....because I'm starting to think that it's not as important as I originally thought it was. And I think that coming to this realisation has plugged a very big leak in my tournament game.

I've recently noticed that I start to panic when my Q reaches around 0.5. Usually when my Q is this low, my M is around 7-9. I know that he talks about how M is more important than Q but I never really knew just how important Q actually was or how I should allow it to affect my game.

Last night I realised that I was probably letting it affect me too much. I noticed that a lot of the tournaments I was doing well in were ones where I was in the bottom 10 for the last 3 or 4 tables. So I've stopped making moves inspired by panic (unnecessary aggression, loose calls) and it seems to be working so far.

So, just how important is Q? How much do and/or should you let it affect your game?

What the heck is Q & M?

Tournaments:
Q= your stack/avg. stack
M= your stack/blinds+1 round of antes

Q is extremely important, especially in online and local casino tournaments because of the fast structures. For example, if I'm ITM and I have an M around 6, but my Q's a bit over 1 which is not uncommon in these MTT's when the play starts to severely tighten, I'll be more aware of my table conditions than doubling up because a lot of people have shorter stacks than me and are more probably to bust before me making me less desperate.

In turn there are those times early (around when the antes begin to kick in) where you have an M around 12, but a Q around 0.75 or so. In these cases, I'll play a more aggressive game to get my head above water because people with bigger stacks are chipping up.

M is your strength and Q is your weakness in relation to the field. In these really fast SnG's, you can have a Q around 1.25 and have an M only around 5. This means that the shorter stacks are extremely weak, though you are, too and will probably bust within the next orbit unless they get lucky.

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