Tools / Poker Stack Calculator
Poker Tournament Stack Calculator
Turn a chip stack into the numbers tournament decisions are actually made with: big-blind depth, the effective stack against one opponent, the cost of an orbit, and the M-ratio. Then see the same stack re-measured at the next blind level.
30bb stack, 18bb effective, M-ratio 12, 2,500 chips an orbit
Current level
Next level (optional)
Only the blinds and antes a level change moves. Leave all three blank if the next level isn't posted yet.
Chart lookup
Which solved charts to compare against. Nothing above changes with these.
Your stack
30bb deep, 18bb effective
Depth in big blinds is what solved charts are keyed by. M-ratio counts orbits, not big blinds, so the two disagree the moment antes enter the pot.
- Stack depth
- 30bb
- 30,000 ÷ 1,000 big blind
- Effective stack
- 18bb
- 18,000 chips: the smaller of the two stacks
- Cost per orbit
- 2,500 chips
- 500 + 1,000 + 1,000 big-blind ante
- M-ratio
- 12
- 30,000 ÷ 2,500 chips an orbit
If your stack stays unchanged
Blinds and antes are the only thing that moves here. Your chips are held still, which is what makes this a hypothetical: the same 30,000 chips re-measured at the next level, with no hand played in between.
- Stack depth
- 20bb
- 10bb shallower
- Effective stack
- 12bb
- 6bb shallower
- Cost per orbit
- 3,750 chips
- +1,250 chips per orbit
- M-ratio
- 8
- 4 fewer
How it works
Four numbers come out of five inputs, and every one of them is a division you could do on a phone calculator:
stackBb = heroStack / bigBlind effectiveStack = min(heroStack, villainStack) effectiveBb = effectiveStack / bigBlind orbitCost = smallBlind + bigBlind + antes M = heroStack / orbitCost
Antes are counted the way your table posts them. No ante adds nothing. Per-player adds the ante once per seat, so the number of players is part of the sum. A big-blind ante is added once, by the big blind, replacing the antes the other seats would otherwise post - which is the entire point of the format, and the reason it is not multiplied by the table size.
The effective stack is the smaller stack, not yours. With 30,000 chips against a 18,000 opponent there are only 18,000 in play, so that is the stack the hand is played for. Your M-ratio still uses your own stack, because it answers a different question - how long your chips survive the blinds - and mixing the two would quietly understate it.
The next level holds your chips still. Blinds and antes go up; your stack does not move. That makes the comparison a hypothetical rather than a forecast, and it is the honest way to answer "what will this stack be worth next level" without predicting how many hands you will play.
Big-blind depth and M-ratio are different measurements
Both are ratios of your stack, and they answer different questions, so a big-blind ante pulls them apart. Depths in big blinds are what solved push/fold charts are keyed by - pick a depth and you get one chart - while M is how many orbits of blinds and antes the stack pays for. Only the second one includes the ante and the small blind.
- Stack depth: 30,000 ÷ 1,000 = 30bb
- Effective stack: min(30,000, 18,000) = 18,000 chips = 18bb
- Cost per orbit: 500 + 1,000 + 1,000 big-blind ante = 2,500 chips
- M-ratio: 30,000 ÷ 2,500 = 12 orbits
- Next level at 750/1,500 with a 1,500 ante: the same 30,000 chips are worth 20bb (12bb effective) and an M of 8, because an orbit now costs 3,750 chips.
Same chips, two answers: 30bb of depth but an M of 12. A big-blind ante widens that gap by adding to every orbit without changing the big blind, which is why a stack that looks comfortable in depth terms can be shorter in M terms than it feels.
What this calculator does not do
- It does not hand out strategy by zone. Knowing a stack is 12 orbits deep is an input to a decision, not the decision. Nothing here changes a range based on a stack-depth band; the charts it links to are solved per big-blind depth, which is the measurement they were solved on.
- It does not predict a blinds increase. The next level uses the numbers you type, because hand lengths, table speed and structure are not in this calculation.
- It does not model payouts. Chip depth and ICM pressure are different things: near a bubble, the same stack is worth less in chips than in tournament equity. That needs the ICM calculator, not this one.
- It takes one opponent at a time. Multiway, each opponent has their own effective stack against you; enter them one at a time rather than averaging the table.
Where to go next
The stack depth this tool reports is exactly what the push/fold calculator is keyed by, so the nearest-chart link above opens a real solved range rather than a guess. If you want the range rather than the arithmetic, the printable chart pack covers every published depth in one document, and the effective stack guide works through why the shorter stack - not yours - sets what is actually in play.
Common questions
- How is a big-blind ante counted?
- Once. A big-blind ante replaces the antes every other seat would post, so it is added to the orbit cost a single time no matter how many players are at the table. Choose the per-player mode instead if your table has antes in front of every seat, and the calculator multiplies the ante by the number of players you enter.
- What is the effective stack here?
- The smaller of your stack and the one opponent's stack you enter, because neither player can win or lose more than the shorter stack has in front of them. It is not your own stack. Against several opponents the effective stack differs hand by hand, which is why this calculator takes one opponent at a time rather than averaging them.
- What assumption does the next-level output make?
- That your chip stack does not change. No hand is played between the two levels, so the only thing that changes is the cost of an orbit and how many big blinds your chips are worth at the new blinds. Real stacks move; treat that section as the arithmetic of a blinds increase, not a prediction of your stack.
- Why does M-ratio differ from big-blind depth?
- Because they measure different things. Big-blind depth divides your stack by the big blind alone; M-ratio divides it by every chip one orbit costs, including the small blind and antes. In the example above the same stack is 30bb deep but only an M of 12, because a 2,500 orbit is more than double one big blind.
- What does 'nearest chart' mean, and why not interpolate?
- A solved chart exists for specific stack depths, and a range at 13bb is not a blend of the 12bb and 15bb ranges - the solver chose, hand by hand, which of those two to shove. So the calculator names the closest depth that really is solved, says how far away it is, and links to that chart. When two depths are equally close it offers the shallower one, which is the more conservative of the two.