equity

tootallbob

when the program shows your equity of each player,how is that determined?

AllenBlay

Hi,
Equity is the mathematical % of the pot that "belongs" to you vs. your opponent. In the game, it shows the likelihood of you winning given your hand vs. the computer's estimate of the range of your opponent. When you click on the "Show Range" button underneath the equity, it will show you how it was calculated.

For example, say you were in the BB in a 9-max game with KQo and the SB raised after 7 folds. For some reason you decide to call and on a blank flop with three low cards your opponent bets 3/4 of the pot into you. The game estimates that your opponent has nothing 40%, one pair 48%, etc. In the game in the Show Range area, it will show you your likelihood of beating each of those ranges of hands (mostly a mathematical calculation), and then your overall equity. In this case, it says your equity is about 25%. Given the equity, you can compare it to the odds you are getting on the call, and start to make a judgment, likely reaching the conclusion that you aren't getting the odds to call.

That's oversimplified of course, but that's the basic idea behind what the equity % means and how you can use it. In the long run, the goal is to be able to estimate the equity % by estimating your opponent's range and knowing the odds of beating those various possible hands. If you wanted to practice that, we have a tool called "The Upper Hand", which is available in the tools and games tab, which is very helpful with that.

Thanks for asking,

Allen