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Originally Posted by Masq
On that basis it sounds like I should be opting to run it twice when offered.
Although when in a spot where i'm the dog with 30% equity, I should welcome the variance and run it once? If running it multiple times gets me closer to my ev expectation, I have more to gain running it once, than I lose. ie. I can take 100% of the pot if variance is on my side or lose the 30%. Alternatively, the more times I run it, the closer I get to realising the 30% (which would be a loss).
This is the wrong way to think about it. Running it once is an ev-neutral proposition that is simply a variance reduction. Whether you run it once or run it twice (or however many times), your ev in the spot is identical. Yes, if you're a dog you will have the chance to win the whole pot, but most of the time you won't. On the other hand, if you run it twice, you will quite rarely win both runs, but you have a pretty decent chance of chopping the pot. Getting half the pot back is something that basically never happens when you get it in as a dog.
Either way, you have neither gained nor lost money by electing to run it twice, you've simply reduced the amount of variance in the game. Running it twice is basically trading the variance from winning/losing the entire pot into more situations where you chop, making the game less swingy. Of course, you will still scoop or get scooped sometimes.
You also mention that you can feel some frustration after a succession of beats. It's possible that RIT can help here (because a lot of "beats" will turn into chops instead of losing the whole pot), but also possible that it can hurt (if you RIT and lose the second run, you might feel like you "would have won" the whole pot if you just ran it once). This is a personal psychology thing, and you'll have to consider what works for you.
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The cash out feature has some appeal because it would be nice to walk away from sessions winning rather than losing / breaking even. At the stakes I play it doesn't annoy me enough to put me on tilt. Although after a succession of beats I feel some frustration. The downside of using the cash out is when my hand holds and watching 30% of my profits not be awarded. It's a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" scenario.
Cashing out is strictly worse than running it twice because you are paying an extra fee to the pokersite, and while the fee seems small it's only happening in your biggest pots so it adds up decently over time. There might be some rare situations when you want to use it (for example, if you're shottaking or if you're super deep with a whale and don't want to risk losing your stack), but generally speaking you should stay away from the cashouts. Online is a competitive environment with narrow winrates as is, you don't want to give any more $ to the sites than you have to. Incidentally, a couple sites out there actually double rake RIT hands, and on those sites you should likely avoid running it twice as well. But on most sites RIT does not cost additional rake, making it a decent option.