Video poker: what is expected value?

The term expected value, or EV for short, appears frequently in articles and game strategies. Video poker is a game of pure mathematics, making it possible to precisely determine the EV for every play. The concept of EV is cardinal to a successful strategy for any game. So just what is meant by EV?

To put it in as simple terms as possible, the EV of any chance event is the average of all possible outcomes. When most people hear the word average they usually think of what mathematicians call the mean; that is, you add up a bunch of numbers and divide by the number of numbers. To calculate the EV, however, we must use a weighted average, not just the mean. (more…)