What is “ITM”?
An abbreviation of “In The Money”, ITM is a term used in tournament poker to quantify the rate at which a poker player will make the money/cash in a tournament.
ITM% isn't a great metric for evaluating your play because it depends on a lot of factors.payout structures, skill level you are playing against, and cashing depth. If you are cashing in 20% of your tournaments but most of those are min cashes that's bad. If you are cashing 7% but nearly every one is a FT, that's good.
Benefits of ITM
Keeping tabs on your ITM poker rate means you are exercising good record keeping and on top of your cash rate. It also means you can prudently forecast how many tournaments you will cash in next month based on the number you enter. It shows you are serious about your tournament poker, keen to monitor and track your performance.
- ITM does not guarantee success in poker, staying in ITM leaves your ROI% very low, you need to play to get FT, when you get 2nd, 3rd, your ROI% increases a lot, and you win many buyin, get ITM only.
- A player in poker that either announces their actions or physically plays before their turn (checks, folds etc). Sometimes players act out of turn intentionally to get a read out of other players.
- In poker ICM allows you to convert tournament players stacks in chips into their money equity (as percentage of total or remaining prize pool). ICM can be used to perform fair chops on the final table of a multi-table poker tournament or to compare the monetary values of making different decisions within a game.
Restrictions of ITM
Calculating your ITM is great, but it is not an indication of how profitable you are. After all, you might cash most of the time but never make it past the 1st or 2nd level after cashing. This would mean you have a poor hourly and poor ROI. Tracking your ROI is far more beneficial than looking at your ITM. I recommend using both methods if you are a serious tournament poker player looking to improve.
How Do I Calculate ITM?
Calculating your ITM is easy. Just use the formula below:
# Cashes/ # MTTS entered Multiplied by 100 = ITM Rate as %
E.G 10 cashes / 90 MTTs entered x 100 = 11% ITM Rate
What is a Good ITM Rate?
I think setting a target of 20-22% is challenging but realistic enough to shoot for. If you are consistently getting above this than you are doing very well. Most MTT experts accept 15 – 20% as a decent cash rate. If you are recording significantly less than this, than you need to look at the MTTS you play and the strategy you employ.
How Can I Improve my ITM rate?
Itm Poker Definition
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Caution
Poker Sites For Us Players
Having a good ITM poker rate is awesome but it’s important to remember that the goal when playing tournaments is to make as much money as possible. If you are adopting a nitty style that eeks you into the money a lot of the time but rarely a deep run or final table, then you need to rethink your strategy. Tournaments will always reward those who finish in the highest places. To achieve this, you have to take calculated risks, steal the blinds and build a decent stack. You need to be the player taking advantage of those that are trying to survive the next level of pay and not the one that is scared to bubble or not cash. We’re here to make money not double our buy in.
If you enjoyed this article, perhaps you’d like to read our Poker Tournament Strategy, Final Tables Tips or Texas Hold’em Questions Excel Dashboard article? Do you have a dashboard yet? We produce monthly reporting to help you keep track of your winning, make more informed decisions and earn more money from poker.