Any reason I would do worse at empire than party? (RAKEBACK CURSE)

[memphis57]

All this silly talk nearby about cashout curses and the like, how come nobody has ever mentioned the rakeback curse, the losing streak you go on when you first get rakeback?

I'm currently suffering through the mother of all rakeback curses or, since I don't believe in that, a truly horrendous case of normal downward variance.

Now, I'm not that good of a player to begin with, but I'm getting better. At Party .5/1 I've averaged +1.0 BB over my last 30K hands (up from -1.0 BB/100 in the 30K hands before that). But since I signed up for rakeback and started playing on Empire, I'm down 430 BB in 14,200 hands, or about -3.0 BB/100. During that time I've also played 4,000 hands at Party, to clear two bonuses, and I've made 150 BB or 3.75 BB/100.

They're exactly the same games, aren't they? Why would I be doing so horrible at Empire? It's almost enough to make me believe in some kind of shenanigans - well, actually not, but it is frustrating.