In general, equity is your expected value when you would run the same hand infinite times. In probability theory, we take the calculated chances as truth in a scenario where the event is repeated infinitely. In poker, your equity or expected value can be calculated by taking your chance of winning and multiplying that with the value of the pot. In poker ICM allows you to convert tournament players stacks in chips into their money equity (as percentage of total or remaining prize pool). ICM can be used to perform fair chops on the final table of a multi-table poker tournament or to compare the monetary values of making different decisions within a game. Your equity at a poker table is defined by the skill of your competition in relation to your skill. For example, let's say there are 8 other players at your $5/$10 no limit holdem table. Two of them are big winners and they each win about $10 per hand in the long-run. Three players are basically break-even players. Equity definition is - justice according to natural law or right; specifically: freedom from bias or favoritism. How to use equity in a sentence.

• Poker Equity Definition Meaning
• Poker Equity Definition
• Poker Equity Definition Us History
• Poker Equity Definition Dictionary

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The term equity simply refers to the value of an item, place or thing minus any liens owed or interest by other shareholder's.

The most common example would be the equity one might have in their car or home. Say, for example, that you have a home that is worth $500,000 and you owe the bank $350,000 before you actually own it. The difference of $150,000 between what you owe and what the house is worth would be your 'equity.'

Equity in poker isn't any different. A player's equity is defined by the strength of their hand in comparison to the other player's hands that are involved in the pot. And just like a home, where the value can change overnight thus changing the equity the homeowners have, a player's equity in a hand can change just as quick due to variables such as seeing another card or a player entering or leaving a pot.

Poker Equity Example

To actually be able to accurately calculate your equity in a hand, you're going to need to be able to put your opponent(s) on a range of hands and asses how that range has connected with the flop, turn and river. You have do use a range because you obviously cannot put your opponent on only two cards. However, for the purpose of this article, we'll assume that our opponent is actually playing his hand face up to make the idea of equity in poker much easier to understand.

In this example, we are in a heads up pot with 5/10 blinds and we both have $100 stacks. Our hand is AJo and our opponent's hand is KQs.

We'll first look at the equity of these two hands from an all in preflop perspective. To figure out how much equity we'll have, we'll use a tool such as Poker Stove to figure out how often we expect to win with our AJo.

Poker Equity Definition Meaning

• AJo will win 56.08% of the time and lose to KQs 43.44% of the time.

Once we have that data, figuring out our equity is simple. You simply take the amount of money that is in the pot and multiply it by the number of times you expect to win. Since we both have $100 stacks and are all in, the pot is now $200. Here is what the equity calculation would look like.

• .56 * $200 = $112

If you include the money that we gain from when we tie (.24% = $4.80), you'll see that we have approximately $116.80 in equity when we are all in preflop. What this means is that getting our stacks in preflop with AJo against KQs is going to be +EV earning us $0.16 for every dollar we invest.

Now, let's take the hand further and say we saw a flop of A-J-5 rainbow giving us two pair. All of a sudden, we go from having a little bit of equity to having tons of it. To figure out exactly how much, once again, we will use Poker Stove.

After you plug the numbers in, you'll see that we are more than a 4-1 favorite to win this pot. To be exact, we will win 81.86% of the time and lose 18.13% of the time. There are no possible ties.

To calculate our equity here, we do the same thing as above. We take how often we are going to win and multiply it by the amount of money that is in the pot. Here is what the equation would look like assuming stacks went in on the flop.

.818 * $200 = $163.60

As you can see here, getting our money in on the flop as an 80% favorite is excellent. We have $163.60 in equity - this is equal to earning $.68 profit for every dollar we invest.

But let's turn the tables now. Remember that I said that equity could shift quickly due to another card being dealt. With that in mind, we'll say that we saw a turn which was a ten and completed the rainbow (no flushes possible). This is the worst possible card in the deck for our AJo because it gives our opponent a straight and leaves us drawing slim. How much equity do we have now?

Well, after running the numbers in Poker Stove, you will see that we are only 9% to win and 91% on average to lose. Here is how much equity in the pot we now have.

.09 * $200 = $18

With the change of one card being dealt, hopefully you can now see that we went from having a whopping $163.60 in equity to having only a measly $18 in equity - we're now losing money in the long run.

Why Learn About Poker Equity

Learning about poker equity is important because as you can see from our example above, you want to try to get your money in when you are ahead (have equity) and minimize how much you invest when you are behind (little to no equity). This is also known as getting value for your hand and/or charging for draws.

Using the example above, we had the best of it with 2 pair on the flop and were over 80% to win. So in this case, you want to be getting as much money into the middle as possible as 80% equity is a substantial amount of money over time. In addition to value, we knew our opponent had KQ and was drawing to a straight. So betting on the turn also charges the villain to draw incorrectly to a better hand. After all, we don't want KQ to improve and take our equity without having to pay to do so.

Summary of Poker Equity

In short, having an understanding of equity is important because if you can identify situations where you are ahead, behind or somewhere in the middle, then you can make your betting decisions accordingly. This is simply known as maximizing your wins while minimizing your losses.

