Poker Conspiracy Theories: The curse of the cash-out!
How online poker losers see conspiracies where there are none....
CURSE OF THE CASH-OUT? One of the most endearing and entertaining things the invention of the World Wide Web has brought to the global community is the spread of Conspiracy Theories. We all love them and the current conspiracy theory running so successfully to enthralled audiences at a multi-plex poker forum near you is the blockbuster pick of the month: The Curse of the Cash-Out! Starring Anorak O’Toole and Buster “Bad Beat” Belligerence. The script goes something like this: Our anti-hero joins a big name site and opens a juicy account. He wins big for a while, decides to cash out eighty percent of his winnings, and then mysteriously begins to lose dramatically only to eventually bust out completely.
CONCRETE EVDIENCE! This is, of course, concrete evidence to conspiracy theorists that online poker sites flip some kind of “make ‘em lose” revenge switch once a player begins withdrawing most of his or her money. The conspiracy scriptwriters would have you believe that by cashing out you draw the attention of the site’s management team to your personal account who then set about a malicious campaign of vengeance on you by dealing you lousy cards. (Can these fantasists even begin to imagine what kind of software would be required to do this to thousands of people cashing out every hour of the day in an environment of tens of thousands of tables each with ten players fully engaged in the action?)
UFO’S? MAYBE…BUT NOT THIS! I happen to believe there’s still a wide open verdict on Unidentified Flying Objects but the “revenge button theory” is definitely for folk with a brain disorder. Poker sites want you to stay with them forever. They make more money that way. They’ll do everything they can to keep you on board because in the global game of Monster Maths all they want is the small percentage they take from every single game in the form of the rake. The bigger the turnover, the bigger the profit -- win, lose, or draw. The sites don’t care.
ON THE OTHER HAND Is it true that there are some statistics which support the FACT that players who cash out most of their account tend to go into a losing streak? Yes, there are such statistics and it’s exactly what you’d expect. Think about it. If you reduce your bankroll dramatically you are depriving yourself of your financial power-base which is what drives aggression in most poker situations. If you can’t follow-through on a good hand and extract maximum value because of lack of funding and if you can’t bully your way to the occasional win, you are bound to go on a losing streak. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s logic.
