Quote Originally Posted by uscheese
What's "Laughing out Loud" mean?

No seriously...what's EV?
EV is the expected value of an action. Its the money (or chip) average that you expect to get out of a bet.

e.g. A game of poker with faceup cards.

You hold 4 5
I hold A K

The board is 6 K J Q

If the turn is any of the remaining 9 hearts you will win. Otherwise you will lose.

The pot is $50 and I put you allin for $10 more.

You have a 9/44 chance of winning the hand. (9 hearts with 44 remaining unseens cards in the deck).

So if you call you stand to win $60 ($50 pot + my $10 bet) 9/44 of the time for an win of

9/44 * $60 = +$12.27

Of coure 35/44 of the time your flush wont come and youll lose the $10 call for an average loss of

35/44 * -$10 = -$7.95

So the total expectated value of a call is +$4.32 (12.27-7.95) so you should call since you will make an average of $4.32 every time you do.

In poker you generally want to maximize your EV with every decision.