Poker Chip Meaning
ICM or “Independent Chip Model” is a term which will inevitably cross your way if you’re a poker tournament player. In this article we want to explain in detail what ICM means in poker and what this model is used for.
What is a chip worth in a poker tournament?
The background to ICM is a very simple question: What is a chip worth in a poker tournament?
Definition of poker chip in the Definitions.net dictionary. Meaning of poker chip. Information and translations of poker chip in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Oct 31, 2017 What Does Chip Leader Mean in Poker? Being the chip leader at any given moment in a poker tournament makes for a pretty incredible feeling. In addition to that, being chip leader can also have significant financial implications: The closer you are the top of the leaderboard, the higher you increase your chances of cashing and making a deep run (when you’re still in the initial stages).
For a poker player in a tournament it is important to know how much his chips are worth at each moment. The specific question is: How much prize money can a player expect to win with his chips in the long run?
How much is it worth doubling your stack, how catastrophic is it to lose half your stack? Such questions are essential for a tournament player. But the special nature of poker tournaments doesn’t make it easy to answer those questions. Having twice as many chips doesn’t mean you will win twice as much in the long run.
Often it’s more important to simply survive the bubble with a few chips than to have slightly more chips. Just by looking at the number of chips you have, you can’t tell exactly how well you’re doing in a tournament. You also need to know what these chips are worth.
Measuring the value of chips
Let’s examine the question “What is a chip worth in a poker tournament?” using an example:
Example Tournament
- Buy-In: $10
- Players: 10
- Payouts: 1. $50, 2. $30, 3. $20
- Initial stack: 1,000 chips
If every player gets 1,000 chips at the beginning, they are worth exactly 10 dollars before the first hand is dealt (we just ignore rake to make things easier). But as the game progresses, the value of these chips changes and 1,000 chips can be worth a lot more and a lot less than $10.
- Chips can be worth more: Let’s say a specific player barely makes it through to the last three and still has only 1,000 chips, while his two opponents each have 4,500 chips. Then these 1,000 chips are obviously worth at least 20 dollars, because the prize money for third place is guaranteed. Even if a player made it to the last three with just one chip, that single chip would still be worth $20 – so the value of the chips can increase drastically during the tournament.
- Chips can be worth less: At the same time, the value of chips can also decrease: Whoever wins the Sit-And-Go at the end will have all 10,000 chips, but will only receive $50 prize money. So his chips will only have a value of $5 per 1,000 chips.
For a long time there were different models that tried to explain how much a chip is actually worth. In the excellent, albeit rather theoretical book Mathematics of Poker, various methods of assigning a definite monetary value tournament chips were discussed. In the end, the “Independent Chip Model”, or ICM for short, prevailed.
How does the ICM work?
The ICM considers the stacks of all players remaining in the tournament and the payout structure. With this information the ICM algorithm calculates the expected value for each remaining player. This algorithm is rather difficult, we give a brief explanation.
Here’s how the ICM algorithm works:
- Probability of finishing first: First the stack sizes are used to calculate the probability for each player to finish first. The model simply assumes that a player with X percent of all the chips also wins the tournament in X percent of all cases.
- Probability of finishing second, third, etc.: Then, in a similar way, the model calculates for each player how likely it is that he will come second, third, fourth, etc. However, these calculations are much more complicated. The probability that a player will finish second place is calculated by looking at all cases in which the player does not win. Then the stack of the winner is removed and the probability that the player will finish second is determined by the proportion of his chips to the remaining chips and all the probabilities weighted are added together. The same procedure is used for the other places.
- Expected Values: In the end the model multiplies the probabilities for each player’s finish distribution with the payouts, adds them together and gives an expected value for each player.
You can’t do such calculations in your head, because for 4 players you already need dozens of arithmetic steps. But fortunately there are a lot of ICM calculators online. For example try our advanced ICM Deal Calculator.
