A while back I mentioned that I had recently read Arnold Snyder’s Poker Tournament Formula 2. In this book there were many concepts that we are familiar with. However, one concept particularly caught my attention and that is his take on Chip Utility. By definition Chip Utility is the usability or serviceability of your chips. This concept is utilized for tournament play only.

I have also talked about putting your chips into action and Chip Utility takes this concept to the next level. Basically, winning a lot of chips is always a wonderful thing for any tournament player. The more chips you have the more opportunity you have to play pots. The more Chip Utility you have allows you to play pots and bet and call draws based on your stack instead of based on Pot Odds.

One concept that Snyder talked about frequently is that playing Pot Odds was incorrect most of the time and he made the argument that Chip Utility should be your primary barometer of making the call with a draw or calling a large raise with a speculative hand against a big stack and the like. After reading this particular section it didn’t necessarily cause me to have an epiphany but it did cause me to rethink what Pot Odds are vs Chip Utility and ultimately changed how I view my chip stack in a tournament.

Having used this concept over the past week or so I can’t say that I have had any drastic changes in my results. I am still cashing in 25% of the tournaments I play with 180 players or less but I do feel as though I have a bit more knowledge and an additional edge due to the way I view my stack versus relying on Pot Odds so heavily as I used to before reading PTF2.

You also have to consider that Snyder is primarily talking about slow structure tournaments versus fast structure tournaments too. Even though this concept can be used in a fast structure tournament it is not always optimal depending on the level of aggression at your table. So, as with any poker strategy, you have to pick your spots. I will be touching on various concepts from Poker Tournament Formula 2 as time goes on. Again, it’s a great read and has excellent tournament concepts to incorporate into your game.