How PokerEV turns preflop calculations into iPhone practice
Take A9o in the small blind with a short tournament stack. Raising can have positive chip-EV while still giving up value compared with another action. A training app needs to show that difference clearly.
PokerEV is an offline iPhone app for practising tournament preflop decisions. Its reference charts contain the calculated value of the available actions. Each drill turns those values into a decision you can make, review and practise again.
A hand needs a situation
“What should I do with A9o?” leaves out most of the information needed to answer. Position, stack depth, blinds, antes and the action before you all change the decision.
In one of PokerEV’s public sample spots, eight players start with 10 big blinds before posting. Every player posts a 0.1 BB ante, the blinds are 0.5/1 BB, and everyone folds to the small blind. The pot is 2.3 BB before the hero acts.
The reference calculation gives these chip-EV values relative to folding:
| Action with A9o | EV in big blinds |
|---|---|
| Fold | 0.000 |
| Limp to 1 BB | +2.024 |
| Raise to 2 BB | +2.032 |
| All-in to 9.9 BB | +2.207 |
Raising gives up 0.175 BB compared with all-in in this particular model. That is the EV cost of the decision. It does not mean that every raise loses chips, or that every all-in wins the hand.
You can try this spot in the three-hand browser sample before downloading the app.
What goes into a reference chart
The calculations happen before a drill reaches the phone. Most of PokerEV’s reference charts come from calculations with an external poker solver, followed by processing and checks of its output. Some terminal call-or-fold decisions use equity-based arithmetic against a modelled shoving range.
The library contains more than 300 charts for selected tournament situations, including 8-max and heads-up play. It covers stack depths from 6 to 50 BB; coverage depends on the format, position and previous action.
A chart groups starting hands into the familiar 169 classes, such as AA, AKs and AKo. There are 1,326 distinct two-card combinations in a standard 52-card deck. The same starting hand can appear in many different situations, with different values for its actions.
Where the billions come in
During content research, one completed 40 BB calculation run reported about 5.01 billion solver samples. That is a measure of sampling work during the calculation. It is not a count of unique two-card combinations or charts in the app.
That particular research run was not included in the first App Store build. A completed calculation still needs to be checked, turned into training content and included in a build before it reaches players.
For the three public sample spots, the release values were compared with two existing calculation exports per spot. The highest-EV action stayed the same across those checks, although the values were not identical. Repeated calculations help check whether the preferred action holds up when the estimated values move slightly.
Turning the reference into practice
The iPhone app stores its training reference locally. It can show a tournament table and grade your choice without sending the hand to a server for a new calculation.
You see your position, cards, remaining stacks, bets and the pot. After you choose an action, the review shows the EV of the available choices and how much your choice gives up compared with the highest-EV option in that reference.
Missed spots return through spaced repetition. The app also includes opening charts to study, with additional practice tools in Pro.
What the numbers cover
These are tournament preflop chip-EV calculations. They compare decisions in chips, expressed in big blinds. Tournament payouts, bubble pressure and ICM require a different model. PokerEV does not provide ICM, postflop or cash-game training.
The values belong to the listed situation and model. They do not predict the result of a single hand or your future winnings.
Try PokerEV on iPhone
The permanent free tier includes 10 training spots a day and every opening chart to study. Practice works offline, with no PokerEV account or ads. Facing raises and all-ins is part of optional Pro. PokerEV requires iOS 17 or later.