Depth of money dynamics

Contributed by: Aaron Hendrix
Updated: Jan 28, 2008
Views: 465

You might be wondering what depth of money dynamics is. Simply put, it is the relation of your chip stack in aces

proportion to the blinds. Let's look at three different situations that might appear, on the surface, to be identical but are really polar opposites.

4 players left in a tournament.

Player A has 130,000 in chips
Player B has 150,000 in chips
Player C has 60,000 in chips
Player D has 20,000 in chips
Average chip stack is 90,000

Situation 1:

The Blinds are 500/1000 with a 200 ante.

Situation 2:

The blinds are 2000/4000 with a 500 ante.

Situation 3:

The blinds are 8000/16000 with a 1500 ante.

What is the depth of money dynamics for each situation and how should it affect the four players?

Situation 1 (The Blinds are 500/1000 with a 200 ante):

• Player A has 130,000 in chips - has 130x the BB. Very deep, can play post-flop poker (meaning he can still limp in, call raises, etc;)
• Player B has 150,000 in chips - same as player A.
• Player C has 60,000 in chips - even though he's only 2/3 average stack, he's actually in the same comfort zone as Player A and B and does not need to alter his game drastically.
• Player D has 20,000 in chips - while very short in relation to the rest of the field, he's not to the point where he has to go all in pre-flop if he is going to play a hand. Classic "middle" stack play would dictate here (play hands aggressively, more likely to go with a hand if reraised).

Situation 2 (The blinds are 2000/4000 with a 500 ante):

Player A has 130,000 in chips - has 33x the BB. A standard raise of 12000 total is 10% of his stack, like Player D in Situation 1, this player is in the classic middle stack stage with one big difference - this player is above average stack and doesn't necessarily have to go with their hand if re-raised (meaning they could make the raise to 12K and still fold if they were re-raised, while player D in situation 1 would likely have to call if they re-raised to 6K total and someone moved in). This goes into what we call "stack dynamics" and is something I will discuss in more depth in my next article.

Player B has 150,000 in chips - again, like player A, with the added luxury that he can't go broke on any given hand (yet).

Player C has 60,000 in chips - Very similar to situation #1 - still does not necessarily have to go all in pre-flop but definitely needs to realize that if he does raise, that he likely cannot fold to a reraise.

Player D has 20,000 in chips - unlike situation #1, this player is in desperation stages now at 5x the BB. Any hand they play should be all in pre-flop. They should be looking for spots where they can move in as the initial aggressor and, above all things, should not be waiting for the BB to hit them.

Situation 3 (The blinds are 8000/16000 with a 1500 ante):

Player A has 130,000 in chips - amazing how different a few rounds of blinds can be. Now despite being 2nd in chips, Player A really only has one move at 8x the BB. He has two choices - sit back and wait for big hands, or push hard (all in pre-flop) and hope to avoid confrontations with B, and win his match ups with C and D. At this type of structure (and don't think this doesn't happen - it happens all the time), the winner of the tournament will usually be the person who manages to NOT get called when they are raising and who wins the most flips when they do get called.

Player B has 150,000 in chips - same situation as A here.

Player C has 60,000 in chips - you might find this weird, but Player C is really in the same position as A and B here. One double up and they move ahead of them. They should definitely be pushing while they still have over 2x the BB in the hopes they get lucky and double up (or have the best hand hold up).

Player D has 20,000 in chips - desperation times 100 - needs to be moving in every hand until they either double up or are out.

Using the above, we can see that what your stack size is, in relation to the blinds, will have a proportional impact on how you play. The closer your stack size is to the blinds, the more urgent your play needs to be. The further away from it you are, the more patient you can be and the more options you have in the hands you play.

There are three stages of depth of money:

1. Deep - like Situation 1, Player A, B and C. This stage affords the most play.
2. Medium - like Situation 1, Player D, Situation 2 Player A, B and C (but note there are different levels of medium - the one area where there are differing levels, you have upper medium which affords more play and lower medium which is on the threshold to Shallow). This stage affords the ability to apply the gap concept and play more than one hand, but depending on how close you are to the Shallow threshold, you are teetering on only being able to make one move, and each hand should be looked at carefully before playing it.
3. Shallow - like Situation 2 Player D, Situation 3, Player A, B, C and D. You have one move. All in. Post-flop play goes out of the equation (unless you get a look out of the BB in an unraised pot). Aggression at this stage should rule - the hands you move in with, first to act, should be indiscriminate.

