Here is a recap of the items players can choose from in the Cake Shop:

Books and DVDs: Players can choose from a few different poker strategy books such as ‘Theory of Poker’ or ‘Killer Poker by the Numbers’ to name a couple.  Players can also trade in for DVDs such as the famous poker related movies ‘Rounders’ and ‘The Cincinnati Kid’, along with a couple random non poker related DVDs.  The books and DVDs range from 70 to 152 gold chips.

Apple Products: The Cake Shop offers a variety of different ‘Apple’ products for the players.  The smallest being an iPod shuffle that will cost the player 264 gold chips.  The apple product that requires the most gold chips is the 16 GB iPod touch that is listed at 1620 gold chips.  Three other iPods are listed in the range of 690 to 1320 gold chips.  The last Apple product is an Apple TV product which is 1560 gold chips.

Kitchen Products: Cake Poker offers players a chance to receive a Cake Poker cake through using gold chips – Yes an actual cake.  Players can choose from a specialty cake or a birthday cake both for 350 gold chips.  Other ‘kitchen products’ include a nice George Foreman 6 burger grill listed at 292 gold chips and a KitchenAid mixer (great to use for making cakes) listed at 1360 gold chips.

Electronics: Players who collect enough gold chips can cash them in for some very cool electronics in the Cake Shop.  Players can choose from items such as a Sony camcorder, Bose SoundDock, XBOX 360 elite bundle or the Playstation 3 system.  One of the most popular items in the Cake Shop is the Nintendo Wii which is only 1640 gold chips.  The most expensive item in the Cake Shop is the Sharp Aquos 32” LCD TV which is 4100 gold chips.

Where do I find out how many Cake Poker gold chips I have?

Players can find out how many gold chips they currently have by opening the Cake Poker software, clicking on rewards along the top and then gold chips.  You will also see a gold chip meter that will show you how close you are to earning your next gold chip.

To start earning gold chips read my Cake Poker Review or click here to download Cake Poker for free.

Below is a brief overview of what each category of the PokerStars VIP store contains:

Clothing: The clothing section of the VIP store is full of PokerStars clothing merchandise that is not sold in retail stores.  Players can choose from items such as the Flexfit Caps that are only 500 FPPs to the PokerStars baseball jerseys that will cost just fewer than 3000 FPPs.  Also in the clothing section of the VIP store are leather jackets, polo’s, sweatshirts, women’s shirts and more.

Poker Accessories: In this section of the PokerStars VIP store you will find random poker related items with the PokerStars brand name on them.  The items range from a small PokerStars stress ball (500 FPPs) to a PokerStars poker table that will cost 65,000 FPPs.

Books and DVDs: Here you will find some great Poker related books that are in the 2000-3000 FPP range.  Most of the books focus on poker strategy, with some really great titles to choose from.  The DVDs are mostly strategy based as well and range from 1500 – 4500 FPPs.

Electronics: This is one of the coolest sections of the PokerStars VIP store, as it is filled with some great electronics.  Players can pick from electronics such as an Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, TVs, Laptops, Cameras, DVD players, or an iPod.  These electronics are all top of the line products and range from 9000 FPPs for the iPod shuffle up to 270,000 FPPs for a 60 inch HDTV.

Tournaments: Players can use their Frequent Player Points to purchase entries into both live and online poker tournaments.  There are some awesome tournament prize packages available including entries into the WSOP, EPT, WCOOP and many more.

Gift Certificates: This section of the VIP store is full of great gift certificates for online stores.  Players can trade in their FPPs for gift certificates to stores such as Amazon, StubHub, Cadooz, and more.

Special Items: In the special items section of the VIP store there are some awesome prizes that players can choose from.  The most famous prize in the PokerStars VIP store is the Porsche Cayman S that has actually been won by a player, costing 3,000,000 FPPs.  Other cool prizes include a match versus a PokerStars pro, sporting event tickets and a seat at PokerStars PokerCamp.  Thrown in the mix of these cool prizes is a humorous cookie basket costing 3800 FPPs.

