Take Ev App Poker
Online poker has been popular for at least a decade. As a result, if you type in “Poker” into any app store, you will be bombarded with several hundred options. Trying to filter out the games and finding the top training apps could prove to be a fruitless task.
To get access to EV graphs you need a poker software, like Poker Tracker or Hold'em Manager. These kinds of software can automatically transform your hand history into EV graphs (on conditions that it is saved and could be exported as a.txt file) and lots of other things. Written by Oscar Sand. Related article: EV (expected value).
- Welcome to Simple Poker! Here you can find advanced GTO poker solvers for calculating game theory optimal strategies. On our website, besides poker GTO solvers you can find packages with already calculated optimal strategies for various poker games, general information about GTO, video tutorials, tools for learning GTO and documentation.
- Preflop+ is THE best app to improve as a poker player. GTO preflop charts pre-loaded (no internet connection required) to make +EV shove, calls and rejams based on Nash equilibrium. Matt Berkey, High Stakes Cash Game Player and Founder of Solve For Why Academy says 'Preflop+ is a great tool. It takes all the Nash Charts and distills them at your fingertips.
- Download Enterra Poker Calculator and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Probably, the most useful tool for those who want to succeed in poker. Use Poker Calculator to estimate your chances to win a game, get a certain hand or to compare your chances with opponents' probability to win.
There’s a thriving sub-sector within the poker industry, offering all levels of training and assistance for your game.
We’ve done the hard work for you and put together our top 10:
BravoPokerLive
Compatible with: iOS and Android
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BravoPokerLive is a great tool to keep you on top of the latest news from the world of poker. It helps you to keep track of tournaments in your local area.
With over 100,000 downloads on Android alone, BravoPokerLive is useful for those just getting into the game and to learn about the different tournament formats.
Poker Fighter
Compatible with: Android
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If you are a complete newbie and you want to learn about the old fashioned Texas Hold’em Poker game, then Poker Fighter is designed to give you that fighting chance.
It allows you to play stimulated games with real hands, get immediate feedback from professional players, and the best part? It’s all risk free. None of your cash will be at stake in these games.
This would give you an invaluable foundation to work from as you progress into cash games.
Poker Copilot
Compatible with: Mac and Windows
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We couldn’t not put our entry in here. Poker Copilot is an app that’s designed to not only improve your own game but also highlight the weaknesses of your opponents.
One of our many advanced features is the HUD (head-up display). It shows information about each player live, on the poker tables. The information is updated after each hand to help you make the best decisions. Another is the ability to monitor and identify patterns in your game, and point out any consistent errors.
Poker Copilot can prove to be a real asset to your game and lead you to lucrative winnings.
Tournament Poker Coach
Compatible with: iOS and Android
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Tournament Poker Coach works in a similar way to Poker Fighter. It offers a risk-free way to learning how to play the right way. It stimulates real-life games and players get evaluated by selected coaches, earning rewards for each hand they play right.
This app works with a variety of tournament structures and limits, and helps to sharpen your game. Whether you’re a newcomer or just looking to refresh your skills, Tournament Poker Coach will prove useful.
PokerGuide HD
Compatible with: Android
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Poker Guide is exactly what it says it is. The ultimate guide to poker and it has six main features:
- Poker Hands: Ranks the different poker hands from best to worst. End any dispute about which hand trumps the other.
- Poker Rules: Displays the rules of a format of your choice. Whether it’s Texas Hold’em or Omaha, this guide has got your back.
- Poker Terms: Stuck on the poker lingo? Refer to this list of terms to get you up to speed.
- Poker Tips: Divided into three levels of ability, this feature will show you how to improve your game.
- Standing Hand Chart: It shows you which hands you should play with (And ones you definitely shouldn’t).
- Blind Timer: This helps you organize your next poker game at home with your mates. It sets the timing between rounds, lets you pause or speed the game, and calculates the total time of a tournament.
As you can see, Poker Guide covers most aspects of poker and can be an valuable asset for newbies and more established players.
How to Poker
Compatible with: Android
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With a rating of 4.5 from over 100 Android users, the How to Poker app is one of the most highly regarded out there. As well as a “cheat sheet,” which gives you a good overview of poker, it provides the following:
- Quick rules on hands to play and when to fold.
- Instructions for All in rules.
- Learn how split pot works.
- How does a side pot work.
- Practice offline poker, no internet required, and get yourself ready for poker online.
Suitable for both beginners and advanced players, this can be a great addition to your repertoire.
Texas Holdem Poker Pro
Compatible with: Android
(Author’s screenshot)
The appeal of this app is that you can just jump right in and play poker. With over 5 million downloads on Android alone, Texas Holdem Pro is one of the most popular apps out there. There are free tables for all levels of ability, and once you’ve had the tutorials, you will eager to test yourself against real players.
This app allows you to do just that, without the risk of losing any cash. The live chat feature also enables you to communicate with other players, where you can learn about how they think.