ICM in tournaments using an example
Let’s take the above example tournament again:
Example Tournament
- Buy-In: $10
- Players: 10
- Payouts: 1. $50, 2. $30, 3. $20
- Initial stack: 1,000 chips
Suppose there are still 4 players in the tournament and those are the chip counts:
Chip counts of the last 4 players
- Player 1: 5,000 chips
- Player 2: 2,000 chips
- Player 3: 2,000 chips
- Player 4: 1,000 chips
What are these chips worth according to the ICM model? We simply enter the data into an ICM calculator and obtain the following result:
ICM value of these stacks
- Player 1: 5,000 chips ≅ $37.18
- Player 2: 2,000 chips ≅ $24.33
- Player 3: 2,000 chips ≅ $24.33
- Player 4: 1,000 chips ≅ $14.17
This means that if all players are equally good, they will win those amounts of prize money in the long run. Player 1, with half of all chips, can expect much more than the prize money for second place, players 2 and 3 can expect a little more than the prize money for third place and even player 4, who has the fewest chips, can expect to win some prize money in the long run.
Making decisions with the help of ICM?
How can ICM help to make meaningful decisions in tournaments? Let’s go back to our example.
For the sake of simplicity, we will pretend that there are no blinds and examine a specific tournament situation:
Example situation in a tournament
- Player 1: BU – 5,000 chips
- Player 2: SB – 2,000 chips
- Player 3 (Hero): BB – 2,000 chips – holds A♥ 9♦
- Player 4: UTG – 1,000 chips
Action: Player 4 folds, player 1 folds, player 2 goes all-in (2,000 chips), player 3 … ?
Player 3 is exposed to an all-in and what should he do now? Let’s say he knows his opponent, player 2, very well and estimates that he bluffs quite often and only sometimes has a better hand. Overall, player 3 expects to win the showdown in 60 percent of all cases when he calls.
So should he call the all-in?
Three things can happen now:
- 1. Player 3 folds (all chip stacks remain the same).
- 2. Player 3 calls and wins (player 3 now has 4,000 chips, player 2 is out).
- 3. Player 3 calls and loses (player 2 now has 4,000 chips, player 3 is out).
For each of these potential chip constellations we can calculate the ICM expectation:
ICM expectations after fold and ICM expectations after call
The table shows, if player 3 calls and wins, his 4,000 chips have an expected value of $36.44. But if he calls and loses, he has no more chips and his expected value for the tournament is $0.
Since player 3 can estimate how often he wins the showdown (60 percent), you can simply calculate his expected value for a call:
On average, a call is worth $21.86. If Player 3 folds, however, his chips have an expected value of $24.33 – around $2.47 more.
This means: in this specific example situation, the ICM advises a fold although the player has on average a much better hand than his opponent.
Why is a fold better in this situation when the player is the clear favourite in the hand?
Simply put: the short stack, player 4, is to blame. For player 3, it is much more profitable to wait for him to bust, rather than endangering all his chips. If player 3 simply waits, he will most likely at least secure the prize money for third place, but if player 3 gets involved in an all-in, there is a very realistic chance that he will be eliminated without a payout.
The ICM takes this into account and advises him to fold.
Quick ICM Poker tips
Now you can’t just do such ICM calculations at the table, but there are numerous ICM trainers on the net which can help you play through such scenarios using example situations. Here are a few tips on how to play correctly according to ICM:
- Call tighter: The ICM always advises that you should call tighter in tournaments than in cash games.
- More chips, less value: According to ICM, the first chip you have is always the most valuable. Doubling the stack is always less than twice as valuable.
- Impact before the bubble: The ICM has the strongest impact just before the bubble and around prize money jumps in the tournament.
- Avoid narrow All-Ins: According to the ICM, you should avoid narrow All-Ins when there are players with fewer chips in the tournament.
- Caution with medium sized stacks: Coinflips or All-Ins where you are only a narrow favorite should be avoided with a medium sized stack before or at bubble and you should prefer to fold.
- Play reckless as the big stack: Players with large stacks should very often threaten players with medium stacks with All-Ins, because according to ICM they can only call with very few hands.
- Threaten tight players: If the opponents have an understanding of ICM (or generally play very tightly), you should threaten them with All-Ins particularly frequently.
