PokerStars unveils the details of All-in Cashout Insurance

All-in Cashout — EV insurance

The first rumors about All-in cashout started at the beginning of the month when a question arose in questionnaires sent to some PokerStars players. A few days ago, the option appeared in the client to play money games after a software update (only for the .COM client). This allowed us to learn more about All-in Cashout.

Immediately after the release of information about the imminent launching of All-in Cashout, two lines of thoughts arose:

• The first one was that players would have the option to split the pot according to equity, without any further distribution of cards;
• The second one that players with over 65% equity can insure their bet, as it is now implemented in Chinese poker rooms.

In the end, PokerStars came up with something different. The All-in Cashout details were revealed by the news portal PokerFuse in this video:

The video presents three hands in which players use All-in Cashout. We will try to understand how it works. In theory, the following options are available at the tables:

• Both players activate all-in Cashout;
• All-in Cashout is requested only by the player who has less equity;
• All-in Cashout is activated only by the player who has greater equity;

In the last two options, the prize distribution will depend on who won the hand in the end. As a result, we have four cases of All-in Cashout:

• Both players use All-in Cashout — the pot is fully divided according to the equity, and the room charges 1% as a fee (in addition to rake); the hand ends right there;
• The player with less equity uses All-in Cashout and lost the hand — the pot is awarded to the hand winner, and the other player receives the insurance at expenses of the room;
• All-in Cashout is used by the player who has less equity and wins the hand — a part of the pot equal to player's equity is awarded, the loser with the larger equity does not receive anything, and the room keeps the rest of the pot;
• The player with greater equity uses All-in Cashout and wins the hand — only the fraction of the pot equal to player's equity is awarded, the rest goes to the room.

It is clear that the presence of such functionality can significantly impact the games at the tables. The odds of each scenario still need to be calculated, but in our opinion, PokerStars didn't rush to add this feature, and for sure it's beneficial for the poker room in the long term.

As usual, the European reservations may be the first ones in trying the new All-in Cashout feature in real money tables (for example, the "Seat Me" function has been enabled to Italian customers for over a year), so for now the .COM players should wait to see how this insurance will affect their games.

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