Cash Bonus: If players are simply looking for more cash in their PokerStars players account they can trade in their FPPs for cash.  50,000 FPP credits will get a player a $650 VIP reward bonus and 250,000 FPP credits will get a player a $4,000 bonus.

To take advantage of the Pokerstars VIP store, click here to sign up and start earning points now.

Players tend to get very tight near the bubble. This is where you see a lot of players making mistakes, whether by misplaying their short stack and not getting it in at the right time, or by just trying to ride their big stack to victory, not really playing poker, and just waiting for the bubble to pop. In a 9 handed Sit N Go, the top three players get paid, so the bubble come into play when you are down to 5, and really can get high pressure when down to 4. Players simply do not want to invest the time to play and not cash for at least the minimal amount. A good poker player can take advantage of this, using aggressive style on the bubble can provide great dividends, as you can force players into folding marginal hands while they are playing scared that they might play in an earlier stage.

Playing aggressively does not mean spewing your chips off for no reason with trash hands and in bad position. You also have to be aware of who you are playing against. By this point in the SNG you will have been playing with your opponents long enough to be able to get a read on how they play. You will realize throughout the tournament who the passive players are at the table, and on the bubble these players will be holding on for their tournament life. There are good players who will fire back at you, regardless of it being the bubble or not, so do not put wasted chips into the pot.

Your starting hand selection can become more liberal on the bubble, but you need to be able to play the hand with confidence and aggression. When you get re-raised at a short handed table, and are holding something like AJ, chances are you are probably beat. This is because when other players are playing tight and trying to squeeze into the money, they will fold hands like A10 and worse.  Your chip stack will play into this as well, as you want to play aggressively against short stacks when possible. You have to be careful, as the short stacks are just looking to get it all in and double up, or bust.

As always, play strong when you have position. At some point someone will bust the bubble, and a great time to do it is in position against a short stack. If you double the short stack up, do not give up on playing aggressive, as this is the best way to recover lost chips. Also, avoid limping on the bubble whenever possible. At no stage in a tournament is aggression more greatly rewarded than on the bubble. So remember, play aggressive in position, and do not waste chips on the bubble, and you will find yourself winning a lot more Sit N Go’s.

The 2008 WSOP Final Table Players & Chip Counts

Click on any 2008 World Series of Poker final table player’s name to view their profile.

1. Dennis Phillips - $26,295,000
2. Ivan Demidov - $24,400,000
3. Scott Montgomery - $19,690,000
4. Peter Eastgate - $18,375,000
5. Ylon Schwartz - $12,525,000
6. Darus Suharto - $12,520,000
7. David Rheem - $10,230,000
8. Craig Marquis - $10,210,000
9. Kelly Kim - $2,620,000

The current chip leader Dennis Phillips is sponsored by Pokerstars.com.  PokerStars has sponsored 3 of the last 5 World Series of Poker winners.  If you want to play in next year’s WSOP, Poker Stars is giving away over 1,000 seats to the main event.  To win your WSOP seat at Pokerstars, click here.

An example of a time when you would want to induce a bluff is on the river when you suspect your opponent has been on a draw and missed on the river.  You are pretty sure that you have the best hand and you want to get the most value from it.  However, if you bet, your opponent will fold because they have a weak hand.  So the only chance you have of making any money on the river is to check and  hope that they fire a bet at the pot.

When someone is on a bluff, they are going to hope no one gets a read on them, and if they do, will usually lay down there hand, however if you can induce a bluff, you will often get a lot of money thrown your way, as the bluffer does not know they are being trapped. There are a few different ways you can go about this.

One great way of getting someone to bluff at you is to check or make a smooth call when you have a very strong hand. Most players will see your check as a sign of having a weak hand and a loose aggressive player is going to bet in hopes of everyone folding and picking up a small pot. The only issue with this is that if you check, you are allowing them to get a free card, which gives them the opportunity to make their hand on the flop. If you are doing this correctly and have a very big starting hand, you run a much lesser risk of this happening.

