When playing tournament poker there are many things you have to consider, for example; your image at the table, how your opponents are playing, size of the blinds, how many players there are at the table, the stack size of your opponents, if you are getting close to the money and the overall payout structure etc. One of the most important things to consider however is your stack size compared to the blinds and antes. Many players tend to get very impatient when they have less than an average stack, but very often there is no need to feel stressed and force the action. Dan Harrington founded a measurement that he calls M.
M = Your stack size / Small + Big blind + Antes for one round
Example: Your stack is 70k; blinds are 4k/8k with an ante of 500 and 8 players at the table. Your M is 70k / (8k+4k+8×500) = 4.4
Basically M is the number of rounds you’ll survive if you fold every hand and blind yourself out. This figure is way more important that the average stack. There is a saying in poker a chip and a chair and nothing could be more true. As long as you have chips you got a chance at winning the tournament. Therefore when playing in your next live tournament try to keep track of your M rather than the average stack size and make your decisions based on what your M is.