Combined with other poker training apps, Texas Holdem Pro can help you to step up your game.
SnapShove
Compatible with: iOS and Android
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Founded by professional poker player, Max Silver, SnapShove is a built-in calculator and training app that can answer your questions in real-time. The free version uses data from over one million stimulated games to make its calculations. There’s also a training tool where you can further improve your game.
At $19.99, SnapShove Pro offers even more features including a “Call-In” tool which advises you when to go in or to fold.
The fact it’s used by some of the world’s top poker players shows its value. This is an app that can form an integral part of your poker game.
Poker Helper
Compatible with: Android
(Author’s screenshot)
Most of the apps we have covered cater for players of all abilities. This one is for advanced players. Poker Helper is a simple, yet highly effective app that assists you in making the right decisions at the table.
You can enter any card combination and it will calculate the odds, which will help you play the right hands. It considers the full range of factors, including where you’re sitting, the blind you’re playing, and the number of players.
It’s popular with users too, with a rating of 4.2 on Android.
Poker Omaha Hand Trainer
Compatible with: Android
(Author’s screenshot)
With so much focus on Texas Holdem, which is the most popular poker game, Omaha can often get overlooked. This is where Poker Omaha Hand Trainer comes in. If you want to add a bit of variety to your game, then switching to Omaha could be the move for you.
Even the best Texas Holdem players can get thrown by the differences with Omaha. This app is designed to help make that transition easier. You can check out the rank of hands and identify the winning combinations. There’s a practice mode where you play out a game to see it for yourself.
If you’re uncertain about the intricacies of Omaha, then use this app to build your confidence.
Final Thoughts
Poker is a complex game and it should be treated as such. There’s no reason to jump in blind and lose your hard-earned cash in the process. These apps are all designed to help you learn the craft, give you tips on what to look out for, and when to play your hand. Since most of them are free, and offer practice games, it’s now easier than ever before to graduate from poker novice to a shark.
There’s a caveat here. None of these apps will win you games on its own. You need to use your own judgment to make the right calls. Of course, you won’t get it right every time but with these apps, you will start to see your profits climb.
Expected value (EV) is a way of calculating how much we stand to make in a particular situation – it can be applied to poker or in lots of areas in real life.
Table Of Contents
Expected Value Definition
The definition of expected value is the average returns we would expect from taking a particular action (.i.e betting/raising/calling).
The expected value will be based on our current pot equity and pot odds (i.e. opponents bet size) when we face a bet and is based on our equity, our betsize and our oppoents fold frequency when we bet or raise.
If we are the player making the bet, the expected value will be based on our pot equity, bet size and fold equity.
Expected Value: Real Life Problem
To take a real world example – we park our car in a city and unfortunately it costs is $5 an hour. We know we will be at least 1 hour.
We estimate that the probability that we will be caught without a ticket is 10%. The fine for not having a parking ticket is $60.
Should we buy the ticket beforehand?
Or take the chance that we will not be caught?
To solve this problem we can use expected value.
We can find the expected value by using a simple equation. For people who aren't too keen on math, don't worry, it's pretty simple.
To work out our expected value we multiply the potential gain by the probability of that gain occurring (for example saving $5 by not paying the parking ticket by 90%).
Then we must find the product of the potential loss and the probability that the loss will occur and minus this value from the first part.
We have all this information from the real life example above:
Potential gain = $5, Probability of that gain = 100%-10% = 90%.
Potential loss = -$60, Probability of that loss = 10%
The wording may be quite confusing but the expected value formula will make more sense.
Expected Value Formula
Expected value, EV = (probability of gain)*(value of gain) + (probability of loss)*(value of loss)
For our parking ticket example this becomes:
EV = (0.90)*($5) + (0.10)*(-$60) = $4.5 – $6 = -$1.5
So on average, every time we don't pay our parking ticket we will stand to lose $1.5.
This may confuse people as in no single case can we lose $1.5 – we either save $5 or we have to pay $60.
The $1.5 comes from is the average loss we will make over a long period of time. So if we did this 100 days in a row, 90 of the days we would have saved $5 each day for $450, but we would have been fined 10 times for $600 total.
Thus on average, we would have lost $150 which is $1.5 per day.
Change Variables and Find The Breakeven Expected Value Point
Using this simple calculation we can see how changing the variables affects our expected value; if it is less likely we will be caught and fined we should not pay for the ticket, that is obvious. For example, it is 1% likely that we will be caught without a ticket:
EV = (0.99)*($5) + (0.01)*(-$60) = $4.95 – $0.6 = $4.35. Therefore it makes sense to not buy a ticket for these parameters.
Intuitively that makes sense too since it is so unlikely we will have to pay $60 dollars.
If the fine cost less or the cost of parking cost more, that will increase the EV of not buying a ticket.
We can also find the point at which it becomes profitable to start not paying for tickets.
We find the breakeven point by setting the EV to zero and then find the probability that we will be caught which we have labelled as X.
