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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