If you’ve been reading the poker tournament strategy articles here at Ignition, you know that the chips you play with in these events don’t have monetary value – you can’t just leave the tournament and take your remaining stack to the cashier’s window. You also know that the chips you gain are usually worth less to you than the chips you lose. But all those chips still have to be worth something. The more you have, the more likely you’ll win the tournament, or at least make a deep run. How do you figure out what those beautiful betting disks are worth, so you can make smarter decisions about the moves you make on the felt? PLAY POKER TOURNAMENTS Our top poker analysts have been working on this for years. They’ve come up with something called the Independent Chip Model, or ICM for short. There’s a lot of math behind it, but you don’t need to crunch any numbers yourself to use ICM to your advantage at the poker table. And while using ICM is considered more of a poker strategy for advanced players, anyone who wants to do better at tournaments can learn something from this simple guide. These might even be some of the most important poker tournament tips you’ll ever read. Poker Tournament Chip Value Before we get into Poker ICM, let’s take a closer look at why chip values fluctuate during a poker tournament. Imagine you’re playing an event with just three people – you and