- Leave loose players alone: If the opponents do not have an understanding of ICM (or call very loose in general), you should also play much tighter yourself.
The Limits of ICM in Poker
The Independent Chip Model is currently the best known method for accurately measuring the value of chips in poker tournaments. But ICM is also not free of disadvantages. Some of these are:
- No position: The ICM does not consider a player’s position (a 4 big blind stack on the button is generally worth much more than a 4 big blind stack in first position).
- No skill: The ICM does not consider the players’ skills.
- No future: The ICM does not take into account possible future developments (sometimes it is better to avoid a narrowly profitable situation, since better ones might open up later).
Very often ICM is used when calculating deals in tournaments, because it is the fairest model to give the stacks of the players a concrete value. So if you ever get into the situation of wanting to negotiate a deal in a tournament, an ICM calculator is recommended.
Relevant Resources
- Advanced ICM Calculator
- Introduction to ICM Poker (Upswing Poker)
- Mathematics of Poker (Amazon)
- Ben Sulsky, Quick ICM Intro (Run It Once Video)
Categorised in: News
The game of poker has its own slang or “poker talk.” If you are new to poker, learning the poker slang will greatly improve your knowledge of the game.
From the small blind to the straight flush, here is a poker glossary of the important poker terms to know.
Act: check, bet, raise, or fold
Action: whose turn it is, as in “Action is on you.” Also, slang for gambling, as in “He loves action.” Or a lot of betting, like “The 2/4 game at Pala has a lot of action.”
Active Player:player still in competition for a pot
Add-on: additional chips that may be purchased to “add on” to your chip stack, usually at the end of the Re-buy period, though some tourneys allow add-ons earlier and some tourneys even allow for multiple add-ons (and/or Re-buys)
All-in: a player bets all of his or her remaining chips
Bad Beat: when a player has the best of it and the odds are heavily with him or her, but gets beaten in the hand by a long-shot draw
Bankroll:the money a player has set aside to gamble with
Behind: a player who acts after another player in a betting round
Benjamin: a hundred-dollar bill (Benjamin Franklin’s portrait appears on a U.S. $100 bill)
Best of It: the player who has the odds on his or her side
Bet:money initially wagered and put into the pot (during a given betting round, subsequent betting action beyond an initial bet is termed a “raise”)
Big Blind: the larger of two forced “blind hands” in community card games like Hold’em and Omaha; the big blind is generally located two to the left of the “dealer button”
Big Hand: a really good hand
Big Slick: Ace-King hole cards (see Hole Cards)
Blank: community board card that looks like it is harmless or couldn’t really help anybody
Bluff: a bet or raise that appears to represent a good hand, when in fact the bettor has a mediocre or at best a drawing hand
Board:(see also, Community Cards) the playing surface and the community cards on the “board” that are shared by all players in games such as Hold’em and Omaha. Players use the community cards to complete their hands.
Boat:full house (aka “full boat”). three of one card, two of another. ex. JJJ99
Brick and Mortar: a casino with a physical world spatial existence (as opposed to merely online or cyberspace); some casinos, like Pala, have both a brick and mortar and an online existence.
Broadway: ace-high straight
Bubble: in a tournament, one place away from making it to the money
Busted: broke. Lost all chips and out of the tournament.
Button:(aka Dealer Button), disc that denotes which player is the “dealer” for that hand. Button position is dealt the last card and is last to act in each betting round
Buy-In:the amount of chips a player must buy in order to enter a card game. For tourneys, the buy-in is a set amount of money for a set amount of starting chips. For cashgames, buy-ins are generally expressed as minimums, but can have an optional limited or unlimited range beyond the minimum as well.
Buying the Pot: to win a pot with a bluff or semi-bluff that forces other players out
Call:to put in the amount that another player bet: “I call”
Calling Station: you bet and bet and he calls and calls; generally a weak player who calls too much but doesn’t usually bet or raise.
