New Strategy Series: The Applications of EV Calculations

Hey everybody!

For people who don't know me, I'm Jesse, and I'm the moderator of the Beginners Circle and Small Stakes NL Hold'em forums. I've been around for quite a while here at FTR, and I have a weekly strategy column that gets a fair bit of attention here. A while back, I covered a very basic way to do EV equations in my EV Calculations Tutorial series, and it got a lot of attention for providing a really accessible way for regular, everyday people to do more complicated EV calculations using only addition and multiplication. It's one of my favorite things I've done with my column because it puts a ton of power in the hands of someone who learns that particular material.

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on a somewhat related series designed to use simple EV calculations to teach some very important lessons about poker. I was surprised to find that a lot of the material I've covered is not within the typical list of things that are covered in the stickies like the BC Digest and the SSNL Digest, and whenever I get a chance to really add to what people are learning, that gets me excited. The Applications of EV Calculations series has had three parts so far, and more parts might be coming, but I'm going to need suggestions on things to cover. With that having been said, check out the parts that have been completed so far:

Applications of EV Calculations (Part 1): Dealing With Short Stacks - Dealing with short stacks can be a major pain in the ass because they can really disrupt the flow of the game if most of the other stacks are full-sized, and this is especially true pre-flop in the 3-betting/4-betting/5-betting game. In this first part, I give you the tools and models you need to handle both calling shoves and shoving into small stacks before the flop.

Applications of EV Calculations (Part 2): Bluffing Considerations - In part 2, we look at why position changes your ability to bluff profitably and why profitable bluffing happens more out of position than in position. It also looks at how your number of outs affect the EV of both bluffing and checking instead of just ignoring the checking option completely when considering a semi-bluff.

Applications of EV Calculations (Part 3): River Checking vs. Bluffing - Part 3 continues with the theme of looking at checking vs. bluffing, but it does so by looking more deeply than usual into river bluffing scenarios. One of the more interesting findings here is that the EV of checking out of position is always a certain percentage of the EV of checking in position when all other factors are equal.

I would like feedback on this series, what you're learning in it that you might not have already known already, and which direction you would like me to take it. Thanks!

I'm going to be reviewing these in their entirety. Once again, just an amazing job and a tremendous amount of effort put into this for the community. Greatly appreciated!