The Independent Chip Model (ICM) is a game theory application that has become essential in sit-and-gos. It is best defined as a way to calculate your equity in relation to the prize pool based on the stack sizes of the remaining players in the tournament. Simply put, ICM is a way of analyzing how much your current chip stack is worth as a dollar value. At the beginning of a sit-and-go (SNG), every player begins with the same amount of chips. An $11 nine-player SNG on PokerStars has a prize pool of $90; therefore everyone at the table has a starting equity of $10. As the tournament winds down and players are eliminated, every player's equity is different. With the payout distribution at 50/30/20% for the top three finishers, knowing how much your stack is worth is crucial in determining your action during every hand. Let's say there are five players remaining in the $11 SNG mentioned above. In order to calculate the equity of each player at the table, you need to know A) their chip count and B) the payout scale of the tournament. Here's an example: Player 1: 1740 chips Player 2: 835 chips Player 3: 1585 chips Player 4: 2590 chips Player 5: ...