How to calculate effective value in hold em'

Hi Solarchick,
Welcome to PokerStrategy.com

EV (Expected Value) is a measure of the equity you have in a hand.
To calculate it you need a tool like PokerStrategy.com's free Equilab.

As an example, consider AA vs 87s
Equilab's output:

       Equity     Win     Tie
MP2    77.54%  77.37%   0.17% { AA }
MP3    22.46%  22.29%   0.17% { 87s }

If AA holds, they win 100% of the pot, but their equity was 78% so they will show to be running slightly above Expected Value,
If 87s wins, they will show as well above EV, but the player who held AA will show as well below.

All the best,
VS

Thank you for your answer, but what do you mean by equity?

Originally posted by Solarchick
Thank you for your answer, but what do you mean by equity?

This entry in the glossary explains it better than I can:
https://www.pokerstrategy.com/glossary/Equity/
There's also an entry for Expected Value that (not surprisingly) explains it better than I did.