ICM push/fold drill
Ten fixed short-stack jam-or-fold hands, each solved twice — once by ICM $-EV, once by chip-EV alone — so you can see exactly where tournament pressure changes the shove.
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Why the same hand can jam two ways
The chip-EV push/fold charts answer one question: does jamming win more chips than folding, on average, ignoring what those chips are worth? ICM answers a different question: does jamming win more prize-pool equity, given that the chips hero risks losing are usually worth more than the chips hero stands to win. The two agree most of the time, but not always — this drill shows both grids side by side, for the same ten hands, so the gap between them is visible rather than theoretical.
ICM doesn’t always tighten the range
On the bubble and at a top-heavy final table, ICM pressure usually tightens hero’s jamming range: busting is expensive, so marginal jams that show a chip-EV profit become ICM folds. But when hero is tied for the shortest stack at a flatter-paying final table, ICM can push the other way — hero has the least to protect and the most to gain by accumulating chips, so the ICM-correct range can be wider than the chip-EV range, not narrower. Watch for both directions across the ten spots, not just the tightening one.
What to look at before answering
The stack bars pick out hero and the rest of the table, the payout ladder shows what each finishing place is worth, and hero’s two cards and effective stack are shown above the jam-or-fold buttons. After answering, both 169-hand grids appear with hero’s hand marked, one priced in prize-pool dollars and one in big blinds — never add or compare a figure from one grid to a figure from the other, they’re different units.
Frequently asked questions
- How is this different from the chip-EV push/fold charts?
- The charts answer whether jamming wins more chips than folding on average. This drill also prices the same jam in prize-pool dollars, using the ICM solver behind the ranked Trainer’s ICM puzzles, and shows both answers side by side for the same ten hands so a gap between them is visible rather than theoretical.
- Does ICM always make the jamming range tighter?
- No. On the bubble and at a top-heavy final table it usually does, because busting is expensive. But when hero is tied for the shortest stack at a flatter-paying final table, ICM can widen the correct range instead — hero has the least to protect and the most to gain from accumulating chips.
- How many questions are there?
- Ten fixed jam-or-fold hands per attempt, in a repeatable order. Play again for another pass at the same ten.
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