Harry Porter wrote:
Dan's question is reasonable; I've never been comfortable with the use
of "EV" around these groups. As defined here, EV is a reference to
expected coin-out. Alternatively, frequently it's casually used to
indicate the expected net win/loss of a play (i.e. coin-out - coin-in,
where some might say that the EV of $10K through on a 1% advantage
play is $100).
The problem stems from the fact that while ER (when defined as a %) is
a very well defined term, EV is a generic statistical reference for
the expected outcome of any phenomenon. It would be best if we always
specifically defined what "V" we were referring to ... "expected coin
out", "expected net win", "expected return", and "expected number of
chair bumps per hour by passing foot traffic" are all EV's.
A couple of years ago vpFREE campaigned aggressively and,
in hindsight, amazingly successfully to stop the common
practice of using EV and ER interchangeably.
In the context of game analysis, Dan's full post is dead on in stating
the standard definition of EV -- expected win (payout) from a hold,
expressed in bet units.
See FAQ #8 for vpFREE's definitions of EV and ER:
<http://members.cox.net/vpfree/FAQ.htm#8>.
EV is stated in units or dollars
ER is a percentage measurement
Any time a general term is used, the definition is dependent upon
context. That leads to confusion at times, but if that were the worst
of it around here, this'd be a utopia
vpFREE isn't utopia? 
vpFae