I am making a video for chip ultility what is it, and how to really do it..

from the poker tournament formula 2 website

…..theory.htm

What is “Chip Utility” and Why Is It So Valuable?

By chip utility, I am simply referring to the ways chips can be used in poker tournaments. Some common uses of chips:

1. Chips can be used to drive opponents out of pots. Say that I have an overpair to the board, which shows potentially dangerous straight or flush draws. I can drive these players out of the pot by making a bet that makes it too expensive for them to try to draw out on me. This bet would also eliminate players who simply held an overcard to the board, say an ace, which would beat my hand if an ace appeared on the turn or river. The more chips I have compared to my opponents, the easier it is for me to make it too expensive for them to stay in a pot with me. With very few chips, I may not be able to make the odds wrong for opponents to call.

2. Chips can be used to steal blinds and antes. With a big chip stack, we can do this in any unraised pot from any late position seat. Likewise, we can steal pots from preflop limpers. The bigger our chip stack, the more ruthless and aggressive we can be on these preflop steals. With a small stack, we may be able to go after the blinds from the button, but we must play more cautiously because any play back at us may cost us more chips than we can afford to lose.

3. Chips can be used to see a greater number of flops. The more chips we have, the greater the number of speculative hands—small pairs, medium connected cards, suited cards, etc.—we can play. These hands often must be thrown away after the flop, but if the flop hits a hand like this, the implied odds can be tremendous. With a big stack, we can even make raises or call raises with these speculative hands. With a short stack, most of these types of hands must be abandoned. With a desperate stack, your only move with a speculative hand, other than folding, would be to push all-in pre-flop.

4. Chips can be used to bluff. It’s easy to steal pots from players who cannot afford to call without jeopardizing either the viability of their chip stack or their tournament survival. And really big chip stacks can be ruthlessly aggressive in stealing from opponents. Short stacks get very few legitimate bluffing opportunities, and all of them are dangerous.

5. Chips can be used to call down suspected bluffers. In fact, a big chip stack will often deter players from bluffing in the first place, because they can see that the big stack can well afford to call. Big chip stacks get much more of the true value of their cards than small stacks. Short stacks will often be putting their tournament life on the line when they call suspected bluffs.

6. Chips can be used to semi-bluff when a player has a strong draw. The semi-bluff not only builds the pot for a player for when he does make his hand, it also often gets him a free card on the river. With a big chip stack backing up a semi-bluff on the flop, the check by an opponent on the turn is almost guaranteed. In fact, a big stack can often steal the pot with a bet on the turn, even without making his hand. Semi-bluffing is very dangerous in a tournament if you cannot afford to lose the chips you bluff with.

7. Chips can be used to bet for value. When a player believes he has the best hand, a big stack permits him to bet an amount his opponent will call because of the size of the pot. Value bets add to a player’s chip stack with little danger, though they are much more dangerous for short stacks because of the possibility of being put to the test with a reraise or an all-in bet from the opponent.

8. Chips can be used to bet for information. If a preflop raiser bets after the flop, and you believe the bet may be merely a continuation bet, a big stack allows you to raise to see if your opponent really has the hand he’s representing. Say, for example, that I have a pocket pair, but an overcard comes down on the flop and my opponent bets. With a big chip stack, I can reraise my opponent to find out where I stand. Often, my reraise will fold a bettor who was just trying to keep the lead, winning me a nice pot. With a short stack, however, that information bet may be too expensive. Without a strong read on my opponent, I may have to fold the best hand, because my opponent can make it even more expensive for me to stay in the pot on later streets.

9. Chips can be used just to call a player to see what he has. Many times I have called another player’s value bet on the river, knowing I was beat (as I did not hit my draw), but just to see what he was betting with if I couldn’t put him on a hand based on how the betting had gone. This is valuable information that I may be able to use later when involved in a pot with this player. With a short stack, I can’t afford to get this information.

10. Chips can be used just to sit and wait. A big stack gives a player the luxury of changing gears at will, and using patience during times when he is not getting decent cards and the action of the other players at his table is too dangerous to get involved with. In other words, chips allow a player to use patience at those times when patience is the best strategy. Short-stacked players cannot use patience strategically, as the blind and ante costs will be eating away too big a percentage of their precious few chips.

With a short chip stack, the opportunities to use chips as described above are seriously diminished and often impossible. And the above list is by no means comprehensive. The shorter your stack, the less useful your chips become to you, until you are reduced to nothing but a single move—all-in before the flop, with whatever cards you have.

To correctly estimate the value of tournament chips, we must also consider the skill of the player who has them. Even an incredibly skillful player who is short-stacked will find many of his skills crippled by his lack of chips. He cannot use all of the possible strategic plays in his repertoire; in fact, he is in very much the same position as the short-stacked player with few skills at this point—just looking for a hand to take an all-in stand with. So, skill alone cannot give chips their value. Much of the value of skill comes from having a big enough stack to use a full range of skills freely. This is why my chip utility value theory proposes that the more chips you have, the more skills that can be put to use, and the more each individual chip in your stack is worth.

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but it is more then that. (I sure hope one of you four video makers have this book so you will know what  I mean ).

he talks about watching john phan in differnt tournies always having a huge chip lead in the early stages of tournies where john phan placed high.

and we see those types in tournies, the bad ones get the huge chips and donk them off.. the good ones use them like they were samurie sword.

i seen the limping chip leader who limps in every hand or calls a minraise , cbets the flop or folds if he misses (works well if he limps) for example.

but this concept goes further then just those 10 descriptions it is about playing speculative hands ,, and becuase you have the chips lead,, you are able to play small ball far longer then other people as it doens’t cost you much to see a flop..

i can’t expalin it  here in a few words.

the best thing I can talk about which makes the most sense is the early stages of the tourney when the blinds are small.

1. pairs (tend to hit a bigger pot with set of dueces then set of aces he says) 

2.all suited connectors even 53 suited (the pot he has won with babyflushes exceed the ones he has lost he claims)

3.non suited gappers 64, and above

4.so for a single raise,, he will play all sutied aces, those above, all trouble hands, jack nine, jack 8 suited ..

he says that to you get paid off with if you hti your two pair, trips, flushes, and with deceptive hands more likely ten king ten suited.

button example when you play a hand like queen -3 , you hoping to see ace -3 -3 or queen 7-3. in order ot pick up a decent pot.

in order to do this he has to main his chips to be 100 bb

example he says raising with pocket nines to steal the blinds isnt’ worth it(in regards to big preflop raise),, unless it is worth it and we are discussion a differnt stack strategy.

so just make your normal raise if you get called, fine see what develops.

that is in regards to small ball,

with long ball, he says you are playing that at 30 bb or less,as you raise to avoid confrontation and tough decisions , and that is the bullies.

so in his arguement the big stack who is playing small ball and accumulating chips is differnt then the 40 bb stack who is playing bully long ball.

i guess it all boils down to a decison made not on pot odds but on chip ulity if you are going to be able to maintiain your chip lead or be the chip leader,,

in a case where he had nine outs, 2 card to come , 35 percent to hit his flush, pot odds are bad less then 2 to 1 , if he folds he only has 1800 the equivlent of 36 big blinds. and he needs 60 blind sto play hsi style. but if he calls he will have 4,600 well 92 blinds which he can start playing lots of hands, use position and terrize the short stacks. .

also if he folds,, the blinds go up and he will soon be reduced to push or fold .

(poker tournament formula 1, has him pushing at 20 bb instead of 10 in fast tournies and 30 bbs when antes are introduced).

so you can see how confusing it can be, but i think there is something there for we want to have the safety of chips.

can you help ?