Another way to get a player to bluff at you is by making a small bet. The goal of this is to have them perceive your small bet as having a weak hand and this will cause them to re-raise you in an attempt to get you to fold. This strategy is best when you are already in a heads up, or heads up plus one to act type of situation, such as being in the small blind, or even on the button, attempting to make the small raise look like a steal. There are many small mind games you can play here as well, by calling the re-raise and checking in the dark. This can obviously be risky, but will really make your opponent think, and should only be done with a top premium hand.

This is not a piece of your game that you will install and it will be perfect, it takes repetitive practice and observation. You really want to be able to have a very good read on your opponent’s style and range when executing this play. You also want to be aware of how you are being perceived at your table, because remember, inducing a bluff from someone is all about making them think one way when you are in fact playing the exact opposite. Be aware of what you have done in other situations, and the time you are taking to make your decision, as it seems everyone uses that to get a read on a player. Being able to induce a bluff at the table may be just what you need to take your game to the next level.

This is a special guest post by Mark Garnett.  Mark is a high stakes no-limit cash game player.

When determining the proper course of action at the poker table while playing no-limit Texas Holdem, it is important to consider a few things besides the pot odds that are being given to you. Among the most important factors to consider, is the size of your opponent’s remaining chip stack and your implied odds.

Implied odds are like a hidden treasure.  When you learn to look beyond what is already on the table and to see how much is possible to win from your opponent later, it is like having a treasure map.  If you can find the right situations to apply implied odds to, you will surely be raking in big pot after big pot just like a pirate hauls in his booty.

Rather than just considering the chips that are currently in the pot, a player should also think about the amount of chips that they could potentially win. The total amount that you could win when considering your opponent’s entire stack is called the implied odds. Quite often, because of your opponent’s stack size, a player can neglect to ever even consider the pot odds that are being given to them.

Farha Plays An Interesting One

A great example of this concept at work can be seen on ESPN’s 2005 broadcast of the WSOP. Very early in the tournament, Sammy Farha got involved in a hand with Anthony Curtis. Curtis is a gambler who has been around a long time, however poker is by no means his game of choice.

From an early position, Anthony raised the pot to 1,000 chips, which was an unusually large bet at the time. The bet was large enough that nobody would be getting the correct pot odds to make the call. But Farha, undoubtedly a passionate gambler as well, looked at Anthony’s chip stack and saw approximately 10K in additional chips. In his mind it was probably obvious that Anthony had a hand that he was going to put the rest of his chips into the pot with…more than likely A-A.

It was only going to cost Sammy 1,000 chips to see a flop. In this scenario, Sammy realized that he was actually getting about 10 to 1 odds when considering Anthony’s chip stack. All Sammy would have to do is make the best hand on the flop and those chips would likely be his. Since Sammy was holding a pocket pair, his odds were about 7 ½ to 1 for him to improve to a set on the flop. If you adjust for the probability that Anthony will also improve his hand so that Farha will still lose even when he does make a set, Sammy’s implied odds were getting a little closer to 10 to 1. This means that in theory, it was still a profitable decision for Sammy to make the call before the flop in this scenario. He was able to eliminate his opponent and pick up his chips.

How Many Chips Are You Likely To Win Later In The Hand?

One of the key factors that can give implied odds a sound mathematical base is the quality of your opponent’s hand. If your opponent has a weak hand, it is not likely that he will be willing to invest a lot of additional money into the pot throughout the hand. In this scenario, looking at the amount of additional chips that your opponent has in his stack would serve no purpose when calculating the value of a decision.

If the scenario is such that your opponent has a very strong hand, there is a much greater chance that they will be willing to put the rest of their chips into the pot. In this scenario, the size of your opponents chip stack is important to consider because your implied odds are much greater.

