When playing poker I incorporate many theories into my game as most of us probably do.

I want to focus in on count of hands remaining before reality time.

It is the time when your tournament position is getting to where you are not going to raise or call preflop without pushing your remaining stack into the pot. We all know basic 10xBB and M strategy and others (if not, please research these topics, good stuff) as guides when to push. When I am in this position I am trying to calculate all the factors of chip strength along with opponent play, tournament size, pay lines and so forth. I believe an overlooked portion of these calculations is the amount of hands remaining. What I mean is how many hands do you really have until you are the big blind and can not fold due to pot odds and chip stack. I do not mean grinding down to dirt where the blind is the rest of your stack, but a time when you have run the numbers and know by x amount of hands, you are pushing. This x number is between 1 and about 15.

I believe you can look ahead to about a rotation and a half counting blind increases barring beaten hands to know if and when the last ditch effort is upon you. Sometimes this number does get down to nothing and you are forced to take the BB medicine and play what is dealt to you and push the remainder. But if you are looking ahead where you know there are only so many hands left and your M number or 10xBB is reached, your hand selections should open up in relation to your magic number(as it decreases).

The number of dealable hands left is an important factor to consider when looking at things like 10xBB and M theory (not universal M theory, poker M theory, lol). Only once you know exactly where you stand can you make the best decision for your tournament life when the, 'Chips are down'.

Thanks,