Understanding Equity in Poker

[isaac]

I feel like equity is not as much of an issue in online poker as opposed to live poker, at least the way I play, anyways. I have also had a pretty good sense of math, card counting equity, without trying too hard. However, if I cannot read my opponent the concept of pot equity goes out of the window. In the example, there is no way I am going to read both players haven't me outcarded on the current street, even if I have the long term advantage. I would almost be tempted to go counter Pot equity even if I knew my opponents cards there and not bet, due to the nature of my cards being purely of the drawing variety. Anyways, those are just my two cents.

 

[Alexandr Svinarshyk]

the article is written well, well, I like that only the mathematics and justice can not play the whole tournament. Also at the time of the tournament you need to learn the styles of opponents and their strategies.

 

[migesan]

honestly to say I've never calculated cards, I've always watched how the player played the game and so I saw whether I was better or not, many times I lost hands with better cards no matter how much on the flop was better than the rival, in my opinion it's just a theory in practice it's something completely different, and I think while I play poker I will never use any kind of thing to calculate my hands. It's good for beginners, but it intrigues me when when playing live pro players calculate how strong they are when I watch them on TV play with impossible cards.

 

[tagece]

If you want to make sure whether playing using equity works or not, just follow the lobby of a tournament, especially the micro stakes ones. It is very common to see extremely aggressive players starting very well, achieving a great advantage in the beginning. I sometimes note the names of the players who reach the top ten at the beginning of the tournament, just for curiosity. When the tournament ends, most of times they do not even appear among those who are in the ITM.
The reason for this is that a lot of people pay huge bets with backdoors or draws without considering the odds of the hand. As there are a lot of players like that, some manage to win a few hands at the beginning and achieve a very respectable stack. But in the course of the game, against more solid players, end up losing their chips in risky moves.
Knowing about odds and equity is a obligation for those who wants to play a decent poker.

 

[ssory83]

A game pack has 52 cards, of course math counts in poker. The more outs you have the better chance of improving your hand on the turn or river.

 

[Max Diver]

Math is very important for sure on Poker. Equity, to pay, raise, reraise, fold, goes all in, many factors has to be considered on each hand. Also position, how many blinds do you have, your opponents, the way they are playing...

 

[Rijckenborg]

Equity is a precious weapon to master.
I think that I used equity without knowing what its was about .
I should use it on each hand I play.

 

[milencenov]

Finally, the weekly challenge article is dedicated to a sphere, in which I feel myself more confident and experienced, mostly because of professional and educational reasons.

A very good explanation what equity really is. Also, a very good example what happens with a single "brick" on the turn, if we have strong draws, but without a made hand.


What would increase the usefulness of this article, will be an addition to that concept - you could explain how one's "perceived" equity would depend on implied odds.


For example, in the example with the flush draw+OESD, if the turn was not a brick - what would be the willingness of Players 1 and 2 to continue, if you made a flush.
And more important - you miss the flush, but hit the straight - and straights are harder to notice. So, will your opponents bet or make calls if you bet ?


This would add a lot of value to your hand.

 

[RedGnom]

Frankly speaking, I came here to you to discover yet unknown rudiments in poker for me. You have represented a very useful threads about it. The ones who follows me, may notice that my first post on the forum was about mathematics in poker:
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/learning-poker-57/poker-math-345229/
At that time, I realized that was missing something in my game since playing poker. Even being a disciplined player, I figured out that was still far from my best game. Finally, here I found what I was looking for. Thanks to CC team and members, I was able to find suitable literature on poker math, and by that time I had already read one book and read another one. Just imagine, what kind of desire arises after reading a chapter, so that all this knowledge can be put into practice! Finally, I can definitely say that I believe in poker math, its dispersion, expectancy etc. And it seems to me that the luck is a reflection of your level of poker math knowledge. Wouldn't you think?)

 

[demibar]

Equity is important of course like article mention our decisions depends on equity but also about the size of our stack how close we are to get pay,how well we have read our opponents .I try to use some of these on my play .Thanks for the article

 

[PHX]

Really nice articles for beginners. Understanting equity is parmount as all decisions we make rely on our equity or what we percieve to be our equity in a hand. Understanding our opponent's equity is also the basis of bluffing. So in general understanding equity is not just important but I would call it mandatory,

 

[albosaltenio]

really never pay much attention to the math in the game, I know that they are an important base to be a successful player and therefore I try to learn a little each day how to apply them.the article is good but I find it hard to understand it a bit so I'm going to investigate a little more.

 

[cheeeer]

Well it is useful against good players, against bad or new players it looks it doesn't help much.

 

[effece]

This article reminds me of the explanation given by Vanesa Selbt about her retirement from the professional circuit: "... nowadays in poker it is all math ..."
although equity is the mathematical evaluation of probabilities, it is DYNAMIC, so it is not perfect. the variation of probabilities in each street ends up marking a tendency in each bet and that is affected by another fundamental part in the strategy of the game as it is it the psychology of the poker.