Case Card: last card of a given rank left in the deck… the other three are already out
Chasing: hoping an upcoming community card will “hit” to complete a so-far unmade hand
Check: to not bet when it is your turn. can say “I check” or tap on the table in a live game
Check and Raise: to check initially, but then make a raise if another player bets after your initial check
Chop:in tournament play, the last remaining players decide to split up the prizepool rather than play to the end; or, in a hand, where the end result is a tie and the pot is split up and distributed evenly to the tied players.
Community Cards:(see also, Board) the community cards on the “board” that are shared by all players in games such as Hold’em and Omaha. Players use the community cards to complete their hands.
Connectors:(see also, Suited Connectors) two or more cards in sequence; for example: 89 or 10J
Counterfeit:In Omaha Eight or Better, when the board pairs one of your low cards
Cracked: to lose a hand you were initially favored to win, as in “My Aces got cracked!”
Crying Call: a very reluctant call
Dealer:player or staff member who deals the cards out to players; however, see also, Button
Dead Man Hand: A famous hand that consists of the black eights and the black aces
Deep Stack:a tournament in which players begin with an amount of chips that is relatively high in relation to the blind or ante.
Dog:underdog. Not favored to win.
Dominated: a hand that is beaten due to shared cards. for example, A-8 is “dominated” by A-K
Draw: hand that needs additional cards to become a winning hand
Drawing Dead: when there are no cards left in the deck that will make a draw hand into a winner
Draw Poker: each player gets a set amount of cards and then can replace some of his or her cards with others dealt out from the remainder of the deck
Duck: a deuce, a 2
Early Position: approx. first third of players to act in a hand
Face Down: cards, like the hole cards, that are unexposed to other players
Face Up: exposed card that everybody can see
Fast Play: aggressive style emphasizing a lot of betting and raising
Favorite: based on odds alone, most likely hand to win
Fish: a novice or poorly-skilled player, expected to lose money
Flop: first three community cards dealt face up on the board
Flush: hand containing five cards of the same suit
Fold:to get rid of one’s cards, and in doing so forfeiting the right to any part of the pot.
Four-Flush: having four of the five cards needed for a flush… and hoping for the fifth
Free Card: a betting round where all players have checked, thus allowing the next community card to fall without anybody putting any money in the pot
Freeroll: a poker tournament in which certain qualifying players get in for free. “Freerolling” also is an expression sometimes used to describe somebody who has won a lot of chips already and is “rolling” through the game with other people’s money.
Four-of-a-Kind: Hand containing four cards of the same rank, like J J J J.
Full House: hand with two of one rank and three of another, like 9 9 J J J
Hand: the cards a poker player holds, combined with any community cards, to make the best five card combination
Head-to Head: aka “Heads Up”
Hi/Lo: type of poker where the highest hand and the lowest hand each take half the pot
Hole Cards: cards held by a player, unseen by other players
Implied Odds:what a player thinks his actual payoff will be if he hits his hand, relative to how much it will cost to play
In Front Of: a player who acts before another player
Inside Straight Draw: a draw where only one card will complete the straight, for example a hand like 6-7- – 9-10… needs an 8 to complete
Isolate: to bet and raise so as to get heads-up against a weaker hand or weaker player
Joker: a wild card, or slang for a really lucky card that came to complete a hand against odds
Kicker:unmatched card in a player’s hand that is not used except to break ties. Example, two pair 5-5 and 8-8 with A kicker beats two pair 5-5 and 8-8 with Q kicker.
Late Position: aprox. the final third of players to act in a hand
Laydown:to fold
Limit:the most that can be bet or raised at any one time (see also, Limit Poker)
Limit Poker:poker games where limits exist for betting or raising, as opposed to no-limit poker
Limp: to just call, rather than bet or raise
Live Card:a card whose rank has not yet appeared on the board (nor presumably in another hand)
Live One: a player likely to bet wildly and probably lose like a fish (see Fish)
Lock: a hand that cannot be beaten
Lock Up My Seat: a commitment to take a seat that is waiting for you
Longshot: a drawing hand that has the odds heavily against it and probably won’t be made
Look Up: to call somebody, as in “I’m gonna look you up.”
