X-post: Hypothetical variation - EV poker (kind of long)

[LCposter]

I posted this in STTF, but realized it may be more relevant here. I don't read this forum often, so I apologize if this is a repeat or this idea has been discussed before.

So I was thinking about "luck" and how often poker players make the wrong decision but get rewarded, or make the right decision but get punished. Since human learning is so heavily dependent on the reward mechanism, this incorrect feedback can cause one to learn bad habits that can take years to unlearn, if ever. Thus, a new poker variation, EV poker, to come to the rescue.

EV poker is played identically to regular hold 'em, but whenever all the chips go into the middle, the remaining board is not dealt. Instead the equities are calculated (using pokerstove or an equivalent program) and the pot is split accordingly. I think it would be best applied to a heads-up cash game or heads-up tournament, where cEV is directly related to $EV.

A little flaw some of you may have noticed: The losing player can extend the game forever by pushing pre-flop (equity is always >0). You would have to establish an endpoint (e.g. once one player has less than 1 SB, the game ends)

Note not all luck is eliminated. There is still the luck of what starting hands you get, how well the flop hits your hand, etc. But the luck of whether a correct all-in decision is rewarded or not is eliminated.

I wouldn't propose this variation as a replacement to regular hold 'em. After all, the increased skill component would probably cause the fish to lose their money much more quickly. But I think this variation has two legitimate applications:

1) As an instructional tool to assist in learning correct decision making
2) As a means of more quickly determining which of two players is more skilled (i.e. 10 heads-up EV poker matches might be as accurate in determining the better player as say 30 regular heads-up NL hold'em SNGs).

Anyway, thought I'd run this by the forum and see if anyone has thought of this or maybe even knows of such a product already available.

From a practical point-of-view, are there any circumstances where you would/should play EV poker any differently from standard NL? If your opponents all play optimal poker, then it seems the strategies should be identical, but I was thinking about playing against non-optimal opponents.

At lower limits, many opponents play too weak/tight and fold draws where they have the odds to call. Such opponents would probably (correctly) call more often in EV poker since they're guaranteed to get some chips, unless they are drawing dead. You would lose FE against such players as a result. Therefore, trying to bluff weak players off their draws with nothing could easily go from a +EV play to a -EV play. If you suspect your opponent has a draw, perhaps optimal play would be to only push a made hand (or a better draw) or only bluff the river, when the equities are fixed (100%/0%).

Can people think of other possible strategy shifts? In other words, what are common opponent mistakes we take advantage of which might be made less often due to the nature of EV poker's pot distribution?