This is called the breakeven point (requires some algebra):
EV = 0 = (x)*($5) + (1-x)*(-$60) => 5x-60 + 60x = 0
Therefore: 65x =60 and x = 60/65 = 92.3%.
So if we are likely to be caught greater 7.7% of the time we should buy a ticket; and if less than that we should not buy a ticket.
We can also apply this analysis to poker in situations where we know our equity pot odds, bet size and pot size.
Expected Value In Poker When Calling
To go back to the previous hand example with A9 of diamonds we had pot odds of 28% and we had pot equity of 18%. The pot odds are based on how much he bet and pot equity is based on the hands we assumed he would be bluffing with. So let’s put that all together to do an expected value calculation.
Again the expected value will be:
EV = (probability of gain)*(value of gain) + (probability of loss)*(value of loss)
The probability of gain will be our equity which is 18%.
The probability of loss will be 1-equity which is 82%.
The value of our gain will be $67.5 and the value of our loss is -$26. Subbing in:
EV = (0.18)*(67.5) + (0.82)*(-$26) = 12.15 – 21.32 = -$9.17
Therefore this will be an unprofitable call to make. That should also be intuitive since we are winning so infrequently.
Expected Value When Betting
Here is another example of when betting on the river.
We opened to 3bb from UTG and got one call from the Button. On the flop of 9h7s3s, we have an inside straight draw and two overcards so we decide to continuation bet the flop and 3c turn.
Now on the river, we have to decide whether to bet again.
Firstly we can assume that we will lose if we check this river. We only have Jack high and unless our opponent has a busted draw AND checks, we will not take this pot down.
Therefore, checking has an EV of close to zero.
So what is the expected value of betting?
Well, we need to know:
- Our bet size = $32
- The pot size before our bet = $42.5
- How often our opponent calls = ?
How often our opponent calls is dependent on a lot of factors, but taking a rough estimate, let's say he will fold 50% of the time since we have shown a lot of strength and the river is a scare card.
We then the expected value equation becomes:
EV = (probability of gain)*(value of gain) + (probability of loss)*(value of loss)
EV = (0.5)*($42.5) + (1-0.5)*(-$32) = $5.25
Therefore, betting $32 is going to be very profitable in this spot if our opponent folds 50% of the time – the reason for that: our opponent is folding too much.
He should be calling at least 57% of the time to prevent us from making an immediate profit according to the minimum defence frequency formula which we will cover in the next section.
EV = (0.43)*($42.5) + (1-0.43)*(-$32) = ~$0
This J♦T♦ example is quite simple because we are on the river and there is only one more betting round to play.
However, it gets way more complicated when trying to estimate EV on the flop or turn for a number of reasons:
- You don't know what cards will come on the turn or river
- You don't know how your opponent will react to each of these cards
- There are so many different ways the hand can be played out, it's almost impossible to work out each path by hand.
For that reason, simple EV calcs like this are usually only performed on the river and software such as Cardrunners EV is used to simulate multiple street EV bets. Although these simulations take a lot of time to set up.
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Minimum Defense Frequency
As mentioned, the minimum defence frequency is how often our opponent should call our bet to prevent us from making an immediate profit.
We can work our opponent's minimum defense frequency using this formula:
MDF = pot size / (pot size + bet size)
For the last example:
MDF = $42.5 / ($42.5 +$32) = 0.57 or 57%
Notice that increasing our bet size, decreases how often our opponent should call.
And the opposite is true too: decreasing our bet size increases how often our opponent should call.
A Quick Trick To Determine Profitability When Calling
A quick way to determine the profitability of a call without doing a full EV calculation is to compare the pot odds and our equity.
In the case of the example hand, we have pot odds of 28% and we have equity of 18%. If the equity is less than the pot odds we should not call as it would be unprofitable; conversely if we had more than 28% equity we can make the call as it would be profitable to do so.
You are not expected to do these calculations in their head while at the poker table. The purpose of the calculations is to analyse difficult hands off the table after your poker session, not during a game. This allows you to determine if you made the right decision and correct mistakes.
One of the main drawbacks of EV calculations is that you cannot perform them before the river as there are so many variables at play. We do not know what our opponent will do on future streets, will he check or will he bet? What card will come on the turn and river? If he does bet, what size will he use?
This is what makes poker such a complex game and a difficult one to solve computationally.
Despite this fact, expected value, pot odds and equity are useful in both poker and real life. So it is worth taking the time to understand how it is applied.
Expected Value Calculator
Make sure you check out this expected value calculator over at RedChip Poker:
It is extremely easy to use. All you have to type in are the three values in the above fields and it returns the expected value of that particular situation.
Here is a video which recaps the main points we covered in this lesson:
Closing Words
So that's it for our lesson on Expected Value. You should have already worked through the counting outs, pot equity and pot odds lessons before doing this so if not make sure you check them out.
You should now have a much better understanding of the math behind poker – your next step is to put it into practice and perfect it. Good luck!
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