Poker Strategy Guide
Table Of Contents
If you are looking for an article to finally understand the concept of poker equity, this is the right one for you.
In this beginner's guide to poker equity, we cover:
- what is equity in poker and why it matters
- how to calculate the equity in poker
- and a lot more.
There's also a list of the best poker equity calculators, so you can sit back and let someone else do the math for you.
Continue reading to understand why you need to master the concept of equity in poker and how you can use the best poker equity calculators to your advantage when you play online.
What is Equity in Poker?
The concept of 'poker equity' is one beginners don't like and often struggle to understand.
Not many love to think they should base their decisions on numbers or rely on a math-based approach when they play cards. After all, that's not what they expected when they first entered the world of poker.
If you are one of them, I have bad news for you:
Unless you understand what equity is in poker (and how to use it to your advantage), your results will hardly get your name featured on our articles here on PokerNews.
Winning Online Poker Strategy
- Getting through the Beginning, Middle & Late Stages. All poker tournaments have a beginning.
- Zoom Poker Strategy - The Essential Guide 2021 This is the only Zoom poker strategy guide available online that was written by a poker pro and is updated for 2021 games.
Warm Up Play Some Free-Money Hands. It is easy to play free-money (also known as play money) rounds on websites or even at home. Watch Clips or Movies of People Playing. For some players, observation is a form of meditation and whether they are. Appreciate Variance. Have you ever felt like. A lot of poker players say that how well you play heads-up is the purest indication of your true poker skill. Some pros, in fact, play heads-up poker almost exclusively. And many of the world's top cash players have a standing challenge to play anyone heads-up, any time, for any amount.
When you play poker, 'Equity' refers to your 'rightful' share of a pot as determined by your current chance of winning the hand.
If you are heads-up with $180 in the pot and your chance of winning the hand is 50%, your 'equity' in the hand at that moment is $90.
Be careful, though. The figure:
- does not refer to what you expect to win on that particular hand;
- it relates to the amount you would expect to win on average over multiple instances of the same situation.
If you think about this, you might understand why many players prefer to refer to poker equity as a synonym of 'value.'
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Play NowHow to Calculate Equity in Poker
With so many poker equity calculators out there, you might ask: 'why should I learn how to calculate the equity in poker?'
A quick tap on your mobile phone or tools like this poker odds calculator can do the math for you. In seconds.
They tell you the value, the odds, and the optimal play based on your cards.
That's awesome, right?
What they don't do, however, is tell you how to calculate poker equity. Nor they tell you how to combine all the information available to find out your chances of winning the hand.
Ultimate Poker Strategy Guide
If you want to become a good poker player, you need to go the extra mile. You need to understand what happens around you and how to calculate value when you don't have any third-party help available to do the (dirty) work for you.
The following example shows you a real-life poker situation and introduces you to a simple way to calculate the equity in poker.
A Real-Life Example
In a no-limit hold'em cash game, you reach the flop in a heads-up pot. The board shows .
Betting on the flop between you and a single opponent results in you being all in with the pot totalling $200.
- You turn over for a straight flush draw.
- Your your opponent has
Sadly for you, your opponent has the best hand at the moment, with a pair of aces beating your almost straight.
But not all is lost. As math shows, you have an excellent chance to be the one taking down the pot.
Even though your opponent is currently ahead in the hand, he is only a little under 44% to win the hand thanks to all of your possible outs.
You, on the other hand, are just over 56% to win.
How Did We Calculate Poker Equity?
Your equity is calculated by applying the percentage chance of winning to the amount in the pot — here 56% of $200, or $112 of equity.
Meanwhile, your opponent's equity is $88.
(Of course only one of you will win the entire $200, depending on what the turn and river bring.)
How to Use Poker Equity When You Play
In the example, we calculate poker equity exactly after the cards were tabled, but when involved in a hand you must estimate your equity in a given pot based on your read of how your hand rates versus the hand strength of your opponent(s).