A few examples from hands I've played of these different types of situations, all from the same tournament:

Shallow:

Level XII: 200 Ante 500/1,000 Blinds (100 Minimum Chip)
Average Stack: 23,478.26 (10,000 starting chips)
Seat 1 : derofaf starts with 38,100
Seat 2 : fcc starts with 37,300
Seat 3 : thehazyone starts with 8,000
Seat 4 : missouridave starts with 29,800
Seat 5 : thepokerchef starts with 9,200
Seat 8 : Arthurpndgn starts with 20,900
Seat 9 : gjrv starts with 64,500
Seat 9 : gjrv has the dealer button
>>>DEALING HOLE CARDS<<<
thehazyone dealt down 9d-9c
derofaf posts the small blind 500
fcc posts the big blind 1,000
thehazyone raises 6,800 to 7,800 and is all-in
missouridave folds
thepokerchef folds
Arthurpndgn folds
gjrv folds
derofaf calls 7,300
fcc folds
thehazyone cards were 9c-9d
derofaf cards were Qc-Ks
>>>DEALING FLOP<<< 5s-8c-6c
>>>DEALING TURN<<< 5h
>>>DEALING RIVER<<< 5c
thehazyone wins 18,000 with a full house, fives full of nines

I had 8x the BB. 1/3 the average chip stack. I was in a similar situation to player D in situation 2. I can't just raise to 3000 here, as I'm committed to the hand, and I'm relegated to one move, all in.

Medium:

Level XVI: 500 Ante 1,500/3,000 Blinds (500 Minimum Chip)
Average Stack: 45,000 (10,000 starting chips)
Seat 2 : fcc starts with 69,500
Seat 3 : thehazyone starts with 69,500
Seat 6 : Nellyb023 starts with 20,000
Seat 8 : Arthurpndgn starts with 41,500
Seat 9 : gjrv starts with 35,500
Seat 10 : JOPKE starts with 40,500
Seat 3 : thehazyone has the dealer button
>>>DEALING HOLE CARDS<<<
thehazyone dealt down 9d-Qd
Nellyb023 posts the small blind 1,500
Arthurpndgn posts the big blind 3,000
gjrv folds
JOPKE folds
fcc folds
thehazyone raises 6,000 to 9,000
Nellyb023 raises 10,500 to 19,500 and is all-in
Arthurpndgn folds
thehazyone calls 10,500
Nellyb023 cards were Js-Ks
thehazyone cards were Qd-9d
>>>DEALING FLOP<<< 9s-7s-9h
>>>DEALING TURN<<< 6s
>>>DEALING RIVER<<< Qh
thehazyone wins 45,000 with a full house, nines full of queens

I have 23x the BB, which gives me the ability to make steal raises and marginal calls when short stacks move all in against me (this hand is a good example of stack dynamics). If it had been fcc, for example, that moved in over the top of my re-raise, I would have been able to fold the Qd-9d.

Deep:

Level XIX: 1,000 Ante 4,000/8,000 Blinds (500 Minimum Chip)
Average Stack: 180,000 (10,000 starting chips)
Seat 6 : thehazyone starts with 304,000
Seat 7 : tigerkat starts with 189,500
Seat 9 : SgtTomb starts with 50,000
Seat 7 : tigerkat has the dealer button
>>>DEALING HOLE CARDS<<<
thehazyone dealt down 10s-8s
SgtTomb posts the small blind 4,000
thehazyone posts the big blind 8,000
tigerkat raises 33,000 to 41,000
SgtTomb folds
thehazyone calls 33,000
>>>DEALING FLOP<<< As-10h-10d
thehazyone checks
tigerkat checks
>>>DEALING TURN<<< Jd
thehazyone checks
tigerkat checks
>>>DEALING RIVER<<< 7h
thehazyone bets 262,000 and is all-in
tigerkat folds

This one is close between medium and deep, but I wanted to show how stack size can impact what hands you play short-handed and how you play them. If I was in shallow stage, I'd either have to fold or move all in pre-flop. Same goes for medium. But here, because I have nearly 40x the BB, I am able to call a 5x BB raise 3 handed out of position and play some post-flop poker.

Understanding depth of money dynamics can help you make the proper decisions in the middle to later stages of a tournament. Know whether or not you are in desperation mode or can afford to wait for a better spot to play a hand. Too often players look at their stack size and feel that they are short stacked because of the stack size of their opponents. By applying depth of money dynamics you'll know exactly when you truly need to start gambling and can make the correct decisions to put you in the best position to win.

Depth of money dynamics

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