Consider some of the other ways that this hand could have been played. If Anthony had made a smaller opening raise, it would have been less obvious what his two starting cards were. If he had bet 400 chips instead of 1,000, Sammy would not have had as much confidence that he would be able to win all 10K in chips. There could be many weaker hands that Anthony would be playing this way. In order for the implied odds to be considered, you need to be relatively certain that you are going to be able to win all of the chips that you are looking at.

Other Factors To Consider

Since you should only consider chips that you will be able to win, you also have to take your opponents skill level into account. A great player will typically lose fewer chips when they have an inferior hand. To think that you are going to be able to win their entire chip stack if you have the best hand is probably not a very accurate assumption. But if your opponent does not have as much skill and experience as you, the probability that your opponent will lose all of his chips with an inferior hand will increase.

Another thing to consider regarding the hand in discussion here, Sam Farha had about 20K in chips at the start of the hand. He was in a situation where he could afford to lose 1,000 chips. Even if he were to lose those chips, it would have had little effect on the outcome of future hands. But if Sammy is able to go from 20K to 30K, he would then have had a much larger chip advantage. For a skilled player, this increase in chips can have an effect on the outcome of future hands and the way they are played. In other words, there was much to gain and little to lose.

When all was said and done, I think this Sammy Farha played this hand great. Sammy knew that he was against a weaker opponent. He also knew that he would probably be able to get all the money if he was able to hit the flop. Sammy also was able to realize that he was in a situation where he could afford to gamble. All of these factors created a situation where the implied odds were great enough to allow Farha to call an oversized bet, just because his opponent had a significant amount of chips left in his stack.

Upon joining I did notice the high amount of cash game content. This amazed me considering the major instructors Todd Arnold and Chris “Fox” Wallace are well-known tournament and SNG regulars.

Real Poker Training Instructors

RPT features an all-star lineup of guest regulars including online superstars “BodogAri” , WSOP runner up David Williams, internet legend Chad “lilholdem” Batista, and SNG Icon and PokerXFactor.com co-owner Eric “Sheets” Haber. With guest instructors like these you are most certain to walk away with at minimum a few new moves for your arsenal.

RPT is lead by online poker tournament specialist Todd “NSXT” Arnold. Todd specializes in poker videos covering MTT’s. He has 73 videos up at the time of this article. He is a well guided instructor which in return makes it easy for you to follow his lessons. He can help every aspiring tournament player from the $1 MTT’s to the $2500 WCOOP tournament where the sharks feed. By far, Todd Arnold is the best instructor on RealPokerTraining.

Top online poker cash game specialist Ryan Fischler is a regular contributor in the video instruction department. Ryan has put up more than 30 videos on RPT since he signed with them. If you are a beginner-Intermediate cash game player, Ryan’s videos are a must watch. With Ryan’s instructions you will be able to follow very closely as he is detailed in his reasons about why he is doing a certain action. I would definitely check of Ryan’s videos as they are very educational.

Chris “Fox” Wallace is a pioneer in the SNG scene. He has written several articles on ICM, and bankroll management which are still by far the most popular articles of their nature to this day. Fox has a handful of cash game videos featuring special lessons like “Blind vs. Blind”, “When to defend your BB” and “Under the Gun is the new steal position” along with many other topics. Fox’s videos are much more in depth in my opinion than any other instructor on the current roster of RealPokerTraining. Whether you are new to the game or a seasoned player, Fox’s intensive videos have something to offer!

Real Poker Training Forum

In addition to videos, RealPokerTraining has an extensive forum for members. In the forum, it boasts a “Chat with the Pros” section where you can directly ask each individual instructor personal questions pertaining to poker. You can ask them if you played that AA correctly, or if you should of layed it down after that 3bet on the turn! They offer a feedback forum, which they do take very seriously. If you have a RPT account I definitely recommend stopping by the forum if only to read the content. They have a very quick turn around time for support questions, so if you have any site related problems I would suggest posting in the forum for a near immediate response.

