EV is “A Poker Comic with Positive Expected Value.” (Hint: +EV is the common abbreviation for “positive expected value”.) About professional online poker player Corbin, his family, his poker buddies and several prominent poker players.
+EV contains examples of:
– Beginner’s Luck: Seems to be the explanation for the successes of, if not Scarlett, then at least for Harold and Clancy.
– Catchphrase: Violet’s “I think I want a divorce” qualifies to the point she lampshades it when Corbin calls her a “dink” in a text message.
– Child Prodigy: Scarlett, who’s following in her father’s footsteps.
– Dystopian Edict: But why are people punished by hanging just for mentioning poker?
– Fanservice: sometimes, with Violet.
– G.I.R.L.: Corbin knows this trope.
– The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry
– Heroic BSoD: Scarlett declares that poker and Princess Amazia are her two favorite things, and she couldn’t do without either. Then Amazia comes out against gambling.
– House Rules: be careful to play against Konsta with his own deck.
– I’m a Humanitarian: fortunately, just a dream.
– Mouth Flaps: a peculiar aversion despite this being an animation trope: The characters’ mouths are usually closed when they speak in this comic’s particular style.
– Mushroom Samba: so, Harold owes the Goombas hundred dimes, and they’ll kill him if he can’t pay? “Um, Harold, those are fictional characters in a video game.”
– Perpetual Poverty: Harold and Clancy win millions in poker, but shit it all away.
– Primal Scene: seems to have happened off-strip, since Scarlett knows about the game that only mommies and daddies can play.
– Professional Gambler: Corbin, and several members of the supporting cast.
– Scary Black Man: Clancy knows about this trope, but doesn’t really understand it.
– Shout-Out: to American Idol, Heroes, A Boy and His Blob.
– Snap Back: Harold wins a lot of money and loses it again, loses weight and gains it again… and so on.
– Soap Opera: Violet is a fan of One Life to Live.
– Speed Sex: Corbin can do it twice in five minutes!
– Take That!: is Gold Coast really that shitty? No idea.
– Theme Naming: Corbin’s wife’s name is Violet. Her first daughter is Scarlett, which is a shade of red. And violet is a mixture of red and blue. So it was logical to give their second daughter a name that’s a shade of blue, and thus she was named… Ultramarine!
– Show Within a Show: webcomic within a webcomic.
– World of Pun: the puns are mostly Poker-related-Big Blind, Pocket Pear, etc.
– Writers Cannot Do Math: play poker too long, https://maudeofficial.com/ and you’ll forget how to count to twenty. Even if you were a mathematician before.