You've finally made enough money at the game and decide to treat your wife
or girlfriend to a night on the town, to prove that the hours you spend
playing aren't being wasted. You take out $200 and have a great evening that
hopefully leads to some action, along with a month long extension of poker
playing permission.

When you come back to the tables you're in better
spirits than ever and you just know the next cash out will be $500 instead
of $200. Something strange happens when you start up again. AA loses to 66,
you flop a king-high flush to their ace-high flush and the bluffs you try to
run never seem to work. You go on massive donkey tilt and your once
promising bankroll is now close to the felt.

You know there's only one possible explanation for these losses; ONLINE
POKER IS RIGGED. You hop onto your favorite poker forum and make this post:

BEWARE, THE CASH OUT CURSE IS REAL!
By: donkeyninja227

"I always thought it was made up but, let me tell you, the cash out curse is
real. [Insert Site Name Here] has flipped the doom switch on me once again.
I recently cashed out $200 and ever since I've seen more one, two and three
outers than I ever knew were possible. These donkeys have been calling me
down with second pair when it's obvious I have them beat 99.99999% of the
time. This is the proof I needed to be sure that THE CASH OUT CURSE IS
REAL."

After that you start grinding the micros to build yourself back up before
the girlfriend wants something shiny again.

I know you've seen these posts and might have even made some yourself. If
you have, for one hour go read one of the most boring Sklansky books as
punishment, then forgive yourself.

Let's first look at why the idea of the cash out curse is ridiculous. If you
think that your $200 cash out sets off a code red at the poker site's
headquarters, with everyone scrambling to get to the doom switch, that's
just plain silly. Your $200 cash out is not a threat to the site's business
and believing so is both arrogant and delusional. The sites need winning and
losing players to survive and they aren't out to get you just because you
took some money out of the player pool.

The truth is, it's not the poker sites that are cursing you, it's yourself.
In poker, it's easy for your brain to trick you. It wants to find patterns
where none exist and can come up with some wild explanations when the truth
is actually fairly simple. Most people's subconscious can make an off the
wall conspiracy theory before ever putting the blame where it truly belongs.
The following are the two real explanations for the cash out curse:

Explanation #1: Bankroll Tilt.

You spent the last 3 months working that $50 deposit up to $1000. You're
very proud of yourself and decide to take out $500. The only problem is,
your brain doesn't think your bankroll should be $500, it thinks it should
be $1000. This means that you subconsciously think you deserve to be at
$1000 and press too much at the tables to get it back. You'll be making bad
bluffs and invent scenarios to call, when you should fold, just because you
want to win these pots. This causes you to change the game the got you the
money in the first place and things quickly fall apart. This is one reason
why bankroll management is so important. If the amount you are cashing out
isn't a significant portion of your roll, this problem can be avoided.

Explanation #2: The Hot Streak.

Think about the times you cash out of a poker site. Is it right after you
win a lot of money or at the end of a cold streak? You probably cash out
after going on a heater, not after a big loss. Since you were running hot
before the cash out, you can expect the cards to break even and you'll come
back down again very soon. Poker is an incredibly swingy game, where you can
go through runs winning a lot more than you should. If you cash out after
these runs, the logical progression dictates that a bad streak could be on
the way. Think of your poker winnings as a line graph with lots of peaks and
valleys, and you're cashing out at the top of each peak. The graph would be
the same if you never cashed out at all, but because of the added variable,
many people choose to blame the cash out. If you made it a habit to only
cash our after you run cold for awhile the cash out curse would now be the
cash out blessing!

If these seem like overly simple answers...that's because they are! Just
because your brain wants to come up with crazy explanations doesn't mean the
real reason isn't blatantly obvious. Poker is a complex game which makes it
very easy to out-think yourself. Many of the greatest online poker myths can
be solved by thinking of the most simple explanation. If the answer you come
up with involves some massive conspiracy of the online sites trying to screw
you out of a few hundred dollars, I can guarantee that there is a much
simpler explanation involved.

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