The Expected Value of a poker hand refers to the expected worth of that hand played over time.

The best resource I’ve found for EV information was provided by PokerRoom.com. They gathered data from over 122 million hands played and compiled the results. As EV is based on actual play of the participants, you’ll notice the hands here differ significantly from the probabilistic charts on LINK.

The EV makes assumptions about proper game play including pre-flop raising, continuation bets, etc. Technically, one may read the chart as: if you are dealt pocket kings (KK) at a $2/5 table, your expected return is $16.70 if you bet $10 (1.67 x $10 bet). This  calculation clearly makes a number of assumptions on callers, bet size, etc, thus ymmv.

Some interesting things to note:

1. This data reinforces what any good Hold ‘Em player knows: the majority of hands are not worth playing.
2. A2s has an EV of 0. Conservative players will tell you playing anything less than A9 suited is a poor investment. This data shows the aggressive “any suited ace” mentality is correct.
3. Pocket Jacks have a higher EV than AKs – even though many would argue AKs is a better hand. Inconsistencies like this are well illustrated by the chart.