Say in that example your opponent was usually very tight and had three-bet you before the flop, then led with a bet on that flop.
Given how the player has been playing, you believe it's very likely he holds a strong hand like pocket aces or pocket kings.
Knowing that you have such a strong draw and have more equity here than those hands (or indeed, than most hands), you can call or raise his flop bet.
That said, your equity can change as a hand proceeds.
Say you reach the turn in this same hand with the board showing .
With just one card to come to complete your draws, your equity versus pocket aces or pocket kings has dropped to only under 30% of the pot, which might make it difficult to continue if your opponent bets and the resulting pot odds aren't favourable.
Sometimes you'll hear players say that when short-stacked in a tournament they'd instead go all-in with a hand like than with , because if they are called they are likely to have more 'equity' (i.e., a better chance of winning the hand).
If called by a player holding , is almost 41% to win while is less than 27%. And if called by , is actually a little over 50% to win while is only about 30%.
Consistently correct decisions based on equity considerations over the long term significantly increase the likelihood of being a winning player.
Read Also: How to Play Poker. A complete collection of poker rules (and strategy tips). Use it to discover new poker games or master the ones you already know.
Poker Equity Calculators
Now that you know what is poker equity and how you can calculate it yourself, it's time to look at the best calculators available in 2020.
You should use a poker equity calculator:
- As you play: to understand your chances to win a pot
- When you review your game: to evaluate the decisions you made and learn from your mistakes
- When you examine other players' hands: to reverse-engineer their thinking process and get inside their head
In the list that follows, you find the best poker equity calculators to use in 2020 — both free and paid. Have a look at them, find the one that matches your need, and use it to bring your game to a different level.
PokerNews poker equity calculator (Free)
If you are looking for a free poker equity calculator, launch the PokerNews one and use it to recreate any scenarios you lived at the table.
The current calculator is in Flash is due to be replaced by an enhanced and all-new version in the first half of 2020.
Once that happens, you'll have on that page the best poker equity calculator in the industry. Use it to calculate your odds, value, and a lot more. No subscription needed.
Poker equity calculator Holdem Lab 2 (Free)
This handy Android app is one of the most popular Equity calculators on the Google Play Store.
The app claims to be 'the most complex' equity calculator for Android, and despite a few tiny flaws, it is indeed one that will help you improve your game.
Download the Poker equity calculator Hold'em Lab 2 Android to access features like:
- free poker equity calculator
- accurate odds calculation
- range filtering
- hands history
- and many more.
This Equity calculator app has lots of positive reviews on Google Play, and it is available for free download.
Preflop + Poker GTO Nash Charts (Free / $74.99)
Although one should always doubt the apps that claim to be 'THE best app to improve as a poker player,' Preflop + is a great one to download on iPhone, iPad, and Android.
This poker app was developed by high-stakes pro Matt Berkey and is backed by 2019 WSOP Circuit Ring winner Lara Eisenberg.
Preflop + is more than just a poker Equity calculator as it gives you also different training modules improve various aspects of your game.
Once you access the different areas of Preflop +, you get to calculate your poker equity or train for particular spots and situations.
While this is one of the best apps of its kind, it is also one you need to pay for.
Using all the features of Preflop+ and therefore gaining access to the entire training program requires a subscription.
At the time of writing, the plans available are:
- Monthly: $3.99/month
- Yearly: $31.99/year
- Unlimited: $74.99 - unlimited access, forever
If spending $75 only poker app is not a problem for you, we recommend you try this one and make it an essential part of your poker training.
Flopzilla ($25)
Flopzilla has been around for more than ten years and is one of the few poker tools that almost every player have used at least once in their life.
While the graphics look more basic than those of the most modern poker equity calculator apps, Flopzilla is a sound alternative — provided you are looking for a desktop-based option.
Omaha Poker Strategy Guide
Besides the super-fast access to useful stats, one of the aspects of Flopzilla that we love most is the involvement of the developers in the poker community.
