The Science of EV

EV refers to expected value, and it means how much you can expect to win over your lifetime with each play you make. For example, a play that has +$3 of EV means that if you make that play every time, you can expect to win $3 per play over your poker career. This doesn’t mean you’ll win $3 every time you make it, in fact, you will probably never win exactly $3. It is just a long-term calculation. Similarly, a -$3 EV play means that you will lose an average of $3 every time you make this play over your poker career.

Using EV in Practice

Often, it is enough to simply know that a play is +EV or –EV. If you make more +EV plays than –EV plays over the course of your career, provided that the value amounts of the plays are relatively uniform, you will be a winning player. Of course, if you make one -$100 EV play for every 10 +$5 EV plays you make, you will be a losing player, and have a drastic leak in your game that you need to correct.

Calculating EV

Calculating EV is often a matter of understanding your equity in a pot vs. the amount you invest to win that pot. Your percentage chance to win a pot represents how much the pot is worth to you, so if you are investing less than the pots are worth to you, you are making +EV plays. Sometimes you will have to make a rough estimate of EV. If you determine a play is +EV it is safe to make it, no matter how positive it is. Conversely, a –EV play should never be made, unless you have calculated out that it will lead directly to more +EV plays later in the session, in which case it is not really a –EV play at all.

Found an excellent article on Moving Limits as an important factor for Bankroll Management on Vincent’s Poker Blog, and decided sharing this was probably a good idea, seeing as this actually is a pretty vital concept in all gambling too.

The link: up-and-down-moving-limits-to-match-your-bankroll!

Enjoy the read!

You can cash out your winnings from an online poker account any time you like, though some are much better than others. For instance bodog are very good, 888.com not so much. So you should look at how quickly you want to with draw and how much transfers back into your bank will cost.

Making regular withdrawals will make you feel better about the days when you lose and stop you blowing all your winnings on a crap shoot because ‘it’s there’. Obviously you want to be building your bankroll but you want to see some reward to.

]You can set yourself withdrawal goals in many different ways. Some set themselves a target, say $100, and cash it out when they have made it. Others, like me, like to cash out a percentage of their profit on a weekly basis. The benefit of the latter is you will be building your bankroll as well as seeing a reward.

Records you should be keeping include the following as a minimum;

Where: the site or casino. I would also think about adding days and dates. Knowing where you play best is important. Some sites will have players that you can crush easily. Other sites will have players that can crush you.

Type of game: This is important as not every type of game will suit you. Are you better at cash games or tournaments?

The profit: Not how much you won but the real profit. Winning $100 in a tournament sounds good but if you paid $99 to enter in reality it isn’t that good.

Time played: It is easy to while away the hours. If you made $50 dollars yesterday that is good but less impressive if it took you 16 hours to do it. Honestly you are better off working in Mc Donalds

You can record all your games/sessions/tournaments in a simple spreadsheet or you can a program like Poker Tracker or Hold’em Manager to help you.