ICM explains why tournament chips are not cash.

The Independent Chip Model estimates a player’s share of remaining prize value from stack sizes and payouts. It becomes especially important when survival and pay jumps matter.

Reviewed by the Baccaret Editorial Team · Updated August 2026

Important limitation

ICM is a model, not a prediction of who is the better player. A basic ICM calculation does not know future skill edges, position, blind pressure, table dynamics or who will make mistakes.

Three-player ICM explorer

Player A stackPlayer B stackPlayer C stack1st prize ($)2nd prize ($)3rd prize ($)

Educational model for exactly three remaining players. It is not a push/fold solver.

Why doubling your stack does not double its cash value

In a cash game, a $100 chip stack is worth $100. In a tournament, chips are claims on a tiered prize pool. Losing all chips can reduce prize equity to zero while accumulating additional chips has diminishing marginal cash value.

Where ICM pressure is strongest

Bubble situations, satellites and large final-table pay jumps can create decisions where preserving tournament life has cash value beyond immediate chip EV. That does not mean “always play tight”; large stacks can often exploit opponents who face greater elimination cost.