Lately, a lot of people have begun to question the honesty of several internet poker sites, due in part to recent scandals involving players on particular sites. Many have gone so far as to claim that online poker is rigged and that a winning player is penalized for making withdrawals. This is known in the online-poker community as the ‘cash out curse.’

Typically, a player that has won a large sum of money or has consistently played well and won several big cashes, goes to withdraw a portion of their winnings. Suddenly they are attacked by a seemingly inevitable curse that causes them to constantly lose game after game, forcing them to reload their account with more money.

Is it Real?

Many claim that pokersites, to keep people from cashing out their winnings, perpetrate this cash out curse. No matter how hard one would try to convince someone that this is just a fable, the losing player can not be convinced, as they continue to complain that online poker is rigged and that when they cash out they go on a losing streak because the pokersite wants them to keep their money online.

Although the notion of a ‘cash out curse’ may seem ridiculous, it is entirely possible that a pokersite can (and often does) control the cards of a particular player. This is accomplished by the fact that everything in an online casino is regulated by computer-generated codes and poker algorithms under the direct control of the owners of the site. The accurate question here should not be, is it real, rather Is it possible for pokersites to do this?

Is it Possible?

For example, all player details, stats, and personal information are contained in a database by the site. In addition to the information that the site collects from players voluntarily, they are able to acquire extra information about a player. By virtue of the fact that when you installed the poker-client on your computer, you gave permissions to the site to ‘see’ programs you are running.

The majority of the client spying is accomplished through the registry of your computer, which permits them to know additional software you are running as well as if you have certain applications active such as messenger, poker-odds calculators or other software they may deem inappropriate.

The Omniscient PokerSite

On top of that, the software also is able to restrict you from playing by blocking you directly through a registry entry on your computer. All because you gave permission to the pokersite’s client to do so. Because of the power you have surrendered when you installed their software, combined with the fact that they are able to control that software may lend credence to the fact that there is some truth to the cash out curse.

On the other hand, it is possible the cash out curse is a psychological influence. A player may believe he is a victim of something sinister perpetrated by online-poker sites. They begin to blame their bad beats and losing hands to the fact that they have recently cashed out. The true measure may never be known to what extent the poker sites are manipulating our online experience, however, the possibility certainly does exist.

By: Paul Westin

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