ICM

I found ICM thrown around a few places on this forum and I have no idea what it means. I tried to look it up but failed to find anything. Could someone define and explain this to me.

independent chip model. Basically it's a method that SNG players use to figure out what their equity in the tournament is. Since the way that you buy-in and cash-out in a tournament is different than in a cash game, the chips you have in your stack are not directly proportional to a dollar amount the same way they are in a cash game. Rather, the worth of each chip changes depending on how much you have, how many players are left, how many chips they have, etc.

so I would google independent chip model for a more-in depth look, also you can check this thread: [old link~tb]

Here's a thread with an explanation and pointer to an ICM calculator:

[old link~tb]

It stands for Independent Chip Model and it basically provides a way to calculate the dollar value of your tournament chips in final table and SNG situations. The more chips you have, the less each is worth because the risk of losing them outweighs the potential reward of gaining more.

I've read up on ICM before, but I still can't get the hand of it in any way.