Dan Harrington, a professional poker player, has divided poker tournaments into five zones based on the number of chips held: green, yellow, orange, red and death. Each zone is played differently.
The green area is when M is greater than 20. The yellow zone is when M is more than 10 and less than 20. An orange zone is present when M is more than 5 and less than 10. A red zone is present when M is less than 5. The death zone is when your M is less than 1.
M is calculated by adding all ducks to the sum of the blinds and dividing the number of your chips by the resulting number. M is the ratio of your chip count to the size of the starting pot.
How to Play in Certain Poker Tournament Zones ?
Green zone. You have enough chips in this zone to play as you wish. You can play loose aggressive style, you can play tight aggressive style, you can do all sorts of poker manoeuvres. And if you lose one other hand, you'll probably still have plenty of chips.
Yellow zone. You should play more hands in this zone, as the blinds eat your chips. You should only avoid playing small pairs to catch Seth and speculative hands, as the chances of winning a big pot are slim.
Orange zone. You should play more aggressively. During this zone, you should wait for a strong enough hand or situation to double your chips.
Red zone. There should be almost no bets other than ALL IN in this zone.
Death Zone. Any high card should be good enough to do ALL IN.
