PokerStars Unveils All In Cash Out Feature for Cash Games

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PokerStars revealed a new feature on their .Net website that will give players a bit of insurance when they are playing in online poker cash games. The new feature is known as “All In Cash Out.” It will allow players a chance to cash out their equity prior to the river in an all-in hand.

This feature is similar to what has been offered on some sites, but if it becomes a part of the real money online poker community, it could change the way some people play online cash games.

What is All In Cash Out?

The All In Cash Out feature is a way that players can salvage equity in an all-in hand without leaving the outcome up to the RNG of the PokerStars client. The way it works is simple. If you or another player goes all-in and is called on the flop or turn, you and your opponent will be offered the ability to cash out their equity in the hand.

For example, let’s say you hold Ad-4c on a flop of Ah-4h-3s and your opponent has As-Kc. You have about 70% equity in this hand. If you choose to cash out, you will get an amount equal to 70% of the pot minus a 1% fee. Your opponent has the same option. They can take their equity or try and play for the pot.

If both you and your opponent cash out your equity, the hand is over. If only one of you choose to take equity, the other player will play out the hand but if they lose the hand, the money is scooped up by PokerStars.

Let’s say you have a hand where you have 40% equity in a $100 pot and your opponent chooses to take their equity. You can try and play for the $100 pot, but if you lose, PokerStars scoops the $100 pot.

Where Will All In Cash Out Be Available?

Presently, you can play at All In Cash Out tables at Six-Max NL table at PokerStars.net. In the future, the company plans to offer the option on all NL Hold’em, PL Omaha, and Six-Plus Hold’em cash games. It will first be released on .com markets but ring-fenced areas such as Spain, New Jersey, or France will likely not see them due to licensing issues.

The good news is that if you do not want to fool with All In Cash Out, you will have the option to disable it. This is an optional feature from PokerStars, so those that want to play poker as it was intended to be played can still do so.

A Couple of Observations

Looking closely at the example video provided by PokerStars, a couple of things stand out about this new feature. First, if you cash out your equity from the pot, the pot size remains unchanged. In other words, if you take 70% equity out of $100, then your opponent still gets to play for $100 rather than just $30.

So in essence, PokerStars could be giving away some significant sums of money in pots where the equity is extremely lopsided. At the same time, PokerStars is going to be getting a significant chunk in rake whenever a player on the wrong side of the equity equation fails to suck out. In our example, that’s $30 in extra rake on top of the rake already taken out of the pot and the 1% taken by those that take their equity.
This is also insanely profitable for PokerStars. While 1% does not sound like much, we are talking $1 on every $100 in equity taken. That’s $10,000 for every million. If this becomes a standard way to play cash games, PokerStars is going to “rake” in the money.

For those that are much more solid players, this is going to be a way to help hedge your bets in situations. Anytime you have 55% or better in equity, one could argue you should always cash out. If you are a serious underdog, it could be a way to save at least part of your stack.

Keep in mind that this pertains to flop and turn situations. The river plays out as normal. As such, you can expect river play to evolve a bit at these tables as players try to take advantage of bluff opportunities and to also try and extract extra value when their hand gets there or holds up. For players that can take advantage of this option, it will be interesting to see how their game evolves over the next few months.

Below is a video from PokerFuse demonstrating the new All In Cash Out feature: