PokerStars’ game-changing new feature “All-in Cash Out,” exclusively revealed by pokerfuse, is expected to roll out to real-money tables, PokerStars has confirmed.
All-In Cash Out is just the equivalent of running it infinite times.
The innovative and unique feature by PokerStars is currently only available at play money tables, but the feature is expected to be offered at real money cash tables in the near future.
All-in Cash Out works like insurance allowing cash game players to trade in their equity for cash when they are all-in with no further action pending.
Once a player goes all-in, they are presented with two options—Resume or Cash Out. Upon choosing the Cash Out option, players immediately receive a share of the pot based on their equity in the hand, minus a 1% premium charged by the room. Once they pick this option, they are no longer eligible to win the pot.
For instance, a player with a hand that is an 80% favorite to win in a $100 pot will have the option to take a guaranteed cash amount of $79.20. It is worth noting that the 1% fee is based on players’ equity and not the entire pot.
Sign Up Today »
- Largest player base in the world.
- Home of Spin & Go, Power Up and lots of other unique game variants including 6+ Hold’em.
- Biggest weekly tournament schedule around.
The equity in the hand is then transferred to PokerStars which can either win or lose based on the final outcome of the hand.
For example, if the all-in player from the example above opts to cash out but wins the hand, PokerStars profits $21.80 (the difference between the $100 pot and the amount they paid the player for the equity in their hand). Conversely, if the cashed out hand does not win the pot, PokerStars is out the $79.20 already paid to the player.
If both the players (or more) choose to resume the hand, the game works normally and the pot goes to the player who wins the hand.
In many ways, All-in Cash Out is a more advanced version of ‘Run It Twice’, but without the requirement for both players to agree.
This equity cash out feature is being introduced to allow players the opportunity to reduce their variance and avoid big downswings. It is currently available at select 6-Max NLHE tables on the play-money client. Players have the ability to disable the All-in Cash Out option by simply turning it off in the Settings menu.
Pokerfuse sat down with PokerStars’ Director of Poker Product, Chris Straghalis to learn more about the potential game-changing feature and the plans for its rollout to real-money tables.
What was the motivation to offer All-in Cash Out? What segment of your customer base do you expect All-in Cash Out to appeal to the most?
We’re always looking for ways to enhance our offering, in this case by responding to something that we know happens in live environments and has for years.
There was even a third-party provider who offered a similar, less-integrated solution online for some time. In many ways, All-in Cash Out is a more advanced version of ‘Run It Twice’, but without the requirement for both players to agree. It’s a great new mechanic that I expect will appeal to regular as well as occasional players who want the option to lower their variance and lock-up a share of the pot in certain situations.
Will All-in Cash Out be a feature at real money games? If so, when do you expect it to debut for real money, and at what real money games and stakes will All-in Cash Out be available?
We are currently evaluating our plans on exactly when we will roll it out and at what games and stakes, but we do expect it to become a feature of real money games.
All-in Cash Out and Run It Twice both serve to reduce variance, how will the two features coexist?
Run It Twice will remain available and work as you might expect: if both players have Run It Twice and decline Cash Out, we’ll run the cards twice as usual. If one player decides to Cash Out, the board will only run out once.
Reaction to the new feature has been mixed within the poker community. How do you respond to the criticism that All-in Cash Out takes some of the fun out of the game and adds incentive for players to collude?
It’s probably best to answer this in two parts.
Run it Twice has been in play for some time now. All-In Cash Out is just the equivalent of running it infinite times. In fact, because All-In Cash Out is optional, it enhances the RIT feature. It only requires one player to opt-in, with more opportunity for players to weigh up the value and decide that the benefits of reducing variance outweigh the 1% on their EV.
Collusion is, of course, something we continuously consider and prepare for. It’s against our terms of service and we have detection [and other] systems in place that we’ve designed specifically to address and prevent it.
Can players expect to see a similar insurance feature for tournaments from PokerStars in the near future?
There are no current plans to have a similar feature for tournaments.