Quality of Videos

One of my biggest disappointments with RealPokerTraining comes in the form of the video quality. While other sites have near perfect display and sound, RPT is seriously lacking in this department. There are a few videos (Chad “lilholdem” Batista) in particular where there is so many people/voices in the background it can be a bit tedious at times. I have noticed in the most recent videos a vast improvement but I really think there needs to be a bit more work to get the sound quality up to even remotely acceptable. As for the Image quality, any instructor who decides to do more than one table at once is crazy. With the current setup for the way the videos are viewed, two videos shrink it to an almost unheard of size. Even with 20/20 vision it is next to impossible to follow all of the action. When there is just one table being shown it is often blurry, or readable. With the amount of advertising spent and the number of currently registered customers I believe the content quality defiantly needs to be a number one priority in there site improvement department.

RealPokerTraining Sign Up Bonuses

Signing up to RealPokerTraining can also lock in some cool gifts for you also. In addition to all the tools of success you will get with the coaching videos from RPT, they have locked in a deal with Card Player Magazine. Every person who signs up for the 6 month subscription will now receive a 1 year subscription to the popular Card Player magazine. Want more? They even offer a cool referral program where for every customer you get to sign up to RPT your own personal subscription can be extended for as much as 6 months!

Final Thoughts

RealPokerTraining as a whole is a great site. With the no sign-up fee and the lowest monthly rate on the internet, RPT is a bargain for the buck. Add in the cool bonuses they give you and it sweetens the pot.

With all the training sites on the market, finding the best Poker education site can be a job within itself. With RPT you know where you stand. With the low fee that you pay, you cannot compare it to Card Runners or PokerXFactor. Now that doesn’t mean that RPT is inferior to all sites, it just means it rates in my opinion as an average training site. Do not sign up if you expect to see a new video added every day of the week. They rely more on quality rather than quantity.

In conclusion I believe that for the beginner online poker player RealPokerTraining is a great investment. If you have been playing for a sound amount of time however I believe it would be more beneficial to go with one of the other industry leading training sites.

To sign up for RealPokerTraining, click here.

The Independent Chip Model is a mathematical model which attempts to assign a dollar value to every tournament chip. While this is possible to do in a cash game, in a tournament your chip stack has a different value which is dependent on several factors. In the beginning of a tournament every player has an equal chance of finishing in 1st place therefore every chip in play has an equal value, however as the tournament progresses and chip stacks increase and diminish the value of every chip changes as well. If you had a starting stack of 1,500 chips and now you lost 20% on a busted straight draw your remaining 1,200 chips hold less value because now your odds of winning have diminished. Determining the exact percentage however can only be achieved using a mathematical model based on your chips and the total chips in play and this is where the Independent Chip Model (ICM) comes in to play.

The basic assumption of the ICM model is quite simple; every player has a chance of winning the tournament based on the relation of their chip stack to the number of chips in play. For example if you have 45% of the chips in play, on average, you will win the tournament 45% of the time. Keep in mind however that the model does not take into account any other variables such as your opponents’ skills, the cards dealt, nor the blinds. As such it’s important to note that the method is far from perfect and it requires you to analyze your opponents’ styles in order to establish a range of possible hands they would push all-in with or the hands they would call your all-in.

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The ICM model can also determine your odds of finishing in any other position in the tournament. To calculate your odds of finishing in 2nd place you must first assume the chip leader will finish in 1st place and thus his chips must not be accounted for in the total chips in play. So now assuming there were 20,000 chips and the chip leader had 9,000 there are now 11,000 to account for. If you have 5,500 you have a 50% chance of finishing in 2nd place. The odds of finishing in any subsequent position are calculated in the same manner.

So far this information may not seem useful to you aside from determining your chances of finishing in the money but you will see that the percentage calculated will determine your equity. This equity represents a dollar value amount of how much you are expected to win based on the total prize pool. Once you have calculated this amount only then can you assign a true dollar value to every chip. So how does knowing the dollar value of your chips help you in making a push or fold decision? By determining how much extra equity you will gain if you move all-in and win versus if you lose. In the second part of this series we will examine more in detail the calculations behind the ICM model and we’ll illustrate with some examples to make it easier to understand.