Pot odds and pot equity are similar concepts, but there is an important distinction. Pot odds are a simple calculation players use to help them determine if they are getting the correct odds to call a bet. Pot equity calculations, on the other hand, reveal how much the player’s hand is worth as a percentage of the pot, based on the percentage of time that player will win the pot.
POT ODDS
Put quite simply, pot odds are the ratio of pot size to bet size. If player “A” bets $1 into a $9 pot, player “B” would be forced to call $1 in an attempt to win a $10 pot (the $9 pot plus the $1 player “A” bet), and therefore would receive pot odds of 10 to 1. In this example, we have established that pot odds of 10 to 1 exist for player “B,” but we have not yet determined if player “B” has the correct pot odds to make the call. That depends on the number of outs player “B” has. To determine this, we need to divide the total number of unknown cards in the deck by the number of outs player “B” has. This will give us a ratio we can easily compare with the odds the pot is yielding, which we already have established is 10 to 1. Let’s say we are on the turn, in a Holdem game, and player “B” has 8 outs. He can see the four cards on the board and the two in his hand, leaving 46 unknown cards in the deck. As far as player “B” is concerned, he has odds of 46 to 8 against making his hand on the river, which reduces down to 5.75 to 1. To find out if player “B” has pot odds to make the call, we simply compare ratios. Player “B” is getting pot odds of 10 to 1, but is only 5.75 to 1 against making his hand. Clearly, in this situation, player “B” has pot odds to make the call.
But what if player “A” knows that he has the best hand, and does not want player “B” to have pot odds to draw out on him? Obviously, player “A” cannot do anything about the odds (5.75 to 1 against) that player “B” will make his hand. What player “A” can do, if it is a no limit, pot limit, or spread limit game, is adjust the size of his bet, which will effectively reduce the odds the pot will yield. Imagine that in the example above, Player “A” bets $3 into the $9 pot instead of betting only $1. Now player “B” would be forced to call $3 to try to win $12, for pot odds of 12 to 3, which reduces to 4 to1. Remember, player “B” is 5.75 to 1 against making his hand, but he is now only getting pot odds of 4 to 1. Now, player “B” is not getting the proper pot odds to make the call. This brings us to a crucial point. The amount player “A” chooses to wager has a dramatic impact on whether player “B” receives the proper pot odds to call.
The question then becomes, is there a correct amount for player “A” to bet, and how much is that amount? To answer this, we should consider the incentives of player “A.” Player “A” wants to maximize his profit from player “B.” He has player “B” in a tough spot, at 5.75 to 1 against to win the hand. The absolute worst thing player “A” can do is check (unless he is going for a check raise). He wants to force player “B” to put some money into the pot, as the odds are in his favor that he will win it. While betting anything will yield a better outcome than checking, player “A” must also consider the pot odds he is giving to player “B,” when deciding on how much to bet. If he gives player “B” the correct pot odds to make the call, he allows player “B” to make a call that is profitable, over the long run. This is profit that Player “A” could have kept for himself if he had only bet enough to keep player “B” from calling with pot odds. So, we have established that Player “A” shouldn’t check, and he also shouldn’t bet so little that player “B” has pot odds. If player “A” bets $1.74 ($10 divided by 5.75), the approximate amount which yields pot odds of 5.75 to 1, it would not matter to player “B” if he called or not, because he would get 5.75 to 1 on his money, but would be 5.75 to 1 against making his hand. This would result in a break even scenario for player “B” over the long run. This bet would be sufficient to keep player “B” from making a profitable call and prevent him from usurping any equity from the pot, but it would also deprive player “A” from making any return on his wager. Remember, player “A” is a 1 to 5.75 favorite, and as such, would like to get as much action as possible from player “B.” So the answer to how much player “A” should bet is: as much as he thinks player “B” will call, but not less than $1.75, and not so much that player “B” throws his hand away. If player “A” can accurately predict the maximum amount player “B” will call, he can maximize his profit.

Poker Equity Definition

You can see that pot odds are a concern of both the bettor and the caller. This is especially true for pot limit and no limit play. In these games, the bettor can control the pot odds their opponents receive by adjusting their bet amounts. In limit games, the bet amount is fixed, which prevents the bettor from manipulating pot odds in this manner. Even so, bettors do manipulate the pot odds in limit games quite frequently by raising. One reason players commonly raise on the flop in limit games is to knock out the players behind them and to isolate the bettor. The reason raising works as an isolation play is because it reduces the pot odds for the rest of the field, thereby reducing their incentive to call.
POT EQUITY
Similar to pot odds is the concept of pot equity. The best way to understand pot equity is to think about the pot as a financial instrument, and the players who are involved as a group of investors. The players own the pot in the same way a group of investors own a financial instrument. They share ownership, with each owning a percentage, called equity. In a poker game, each player with a live hand has a chance to win the pot if they catch the right cards, unless they are drawing dead. This means that each player has a vested interest in the pot, which we call “equity.” We know that each player will catch the cards they need to win the pot a certain percentage of the time, and that their winning percentage is based upon the number of outs they each have. The percentage of time that each player will win the pot can also be thought of as that player’s ownership share, or equity, in the pot. Both pot odds and pot equity calculations are simply ways of telling you how much the pot is worth to you.
Both pot odds and pot equity are straightforward calculations, based on specific inputs. Pot odds are a ratio of pot size to bet size. In mathematical terms, that ratio is SP : SB, with SP = Size of the pot, and SB = Size of the bet. Pot equity is derived from the probability a player will win the pot. That formula is a*b=E, with a = probability of winning, and b = size of the pot, and E = Equity in the pot.
While pot odds and pot equity calculations are useful tools in the tool bags of winning players, there are limitations to their usefulness. These limitations are due to the fact that we are only considering a limited amount of information in these calculations, and are using them as a basis for deciding how much we should be willing to bet or call. Often, we have more information than the basic inputs used in pot odds and pot equity calculations. This additional information is often highly relevant to our decision making process, and we need a framework for considering it. For this, we use implied odds.
See also: Fold Equity, Equity

Poker Equity Definition Us History

Poker Equity Definition Dictionary

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