Does anyone know of a way to determine theoretical expected values for all of the starting hands according to the number of players yet to act? For example, let's say I am dealt AKo with 8 people to act after me. I realize this is a strong starting hand and I should be opening with a raise, but I'm just curious if there's a mathematical technique for determining the EV in $

To make things simpler, assume there are no blinds, I will always raise all-in with AKo, I will always get one and only one caller, and everyone at the table has the same stack size of $100.

Seems to me there should be a technique for calculating the EV of this, but I can't put my finger on it...

I would say the EV of shoving $100 with AK and no blinds is very negative. I would only call with AA. It doesn't cost me anything to sit there, so I'll just wait until I have a really good hand to call.

Hint: Blinds are what make poker happen.

Your question is easily answered IF you can specify the strength of the calling hand. Against a top 5% hand AKo is a 46:54 underdog. Against a top 10% hand it is a 57:42 favorite; for a top 20% calling hand, AKo is a 61: 38 favorite. Against a random hand, AKo is a 65:35 favorite. These odds are from Poker Stove.

Under the no blind assumption,

EV = eq*100 –(1-eq)100
= eq*200 –100

This implies it is always +EV to make the bet if eq >50%. With blinds, you can even be a slight underdog.