A ratio invented by Dan Harrington to equate the number of chips in a players stack to the number chips it will cost that player to pay one round of antes and one small and big blind. For example, at a 10 handed table with 25 chip ante and 100 small blind/200 big blind a player with 5,500 chips would have an M of 10. There are 250 in antes for one full round (25 x 10). The big blind and small blind added together equal 300 total (100+200). Add these two values together and the result is 550. The next step is to divide the total chip stack (5,500) by this result (550) to obtain the M value of 10.