What's an easy way to understand EV in poker?

Question

And does this term ( EV ) more directly relate to Cash games vs. Tourneys?

Answer 1

here's EV from someone who actually plays poker. :)

Expected value is the additional amount in the pot that you expect to get if you hit your outs. The easiest way to understand this is to put yourself in your opponent's shoes. Let's say there's a flop of KQJ rainbow. You have KK, and you've made trips. However, your opponent checkraises you, indicating he has a straight. You have 7 outs to a FH or 4 of a kind, so your pot odds are roughly 1 in 6. To call his bet (and continue calling after the turn) if you only look at pot odds, you need 6:1 or better to call. However, if you make your FH, you probably will be able to make more money at showdown.

If you put yourself in his shoes, and the board does pair, and you check the river, what is the largest bet you would call when holding a straight vs a possible FH?

This additional amount is called "expected value" because it is not guaranteed, and fluctuates throughout the hand. It generally goes up the stronger the opponent's hand is, and decreases the weaker his hand is.

Also, note that "expected value" is limited by YOUR total stack. If, in the example above, the check raise would put you all in, the EV is 0: you can win no more on the hand, and have to decide to call based on your read and the current pot odds.

So, the effect of EV on any game, cash or tourney, is that you can make calls with drawing hands _without_ the proper pot odds, if you know that if you hit your outs, you can make up the difference for the times you don't.

Another example:

You have a pair of deuces. The board comes down A 10 5. The first player to act is loose aggressive, and bets like he has an ace. If you hit trips on your deuce, you will nearly assuredly win, and you know he will either bet or call a bet large enough that will cover the times you don't hit your trips. In this example, you have 2 outs out of 40, or a 5% chance on the turn, or 10% chance on the turn and river combined. You can probably call a bet of up to 25% the pot (4:1) in this situation.

In other words, EV allows you to make calls that you normally wouldn't if you only used pot odds.

Answer 2

One thing that has always detured me from playing poker is the fact that the EV is so hard to realise and understand.

You EV is a number that represents the percentage of each bet that you will win or lose on average for every bet made.

It is difficult to measue in cash games because its really dependant on your skill, and the other players skill, how much peopel are betting, and how big the rake is if any.

For tourneys however it is very easy to realise.  You just take the total number of players and multiply it by their entree fees, then divide it by the amount of money in the prize pool and you are left with the portion of your entree fee, in decimal form, that you will get back on average, from there you can convert it to percent if you like.  Toureys are especially valuable if the casino gaurantees a prize amount and not enough players show up, the casino fronts the rest fo the money, and on average you win a chunk of it, all for free, just for playing in the tourny.