Dollar EV ($EV) ($EV)

Also known as: Dollar EV, $EV, money EV, real-money EV

Expected value measured in real money, converting chip outcomes through ICM and the payout structure.

Dollar EV is the only currency that actually pays your bills. It takes each chip outcome of a decision, converts it to real-money equity via ICM (Malmuth-Harville) against the payout ladder, and sums the result:

\[ \$\text{EV} = \sum_i p_i \cdot \text{ICM}(c_i) \]

Because ICM equity is concave in chips, $EV diverges from Chip EV (cEV) whenever the payouts matter — near the bubble, at pay jumps, in satellites, and at final tables. A spot that is +cEV can be clearly -$EV, and the size of that divergence is captured by risk premium and bubble factor.

The discipline is simple: accumulate chips when $EV ≈ cEV (deep, early, far from money), but defer to $EV whenever the ladder is close. In a Progressive Knockout (PKO), the cash half of a bounty is realized $EV the instant you knock a covered player out.