In the first part of this series we explained what the ICM model was. Now we’re going to go more in detail by explaining the calculation behind it and to do so we’ll use an example.

You are playing a $10+$1 6 player tournament at Full Tilt Poker with the following prize distribution:

Total Prize Pool: $60

1st: 50% - $40

2nd: 30% - $20

There are 4 players remaining with the following chip stacks:

Player 1: 4,500

Player 2: 3,000

Player 3: 1,500

Total: 9,000

In order to determine the equity of each player we need to establish each player’s odds of finishing in each of the two paid positions as well as the non-paid position. The calculations are fairly simple for this.

Player 1 finishes 1st - 4,500/9,000 = 50%

Player 2 finishes 2nd - 3,000/4500 = 66.67% *

Player 3 finishes 2nd - 33.33%

* Remember we assume player 1 will win, therefore the his 4,500 chips are not taken into account.

Player 2 finishes 1st - 3,000/9,000= 33.33%

Player 1 finishes 2nd - 4,500/6,000= 75%

Player 3 finishes 2nd - 25%

Player 3 finishes 1st - 1,500/9,000= 16.67%

Player 1 finishes 2nd - 4,500/7,500= 60%

Player 2 finishes 2nd - 40%

Player 1 will finish 2nd: 33.33% * 75% + 16.67% * 60% = 34.99% of the time

Player 2 will finish 2nd: 50% * 66.67% + 16.67% * 40% = 40% of the time

Player 3 will finish 2nd: 50% * 33.33% + 33.33% * 25% = 24.99% of the time

Is this a little overwhelming? Let SitNGo Wizard do all the work for you.
Click here for your free 30 day trial of the best ICM software available.

From these calculations we can now easily determine the probability of each player finishing in 3rd place.

Player 1 finishes 3rd: 100-(50+34.99) = 15.01%

Player 2 finishes 3rd: 100-(33.33+40) = 26.67%

Player 3 finishes 3rd: 100-(16.67+24.99) = 58.34%

Now let’s determine each player’s equity. The calculation is very straightforward:

(Probability of 1st)(Payout For 1st) + (Probability of 2nd)(Payout For 2nd) + (Probability of 3rd)* (Payout For 3rd)

Player 1 equity: (50% * $40) + (34.99% * $20) + (15.01% * $0) = $26.99

Player 2 equity: (33.33% * $40) + (40% * $20) + (26.67% * $0) = $21.33

Player 3 equity: (16.67% * $40) + (24.99% * $20) + (58.34% * $0) = $9.66

As you can see calculating the ICM manually is very time consuming and completely impractical when you are playing online poker with a 30 second timer. Fortunately there are several calculators available on the internet that will do the calculations in a fraction of a second. We will cover the most popular of these in the next part of this series. The purpose of this exercise was to show you how the numbers are calculated as a way of helping you understand what the numbers mean.

So now that you know how the numbers are calculated, let’s use a more practical example.

• You are holding 10?-10? and you have 3,000 chips.
• The blinds are at 300/600.
• You are in the BB, player 1 is in the SB and player 3 is on button.
• Player 3 moves all-in for 1,500 chips, the BB folds and now it’s up to you to act.

Now you need to analyze the three possible outcomes.

Outcome #1 - You call and win

Chip stack; 4,800

Probability of finishing 1st: 53.33%

Your equity: $30.32

You equity increased by $8.99 or 42% and now your chances of finishing 1st have increased by 20%.

Outcome #2 - You call and lose

Chip stack: 900

Probability of finishing 1st: 10%

Your equity: $7.33

Your equity has decreased by $14 or 65% and now you are in danger of finishing out of the money.

