Hand vs a complete maniac

[IceMuncher]

[ QUOTE ]
I could be wrong here ( im trying to learn ) but I dont think we have to be ahead 32% of the time for this call to be +EV.

We can win $76.2 and loose $26

Breakeven for this EV caculation is :

(76.2* 0.26 ) - ( 26*0.74) = $0.57

If we win 26% of the times we will show a small profit by calling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah nevermind, I see what you did, you thought the pot was $50, and we called for $26, making the pot $76. You don't add the money from your call when doing ev calculations, only the money you can win vs the money you can lose compared with folding.

To illustrate this, since it's kinda hard to explain, let's say that the other player open-pushed you all-in pre-flop HU for $50. Obviously, you have to win half the time to break even, from common sense.

So, we're risking $50 (money we can lose by calling) to win $50 (money in pot before our call), so it's easily shown that we need to win 50% of the time.

(.5 * $50) - (0.5 * $50) = 0

If we included our call, as in your calculation, you'd say we're winning $100, and losing $50, so the breakeven would be 33%.

(0.33 * $100) - (0.66 * $50) = 0

I hope this helps. If not, I'll be online for about half an hour longer.