk or super nitty. You have a lot of flexibility in this zone. You want to steal, bully to continue building your stack or you may just want to go out for a smoke, make yourself a sandwich, whatever,lol.

The YELLOW ZONE is when you have between 10-20 M. You really have to work to keep your head (and stack) above dangerous water in order to prevent yourself from becoming short stacked. Avoid making calls with marginal hands. Instead of calling, raise more often. Steal the blinds whenever possible. Main focus here is building up your stack and doing it fast.

The ORANGE ZONE is between 6 and 10 M. Now is not the time to get cute by trying to steal or by making calls with marginal hands. You want to preserve your stack. You still have folding equity here & you will want to prepare yourself to shove all in with any 2 cards that have showdown value to increase your stack.

The RED ZONE is what I call the DEAD ZONE. You have 1-6 M. It's allin or fold with any 2 cards because it is also very likely that you will get called with any 2 cards here at this point. You need to basically close your eyes and make a 'WISH' here. Anyway thank you for reading. I hope this is help you better determine you zone with your future tournaments.