The Flopzilla official thread on the 2+2 Poker Forum is always very active. It is the perfect place to discuss results, ask questions, and develop new customisations of the tool.
One Flopzilla license costs $25 and gives you the right to install the software on two computers.
Flopzilla's official website states that this poker equity calculator can be installed only on computers owned by the same person.
Different individuals cannot share the same license.
You can purchase the $25 license via PayPal, Skrill, credit card, bankwire, iDeal, and a few other payment solutions.
Poker Cruncher (Free / Paid)
If you want to take your game the next level and you are ready to invest in a tool that will help you achieve your goal, have a look at Poker Cruncher.
Available on iPhone, iPad, Android, and Mac (via a dedicated app on the Mac App Store), Poker Cruncher is one of the few must-have applications that most beginners should consider purchasing.
Extremely useful for a correct poker odds calculation and hand analysis, Poker Crunches offers different paid plans — all unlimited.
Best Poker Strategy
At present, the plans are:
- Advanced iPhone: $12.99
- Advanced iPad: $17.99
- Advanced Android: $12.99
- Expert Mac: $44.99
- Basic iPhone: $3.99
- Basic Mac: $7.99
- Free iPhone:free
Please note that all apps are sold separately. E.g. if you buy the iPhone version of this poker equity calculator, your purchase does not include access to the iPad or Mac apps, and vice-versa.
Poker Equity F.A.Q.
When you play poker, the concept of 'equity' (also: 'value') refers to the part of a pot that is 'yours' as determined by your chances to win the hand ('odds') at a precise moment in time.
The simplest way to calculate the equity (or value) in poker is by applying your % chance to win the pot to the amount in the pot in a specific moment. For a more detailed explanation, look at this example.
Yes. You can use a free poker equity calculator for a quick analysis of a hand, or you can try a paid one to get more insights on your play. This list of poker equity calculators gives you all the top free and paid options in 2020.
About this article
This guide to poker equity includes a collection of tips that appeared on different PokeNews articles between 2003 and 2020.
A great thanks go to Neil Gibson for his Talking Poker: Equity (2015), for the example in this article, and for giving us a way to create this basic guide to equity in poker.
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I am really glad that you found my easy to follow complete Texas Hold’em strategy guide where we will cover the basics as well as advanced concepts on how to play poker. The four-part tutorial is designed to benefit beginners, intermediate players, and even advanced players. No matter what your background, this guide will help you sharpen your skills with the end goal of making you a big winner in your chosen game.
I have been playing and teaching poker for over 10 years and know how difficult it can be to find useful information that actually leads to winning money at the game. My strength has always been in breaking down the game into simplified and easy to understand elements that optimize the speed at which anyone improves at poker. It is my belief that anyone can become an elite poker player with a bit of knowledge and hard work.
First, we need to establish the entire reason we play poker.
What Is Poker and What Is the Object of the Game?
You may be wondering why I would even bother to define something that might seem really obvious to anyone reading this guide.
The reason is that the vast majority of people who sit down at a poker game really don’t understand what they are trying to accomplish or what the object of the game truly is.
- They may think it’s all about making a better hand than your opponent or winning some giant pot with their monster hand.
- Others may believe that the “secret” to winning is to know when to orchestrate a well-timed bluff or figure out your opponents’ tells so that you can spot when they are bluffing.
On all accounts, everything that thinks these things is completely off base. Let’s establish the object of the game and what should be at the forefront of every decision you make at the poker table. That information will allow us to hone in on a formal definition for poker.
So, what is the object of the game in poker? The object of poker is to win more money or chips than your opponents over your lifetime by consistently making better decisions than them at every possible decision point.
That’s it.
So here’s the formal definition of poker: Poker is a family of card games where individual players compete to see who can win the most money or chips over the long term.