Outcome #3: You fold

Chip stack: 2,400

Probability of finishing 1st: 26.67%

Your equity: $16.96

Your equity has decreased by $4.37 or 20%

Again it’s important to reiterate that these numbers are completely meaningless unless you can effectively put your opponent on a specific range of hands. As you will see in the next section of this series several ICM calculators will ask you to enter a range of hands you expect your opponent would push all-in or calling an all-in. This is why it’s important to pay close attention and take notes on every player at the table.

Player 3 has 1,500 chips and with the blinds at 300/600 he only has approximately 3 BB left so the range of hands with which he could push all-in is very wide. Although throughout the tournament you have characterized this player as very tight and plays strong hands so it’s safe to assume he has something along the lines of A-K, A-Q or pocket pairs such as 10-10 or better. Let’s assume your opponent is holding A?-K?

10?-10? vs.A?-K? = 54.01% vs. 45.54%

Your average expected value if you call is (0.5401 * 0.5333) + (0,4599 * 0.1) = 33.4%

Compare this with the EV of folding which is 26.67%

Let’s put a dollar value to this equation and you get:

(0.334 - 0.2667) * $60 = $4

By calling the all-in everytime you will average an extra $4 in the long run therefore the decision is now very easy to make, you call the all-in.

Hopefully by now you have a clearer understanding of the Independent Chip Model and how it can be used to make calculated decisions that can improve your ROI in the long run. In the next section we will review some of the tools available online to simplify the process.

Click here for Part 3 - Reviews of the best ICM calculators

As you have seen in the previous parts of this series the mathematical calculations on which the Independent Chip model is based are not particularly complex but they are painfully long to complete and impossible to complete in the average time you are giving on most online poker sites. It helps to have a sit and go odds calculator to make these calculations for you.

There are several calculators available that will help you to crunch the numbers to allow you to make the best decision of whether to push/call/fold. Although the software can calculate the numbers very quickly often times you will not have time to enter the data before the clock runs out. Therefore ICM calculators are best used to analyze your post game history to determine whether you made the right calls. This will in turn improve your skills of putting opponents on a range and making the best call or fold.

Free ICM Calculators

There are several free ICM calculators offered on the internet. While these don’t include the more advanced functions of the paid version they offer several functions which can help you better understand ICM and decide whether it is worth investing in a more sophisticated software.

1. Chillin411

Very simple to use, simply enter the prize pool distribution percentage and the amount of chips each player has. The script automatically calculates the percentage chance of each player finishing in the money. This is a very basic ICM odds calculator and it will require some quick mental calculations in order to use during a tournament.

2. ICM Poker

Similar to Chillin411’s ICM calculator, ICM Poker adds a few extra features including the option to display the prize pool % or the place %. Again however this type of calculator is best used to analyze your post game stats and not to be used during a tournament.

Paid ICM Calculators

The SitNGo Wizard (The Best ICM Calculator Available)

The most complete ICM calculator available, SitNGo wizard can analyze post game history from nearly every online poker room. Once the data is loaded it will give you a full hand by hand analysis based and determine the equity of each possible outcome. Additionally you can re-create situations and modify the variables, for example if you folded your QJ on the flop it can show you the possible outcomes in terms of equity gained or loss if you had called.

SitNGo Wizard also features a Quiz Mode. This feature recreates a tournament game and you must determine the best course of action based on the information you are given. It’s a great way to improve your decision making skills in push or fold situations in S&G tournaments.

SitNGo Wizard can also be used during a tournament, simply enter the number of players, chip stacks, and you can either have SitNGo wizard determine a range of hands or you can manually enter it. Entering this information shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds and the software will show you the possible equity outcomes.

Click here to get your free 30 day trial of SitNGo Wizard.

Some may argue that ICM calculators give players an unfair advantage, well at least that’s the way Poker Stars sees it. Poker Stars recently announced that they do not allow ICM calculators to be run simultaneously during a live tournament. Whether the other online poker sites follow suit remains to be seen. In the mean time learn as much as you can with SitNGo Wizard and continue to analyze your post history stats to justify your decisions and see where you made mistakes.