Well, a lot of time the equity is nearly absolute equity.
Like lets say that you have the NFD, with two cards to come. If you were to get all of the money into the center right then, your equity would be 36% so if you put 3 dollars into a 3 dollar pot, you have 2 dollars of total equity. (ish)
If that were a shove, and you figgured your opponent might fold to your shove 14% of the time, your equity in this spot is 3 dollars, or 50%. (this is assuming there is no opponent to call... it would actually be 4.50 if your opponent called.
