Thank you in advance for your constructive feedback.
Moderator: if this post belongs somewhere else, then I appreciate you moving it to where you feel appropriate.

I consider myself an "intermediate" player. I understand the concepts of #1 putting your opponent on a range of hands, and #2 determining your equity versus that range. It's #2 that I'm still a little fuzzy with (and this feels odd to be because I consider myself pretty good at math). Something is going over my head. I read about "pot equity" here and there in different poker books, but feel I need to dedicate more time to this concept to really integrate it into my play to the point that it becomes second nature.

For you players out there who consider themselves winning players - how did you best learn equity? Any particular suggestion for an author? Or post through this website? Or just grinding it out on your own? Pokerstove? I could use some guidance, thanks!

I figured ranges by playing and equity with pokerstove/my brain.

You can use an equity calculator like Poker Stove to try various confrontations and write down the results of interest for eventual memorization. There are also ‘standard’ matchups of favorite to underdog with approximate equities as follows:

Pair vs. 2 undercards 0.83
Pair vs. lower pair 0.82
Pair vs. 1 overcard, 1 undercard -unsuited 0.71
Pair vs 1 overcard, 1 undercard - suited 0.67
Pair vs. 2 overcards (race) 0.55
2 overcards vs. 2 undercards 0.63
Dominated - e.g., AK vs K2 0.73
Sandwich e.g. K7 vs Q8 0.59
Intermix e.g., KT vs Q9 0.63

This table should definitely be memorized IMO.

But, if you are not afraid of the math, it would be useful to know how to estimate equity for particular cases. We’ll illustrate the method using the above table. Suppose you had a pair of 10’s. You put your opponent on a range of 88+, AJ+. The general equity formula is as follows:

Eq = Sum over all hands Hi [ Pr(villain has hand Hi * Equity given Hi]

To get the probability villain has hand Hi, you first count the total number of combinations that are in villain’s range. We know a pair has 6 combos and an non-pair 16 combos.

So for 88+ there are 6*6 + 1 = 37 combos. The 1 is for a pair of tens, since you have TT.

For AJ+ which is AJ,AQ, AK, there are 3*16 = 48 combos, making a total of 85.

For 88 and 99 the above table tells us your equity is 82% and villain’s probability of having either of these pairs is 12/85. For TT, the probability and equity is 1/85 and 50%. For JJ+, we have 24/85 and 18%.

For the overcards, villain’s probability is 48/85 and your equity is about 55%.

Using these results in the equity equation you get an overall equity of 48,3%. If you used PokerStove, you would get 49.2%. The difference is because the above table values are approximations, but we don’t normally worry about 1% differences.

When I first started out the rule of 2 and 4 was a major help. Obv this doesn't apply to ranges but just to figure out standard equity vs a gve hand you can use the rule to a "t". It's simple. You take the amount of outs you have vs a given hand and multiply It by 4 after the flop and 2 after the turn. This gives you a general idea of your equity verse a given hand. As far as equity against a person's entire range you need to first put your opponent on a range and figure out how many different combinations of each hand in said range and then analyze equity based on those combinations. The post above gives a solid example of that.

Could someone please provide a clear cut answer to the term 'equity' in poker. our equity vs villans range? does this mean how often we have our opponent beat?

It's the average percentage of the pot you'll be owed at showdown.

You can use it in different situations, such as your example of vs a range, but that's what the term means. How often you have them beat is a decent short-hand answer but of course some pots are split and the like. If no future actions are pending another way to think of equity is the fair price of your hand at that point.

There are two main things need to know to use equity range calculations.

You need the theoretical background so that you can understand what you are doing and why, and you need to have a feel for the data.

The first you can get by reading books, and general understanding of probability theory.

The second by training your instincts to fall in line with the mathematics. Studying hands using pokerstove, even route learning of tables of hands vrs ranges and the like.

But most of all practise in game conditions. Make a habit of working out the pot odds you are getting and making a stab of the opponents range. This helps mental discipline and will pay dividends in time.

Whenever you are facing an all in call that will end the action, then all that matters is pot odds, estimate of opponents range and your feel for your hand's equity vrs his range.