| Re: "M" Definition
This is a great little reminder of Harrington's zone concept, and I definitely use these concepts whenever I play a tournament or SNG.
Although, a couple of days ago, I played in a SNG at Paradise where my application of these concepts would have made "Action Dan's" head spin.
This was one of those rare games where there were still 5 players remaining at Level VIII (250/500), and no one had an M greater than 4. I was in the BB with just enough chips to last one more round. I don't usually let my M slip this low, but given how evenly the chips were distributed, and how lousy everyone's M was, I thought anyone could go out at any moment and was trying to hang in there.
The SB put me all-in with a raise, and as the short stack, I was compelled to call with my lousy J3o. He had KTo. Luckily, the board came out two pair with an A, so we chopped and I survived. I was able to double up on the next hand, so that gave me a little bit of breathing room, but with the blinds so enormous, I found myself in the same situation a few hands later.
This time, I was in the SB, the button had raised all-in, and if I folded, I would be all-in the next time the blinds came around (we were down to 4 at this point). I had J5o and decided to pass, gambling that I'd pick up something better in the next 4 hands and/or someone else would get whacked in that time. I got lucky, and did pick up more playable hands, and doubled up again. In the meantime, the short stack had to go in, and got whacked, so my conservative play enabled me to finish in the money. I got a slight rush at the end and wound up winning the thing.
It was a happy ending this time, but looking back at it, I'm not sure there was any excuse for letting my M get as low as I did. The reason I did, as cited earlier, was because everyone else's M was low too. I wonder what Harrington would say about these kinds of situations.  | 
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