ICM-Bot’s Sit & Go System Explained
The Power of ‘All-In or Fold’
David Sklansky, world class poker professional and author, is an avid supporter of a “move or fold” system for tournament play. He outlines the benefits of using such a strategy in his book, Tournament Poker For Advanced Players. He goes into detail about how and why such a system can be so effective in even the most difficult of tournaments.
I had been mulling over the concept of doing a lot of moving in before the flop. A few years earlier a very mediocre poker player had won the World Championship making great use of this play. Upon reflection I realized that he had hit upon a strategy which gave him almost as good a chance as the best players. In fact, if those players did not properly adjust to it, he might even have an edge over them. This is especially true because those players hate to go all-in before the flop, even if they suspect they have a small edge by doing so.
ICM-Bot makes use of a similar system, albeit using a narrowed and more thorough set of calculations that are particularly useful for sit & go tournament situations. The binary all-in or fold system is effective at lower limit turbo tournaments as they do not rely on post-flop decision making; this is especially true given the overall weak and reckless play of low-stake sit & go players. For more information about how ICM-Bot makes its decisions, check out the overview of ICM-Bot’s game theory.
ICM-Bot’s Sit & Go System
Early Game (more than 25 big blinds)*
For the first few levels of the sit & go, ICM-Bot has one objective: to survive. In order for ICM-Bot to reach the point in the tournament where it has a significant edge, it must last through the early rounds and limit its starting hands to big pairs. At the lower limit turbo sit & gos, it is not uncommon for players to call all-in moves with hands as weak as AJo or 77. This significantly increases ICM-Bot’s chances of doubling up early on.
Middle Game (15-25 big blinds)*
ICM-Bot begins to use not only stack size but also position in order to determine its actions. Re-steal pushes and calling small all-ins with strong hands are not uncommon at this point. In early and middle position however, ICM-Bot remains conservative to maintain its progress towards the higher blind levels.
Bubble Play (5-15 big blinds)*
As the money approaches and the blinds rise, ICM-Bot becomes more aggressive and uses the independent chip model to its benefit. If ICM-Bot has an average stack with four players remaining, it will remain on the cautious side and attempt to outlast its competitors. If it has a large stack on the bubble though, expect to see very aggressive and optimal play.
Heads-Up (1-12 big blinds)*
When down to the final two, the effective stack size of each player should be less than 12 big blinds. At this point ICM-Bot uses equilibrium play and is essentially playing inexploitable poker; its all-ins, folds, and calls are within 0.1% of perfect equilibrium strategy at the 1-12 big blind range.
*common stack size range at this level
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