You're a Bunch of Factors

I have a few poker tools that I have coded myself (I am a developer), most of which are specific to sites other than 888, but there is one tool, which is not linked to any site, so I thought I would put it here for all to take a look at and if u like it use it freely...
It is just a simple M and Q calculator, very simple to use...

For those not familiar with the terms M & Q, M is the ratio of your stack to the blinds and antes (does have other mnemonics, but M is most popular as it was introduced in Harrington), Q is your stack compared to the average stack size in the tourney.

Here's some links to M stuff:
http://www.sitandgoplanet.com/multitabl ... _Zone.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-ratio

Has a nice 'dial' type display, with colour coded 'M-zones' so you can easily see how your stack stands at any stage of the tourney. Outside dial, graphically displays M, the inner dial Q. Sure, you need to manually update it, but
a) only takes a second or 2.
b) you can update the info only whenever you chose to (you might only want to check your M periodically if your stack not change much in a hand or 5)

It only displays M upto 50 (if its above 50, will just show as 50) but then if your THAT stacked you dont care exactly what your M is! same with Q only going to 2 (ie u have twice (or more) the average stack in the tourney).

Looks like this:


Its a Java application, so no installation required like normal Windows software.
Just unzip to a folder, and double click the .jar file to start, or put a shortcut to it with all your poker related stuff.

Click the 'New Tourney' button and fill out the 3 fields for starting stack, initial SB and number of entrants, then click 'Done' in that dialog.

That info is displayed now in the main window, with 'Remaining' being equal to the number of entrants you specified. (on sites with late entry, you obv need to wait until this is finished to use the tool)
Now just keep the info in the main window up to date, as often as you like... Easy!

The 'At Table' field is only used when there are antes in play, when there not, the 'Ante' field MUST be set to 0

While its simple to use (just hit Enter after changing a value), there is a brief helpfile in the archive.

In tournaments with antes, when they come into play, the ratio of SB:ante is displayed in the Titlebar.

I find it useful and I hope you will to....

Enjoy!

Bugger, its too big to fit here, so PM me if you are interested and I will email it to you (about 3.5Mb), and I will seek out some ftp hosting then update this with a link to directly download it!

Would use this, but usually can work it out pretty quickly.

For those that have read about Harringtons M, it is a quick and easy way to gauge what kind of hands you are playing.

If your m is less than 5, your in the red zone, which means you are pretty much all in on a playable hand. Tight hand range

If your m is between 6 and 20, your in the yellow zone, which means you can fold if you miss the flop, but you are really limited in your options to push people off their hands. Tight hand range plus suited connectors for limping

If your m is 20 and up, your in the green zone which means you can play as normal.

Q is good for gauging where you are, you do need biggest stack size and position to get the most out of it. E.g. someone has 100k, you have 20k, average is 20k, But your position is 10 out of 50. Means there are 40 people under the average, so you don't have to be to worried.

But good idea for those wanting to think about improving how they play in tourneys. This is playing stack sizes, and thinking about where you are overall. Online you have more information to use, and can make better decisions.

As you can see Brett, I have split yout 6-20 zone into 2 zones, which I got from other sources who seemed to have slightly expanded the notion of the zones. The links also mention 4 zones and what they mean to your play.

Yeah, it is quite easy to work out mentally, but also online theres alot to think about quickly, and u can get the app to do it in the time it takes for the cards to be dealt preflop, so yeah its good for ppl wanting to integrate M into their game, or already do and want a quick & easy way to calc it, and also see it represented graphically at a glance.

Brett Kay wrote:For those that have read about Harringtons M, it is a quick and easy way to gauge what kind of hands you are playing.

Sorry, but I thought Id mention this bit sounded ambigous... probably better to describe it as 'a quick and easy way to gauge what kind of hands you should be playing'.

Pedantic... maybe, but when I read it, it made me think about 3 times what you meant, and I knew what you meant! AND its always good to be absolutely clear
(maybe thats why it sounded odd, prob was)
Sounded like an 'after play' analysis at first reading.
anyway....

Meh,

One word missing out. Brain doesn't type for me.

sorry if that offended, I just like to be clear with things...

Not offended. LOL. . Far from it.

I am quite pleased someone read a full post of mine. . Hehehe

Definitely going to be reading this thread (getting a PM sent) properly tomorrow when I come down from this awesome high

I just tried it on another computer, and there are a few library dependency issues i need to work out (my machine that I developed it on has libraries installed all over the place) but that should only take a day.

Also working on an improvement in the resizing of the window, and gonna add an option to display it 'vertically' ie with the input panel below the graphical dial....

As Brett mentioned, M (and Q) is pretty easy to work out mentally, and I used to just have the Windows calculator open when I played, its just the ability to see your M graphically at a quick glance that I find useful....

Also working on a player profiling application (similar to PT stats with some improvements), but thats proving a bit hard without hooking into the poker client, which with 888 is not as hard as some sites (clear names/stacks/bet sizes) but still a pain in the @$$, so I am trying to work out a way to do profiling via manual input (was thinking this would also force me to pay attention to every hand also, but half the point of these kinds of tools is that you dont have to be glued to every hand!)

Anyway, will keep everyone posted on whatever i comeup with, and I would appreciate it even if people would give whatever I develop a try just for testing and feedback purposes....

Cheers,

PS: Brett, IS there anyway I can upload a file > 256 Kb in size here, or can a place be setup where members can upload and share any tools, even pdf's of poker books etc, I know I got a heap of books in pdf format (Harrington, Slansky, Caro... prob well over 50 in total)

Since this thread is 100% open to everyone on the internet, best not to talk about/attempt to share copyrighted material..