Loose: playing style that plays a lot of hands and often goes for longshots (see Longshot)
Made Hand: already solid. Don’t need to hit a draw to have a good winning hand.
Maniac:wild, loose player who bets it up with mediocre hands just to build the pot
Middle Position: aprox. the middle third of players to act in a hand
Monster: an excellent hand that is either a lock (see Lock) or at least probably won’t be beat
Muck: fold. To throw a hand away and toss it into the Muckpile. (see Muckpile) & (see Fold)
No-Limit: a player may bet any amount of chips up to and including everything he has in front of him or her
One Pair: hand containing two cards of the same rank, like Q Q
Overcard: a higher card. So a K is an “overcard” to a Q, and a Q is over a 9
Pocket Cards: see also- Hole Cards
Poker Chip Picture
Position: players relative position to the player who acts last; in flop games like Hold’em and Omaha, position is usually considered relative to the button
Pot:sum total of all antes, blinds, and bets put into the center of the table during a given poker hand. It is the pot for which players are competing to win.
Preflop:before the flop
Premium Starting Hands:holding among the best starting hole cards; for example, in Hold’em premium starting hands include A-A, K-K, Q-Q, and A-K, and possibly A-Q and J-J as well. Hi/Lo games also have low premium starting hands of their own, for example holding perhaps A-2-3-5 as a starting hand in Omaha Hi/Lo
Raise:adding more chips to another player’s original bet to make it more expensive for other players to continue to play for the pot
Rake:the amount of money taken out of a pot by the house (the dealer is the house’s representative in this process) as its fee for running the game; the rake is used to pay overhead, including equipment, facilities, utilities, and staff salaries
Poker Chip Meaning In Gujarati
Reraise: raising another player’s raise
Ring Game: a cash game with a full table of players, usually seven or more for Stud and nine or more for Omaha or Hold’em
River: the fifth (last) community card on board
Royal Flush: an A-K-Q-J-10 of the same suit. The highest ranking hand in poker.
Satellite Tournament: a smaller stakes tourney in which the prizes are one or more entries into a more expensive major event
Set: three of a kind, consisting of a pocket pair plus a matching community card
Shorthanded: a poker game with five players or less, perhaps six or less
Showdown: final act of a poker hand
Slowplay: playing a powerful hand in a weak manner to disguise its strength and lure, or “trap,” other players into the action
Small Blind: located just to the left of the button, it is the smaller of the two forced blind bets preflop
Standard Raise: typically, three times the big blind
Steal the Blinds: bluffing to make the blinds fold
Straight: a sequence of five consecutive cards, like 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10
Straight Flush: a sequence of five consecutive cards that are all also the same suit
Suck-out:to hit a longshot draw, typically on the river
Suited Connectors: (see also, Connectors) two or more cards in sequence and of the same suit; for example: 8-9 or 10-J of Hearts
Swing:fluctuation of a player’s chip count or even overall bankroll
Table Stakes: a player can only play with the money/chips he or she has on the table in front of him or her; the player’s bet, call, or raise is limited to the number of chips he or she currently has, and the player cannot buy, borrow, or produce more chips in the middle of a hand.
Three-of-a-Kind: three cards of the same rank held in a given hand, ex.: QQQ. see also, Trips
Tournament: a competition in which all players start with the same amount of chips and play continues until one player holds all the chips
Trap: to underplay or slowplay powerful hand so as to lure other players into betting
Trips: three of a kind
Turn: the fourth community card on board, following the flop
Two Pair: a hand that contains two different pairs, like QQ and KK in the same hand
Under the Gun: the first player to act in a round of poker; preflop, under the gun is to the immediate left of the button
Value Bet: betting a hand that is perhaps not a sure thing but that over time will win more than it loses
Wheel: (aka “Bicycle”) a five-high straight: A – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Wired: to have a pair in the hole from the start
Jual Poker Chip
Now that you are familiar with all of the poker terms you can start playing poker online! Sign up today for a poker tournament to win real money!