 

[kena3000]

I have to read it again or maybe an extense article to understand about equity. I mean by more examples to practice and get into the full knowledge of the theme. It is important to dominate all math in poker in the EV game that we try to do. Importan as Pot/Odds and what are the chances to win

 

[ZARGA123]

Good, straightforward explanation. I think the most important part is:

"Strict adherents to equity would say you should bet every time you believe you have more equity, as you will win more often than you lose. But equity is an inexact science and should just be (sic) one factor in the equation when deciding whether or not to bed, fold or call."


It's important to remember that equity is ONE factor, albeit an important one, to consider in any situation. When players complain about bad beats in situations where they should never have been getting it in to begin with (due to other factors), equity is the number one reason to rationalize, justify, and complain. This, to me, is not how one should use the concept of "equity".

Knowing your equity in poker relies greatly on the ability to accurately put your opponents on a hand. As you get better at reading your opponents, the accuracy of your equity analysis will also get better.
Strict adherents to equity would say you should bet every time you believe you have more equity, as you will win more often than you lose. But equity is an inexact science and should just be one factor in the equation when deciding whether or not to bed, fold or call.
The article on equity holds true, observing and paying close attention of the players at the table and the cards they proceed to play with or fold, can always further ur insight to the range they play, thus giving yourself the chance to calculate equity How a player sitting at 5-10 tables can do this is beyond me

Understanding Equity and applying some maths to make better decisions is somehow hard but I make my equity calculation with the easiest Rules; the Rule of 4 for the flop and the Rule of 2 for the Turn so if we could have it combined to our own analysis of our opponents range this will help us to better assess and make better decisions while playing as we can not have an Odd calculator with us on each hand and we can not have all this Poker tracking systems used by online said Pros,a simple math rule could easily work for us on the flop, multiply your outs by four,on the turn multiply your outs by two.
Flop odds (Rule of Four)should be calculated according to our outs. Multiply the number of your outs by 4 and the result will be approximately our equity,if the turn card hasn’t helped our draw we can now calculate our equity by multiplying the number of outs by 2 and add 2.For Example someone holding an open-ended straight flush draw thus 15 outs with a pot of let's say 7BB could make a raise of 5BB on the flop since Equity on the flop should be around 55% favorite and if we do not hit our draw on the turn we will have less equity with only 24%-30% and now will re-assess the situation taking into consideration opponent range/profile and what image we have built during our previous hand and how he perceives us to decide either to double barrel or to check and wait for Lady Luck to put her magic miracle on the river that's how it works:help::help::secruity::secruity:

 

[cwdignus]

I know that equity is very important to the game of poker, I am not yet at a high level in understanding this subject, but my ICM training is helping me to better understand the equity issue

 

[jhunnyorcruz]

A very good explanation, really knowing about odds and equity is a very important for those wants to play poker in the correct way.

 

[VovanBaron]

Very nice and informative article. I read it very attentively and enjoyed.Math in online poker is a great part in game and more you know it -more successful you are in a long run.And it is far enough to know poker math good to beat micro limits but than psychology becomes more important.

 

[Hardhit]

It´s interesting but I don´t understand it to 100% because my english not so good

 

[RidersFan]

Equity is very important in poker. Knowing when when should be calling and when you should be folding based on your equity and pot odds I’d very useful. I don’t think equity should be a factor you use to determine when to bet, when you bet should be based upon your strategy and should diff between situations.

 

[Hackerosito]

Exact is a good point, when you think you are winning the hand and you have read your opponent, presumably the pot must control it to win your chips or increase the pot itself, in my case I like to call or lie, maybe provoking to the opponent with a check or maybe a raise with little proportion to take it to the land that I want. Interesting to manage equity.

 

[Dejange]

Very nice, educational strategy article, I must omit!

However, there is one small spelling mistake - the letter marked in red color


"Strict adherents to equity would say you should bet every time you believe you have more equity, as you will win more often than you lose. But equity is an inexact science and should just be one factor in the equation when deciding whether or not to bed, fold or call."


It seems like the author was sleepy at the time of typing the text


Now seriously, equity concept is something I am familiar with, but I do not build my game strategy around it. I put more attention on other things like opponent's style and leaks, exploiting at maximum level all opportunities, combining nit style with some bluffs, etc.
Also, I adapt my strategy upon the type of game I am playing. You would agree that MTT game is quite different from Spin & Go game, for example

 

[Tulipaneiro]

Nice Article Tammy Equity is very importand because when you calculate your equity and also have a luck you can Improve your stack. Math is easy

 

[sergik1992]

Understanding equity in poker is very big part of modern game! This article is particular necessary for new players, who want to be successful in poker. Personally I use mathematical component very often. This helps me to make a right decision in many hard situations. So, if you are sceptic and doubt that understanding equity isn`t important, I advise you to call in question your point of you! Thanks for good article!