EV?

[newbie123]

Having a hard time understanding EV anyone have a good explaination?

[PokerSparky]

Plays that make you money over the long term are +EV. Plays that lose money over the long term are -EV.

[bholdr]

EV, or 'expected value' is a concept that refers to the ammount that one can expect to win or lose on a bet in the long term.

simple example: if you were to bet 1$ on a coin flip, your EV would be zero, that is, over thousands and thousands of flips, you'd ecpect to be pretty much even.

if you were to find some sucker that would lay you $1.01 to $1 on a coin flip, then your EV would be +.005 (half the time you will lose one dollar, and the other half, you'll win a dollar and a penny, for an avarage win of half a penny per flip) over say... ten thousand flips, yu'd be up very close to $50, which would be your EV for 10k flips at 1.01 to 1.

Read Theroy of Poker by sklansky for more detailed explanations on how this relates to poker.

[AmarilloJim1]

There is a good explanation of this concept in SSH as well.

[jedi]

[ QUOTE ]
Having a hard time understanding EV anyone have a good explaination?

[/ QUOTE ]

Multiply the value of any result with the probability of that result and add them up to get the expected value.

Example, Some schmo offered me a coinflip bet where I win $2 if I win, but lose $1 if I lose.

$2*(1/2)for a win + (-$1)*(1/2) for a loss = $1 - $.50 = $0.50. My expected value for this wager is 50 cents.

As things get more complicated, all you do is add more values to the equation. The problem in poker is that you don't necessarily know where you always stand in relation to your opponent. Playing KK in a hand is very +EV, unless you knew your opponent to have AA, in which case it's -EV. You can go further by calculating the probabilty that your opponent has (or doesn't have) AA into the equation, but in general, you won't be too concerned with things like that.

[flyangler]

The thing that is confusing me is the number the EV stat pages (at pokerrom for example) give for the EV. I understand the +EV means I will make money playing this hand over the long run, and -EV is the opposite. What I don't understand is the number itself... the key says "The unit for EV is average profit in big bets." Does that mean that the EV for AA, listed at +2.32 regardless of position or players, translates to 2.32 x BB? Say at a 1/2 ring game, I should only expect $2.32 in profit from AA? That can not be right. Please help!