Ultimately, your goal as a player should be to figure out how to win more money. In this guide, we will focus on Texas Hold’em since it is the most popular game today. However, many of the concepts we will discuss will be relevant for any variant of poker you choose to play.
The Goal of This Guide
The mission of this guide (and website) is to expedite your journey toward mastering all the simple and complex concepts of poker so that you can become the best player you can be. Unlike other poker tutorials, I am not going to spend a bunch of time telling you what hands to raise, what to 3-bet, when to c-bet, etc. Each of those topics could fill an entire book. Besides, there are hundreds of articles, books, forum posts out there that go into the minutiae of that information in depth.
Instead, my objective is to provide a solid fundamental and theoretical foundation that allows you to comprehend poker strategy in a more efficient way. Basically, I want to teach you the proper mindset and give you the fundamental knowledge that allows you to maximize your potential. Once you understand the basics of how to win money in poker, building a strategy around that core goal becomes much easier. Put another way, if you don’t understand the information in my guide, learning poker would be like playing golf with a blindfold.
Who This Guide Is For
I wrote this tutorial for everyone. Whether you are new to the game, are a struggling intermediate player, or even an advanced player this guide has something for you. Beginners will benefit from obtaining all of the basic knowledge that I wish I had when I started over 10 years ago. Intermediate players will likely find a few things that they might have missed along the way. Advanced players will sharpen their skills by getting back to basics as a refresher course.
Whatever your background, this guide will help you either build or rebuild a poker game that is firmly based on sound fundamentals and theory. Once you master all of the concepts I have laid out for you, the rest all comes down to adjusting to your opponents. Your ultimate level of success in Texas Hold’em, or any other poker variant, depends on how well you adjust your strategy based on what other players are doing at the table.
What Format Will I Learn to Play?
This guide will focus on teaching you to win at Texas Hold’em cash games. Even so, the knowledge you will gain here will have relevance for any game format you choose. After all, cash games are the purest form of poker since there are no prize pools or ICM concerns to worry about. Mastering the information here will make you a beast in whatever game you choose to play. There is a reason cash game specialists are the best players in the world.
Why Should I Trust You to Teach Me Poker?
Because I actually win big at poker. I am not some famous “poker star” or someone who travels to the World Series of Poker every year. I am just one of many poker professionals who you have never heard of that plays poker as a side hobby instead of as a career.
The best thing is that I have been grinding the stakes that everyday players, like you and me, play right now in the real world. I know how the games run from 2NL all the way up to 600NL. I can teach you how to crush those games because that’s what I have been doing for years. I also am a winner in MTTs, SNGs, and even have won over 100 local live pub poker events. No matter the format, I can help you play better.
If you want a brief history of how I got started in poker, check out the about page. Or, if you prefer to see it with your own eyes, I have a ton of content on YouTube that shows me playing and talking through hands. In 2017 I completed something called the Spare Change Challenge, where I took some loose change from around the house and ran it up to $4,000 in about 70,000 hands. During that span, I also took first place in a small stakes MTT for $1,800 and had an ROI of 150%. By the way, the picture at the top of this page is one of my graphs.
What You Will Learn
For ease of navigation, I have split up the guide into 4 parts:
- Part 1: Basic Rules of Texas Hold’em Gameplay
This part is for people who are either complete beginners or need a refresher on how exactly the game is played. If you an intermediate player and already have a firm grasp of how to play Texas Hold’em, you may skip to part #2. - Part 2: Basic Poker Fundamentals & Theory
In this part, we cover the basics of poker strategy and fundamentals as well as where the money comes from in poker. - Part 3: Fundamentals of Advanced Poker Theory
The goal of part three is to start bridging the gap between the fundamentals of poker and how we use that information to formulate a winning strategy. - Part 4: Building Your Poker Strategy
Once you understand the basic fundamentals and theory, it’s time to create a core “vacuum” strategy that will serve as the foundation for all of your play. We will also discuss the mental side of poker and how to study and improve your game going forward.