Why Online Poker Is Not Rigged
July 3rd, 2009
If one had but a penny for every complaint and allegation concerning the supposedly rigged nature of online poker, one would probably be an extremely rich man. The problem is though that if you were to get a penny for every such allegation backed by solid evidence, you probably wouldn’t be able to buy a loaf of bread with it.
Just reading around various poker forums and blogs, you’ll come across countless stories of consecutive bad beats which the author regards as statistically improbable and therefore holds as proof for online poker being rigged.
I admit it: I used to be one of these frustrated players seeking ways to let the world know about my anguish. I used to complain on various forums myself but somehow, after such a spell I would usually calm down and look at things in a different light. I remember back then my main counter argument to considering online card-rooms cheaters was: “at the end of the day, you’re just a nickel-dime, freerolling, low buy-in SNG playing nobody. Who on earth would care to swindle you out of your 10-30 bucks? The sheer effort it would take to cheat me out of my dimes and nickels would probably cost the room much more than they’d ever “steal” from me…”
In time, I climbed up the limits and found other, more logical reasons for doubting my own frustration-fed suspicions. The most often brought up arguments when it comes to “rigged” complaints are linked to bad beats. The truth however is that in poker bad beats happen. Just a few hours ago I had my pocket Qs cracked in a tournament by an opponent’s pocket Jacks for a pre-bubble elimination. Sure, I had the best hand before the flop, and certainly, pocket Queens are going to beat pocket Jacks to the pot most of the time. That however, doesn’t mean that by pitting my QQ against someone’s JJ presents any sort of guarantees towards my winning the hand.
The frustrations and the anger produced by such bad beats have deep psychological roots. We all tend to forget bad beats we pulled on others easily. Whenever we suffer a bad beat though, we feel like something that was rightfully ours was taken away from us. Having been brought up inoculated with the idea that everything is either right or wrong, the feeling of injustice enrages us and eliminates logic from our thinking.
The reality of the situation is, your A,A can lose the 7,2o and sometimes it will too. Over the long-run, it will certainly beat the crap out of the 7,2o, but there are no guarantees that it will over a single match-up.
If the number and the nature of the bad beats you suffer are what push you to proclaim that online poker is rigged, take a look at some of the live hands played at the WSOP for instance. You wouldn’t believe how many runner-runner bad beats there are at the live tables. The fact that one will generally play many more hands per hour at an online table than at a live one may increase the frequency of online bad beats, but if you take a look at an equal number of online and live hands and compare the bad beats that they yield, you’ll probably discover a remarkable similarity, provided the RNG used by the online cardroom is not faulty.
The bottom line is, until someone backs up his/her claims with empiric evidence yielded by consistent hand-histories, thousands and thousands of hands big, in the opinion of this player, online poker cannot be called rigged.
Instead of wasting your time fuming over spilt milk and frustrating yourself over stupid bad beats, why don’t you sign up to a rakeback deal and take some of the rake you pay back from your poker room? Rake rebate deals like the Ultimate Bet rakeback and the PKR poker rakeback offer you a nice rebate and an edge which is extremely easy to secure.
Read More About (Tags): online poke scandal > online poker cheat > poker cheat > poker cheating > rigged poker > ultimate poker cheat > ultimate poker scandal
Entry Filed under:online poker
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16 Comments Add your own
1. Why Online Poker Is Not R&hellip | July 3rd, 2009 at 1:28 am
[...] Hammer Player aka Hoyazo wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe bottom line is, until someone backs up his/her claims with empiric evidence yielded by consistent hand-histories, thousands and thousands of hands big, in the opinion of this player, online poker cannot be called rigged. … [...]
2. Why Online Poker Is Not R&hellip | July 3rd, 2009 at 3:23 am
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3. Why Online Poker Is Not R&hellip | July 3rd, 2009 at 4:46 am
[...] Rickey wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIf one had but a penny for every complaint and allegation concerning the supposedly rigged nature of online poker, one would probably be an extremely rich man. [...]
4. Why Online Poker Is Not R&hellip | July 3rd, 2009 at 5:49 am
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5. Why Online Poker Is Not R&hellip | July 3rd, 2009 at 6:11 am
[...] Originally posted here: Why Online Poker Is Not Rigged | Poker Tips & Strategies [...]
6. Why Online Poker Is Not R&hellip | July 3rd, 2009 at 8:24 am
[...] Read the original post: Why Online Poker Is Not Rigged | Poker Tips & Strategies [...]
7. Keno | July 3rd, 2009 at 7:23 pm
So glad I found your website, excellent information and resources.
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9. roulette wheel | August 12th, 2009 at 7:10 am
with online gambling is the same as real life, you win some you lose some
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11. Dimitri | November 15th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Bullshit. It is rigged. Why do I average $120 a night here in Vegas in casinos playing $1/2 and $2/5 games and lose my ass online? The bad beats online are unreal and happen way too often. The last hand played I raised 4x BB with JJ, another player re-raises and the final player moves all-in. I call the all-in, second player folds and other guys shows JT offsuit. The flop comes TT6…come on…..first of all, no one moves all in with JT offsuit….and then flops 3 of a kind? Bullshit. This kind of crap happens all the time online. It occurs way beyond coincidence. Of course it is in the online site’s interest to rig a site…the rake is nothing. Having their own automated computer player and dealing whatever cards they want to take your stack is much more profitable.
I quit playing online for good.
12. Dimitri | November 15th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Bullshit. It is rigged. Why do I average $120 a night here in Vegas in casinos playing $1/2 and $2/5 games and lose my ass online? The bad beats online are unreal and happen way too often. The last hand played I raised 4x BB with JJ, another player re-raises and the final player moves all-in. I call the all-in, second player folds and other guys shows JT offsuit. The flop comes TT6…come on…..first of all, no one moves all in with JT offsuit….and then flops 3 of a kind? Bullshit. This kind of crap happens all the time online. It occurs way beyond coincidence. Of course it is in the online site’s interest to rig a site…the rake is nothing. Having their own automated computer player and dealing whatever cards they want to take your stack is much more profitable.
I quit playing online for good.
13. St1 | December 27th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
If I were running a poker site and wanted to maximize profitability, I would do the following: 1) Allow new depositors to run well and build a small bank roll. 2) Bust out new players over the course of 2-4 days. 3) See how quickly they re-deposit. 4) If they re-deposit quickly, simply run them through a similar build up/bust out cycle. The gold for an online poker site is a player that re-deposits often. Re-deposits and reloads maximize money in play and profitability. As a backup, I would also have a team of killer bots or in-house players that pull in the top prizes from tournaments, sngs, and big pots from cash games. I guarantee it would not be difficult to rig the gameplay.
14. Kclark | January 22nd, 2010 at 1:45 am
Done…after 6 years…to much “coincedence”/”bad beats”..started with $500 and continued to build up to about 7K..very meticulous about my play….once I won a couple of decent scores…$3000/pokerstars $3rebuy…$2700/pokerstars $5rebuy…etc..my playing style never changed…all of a sudden i can’t even cash in a $10/sng…roll comes down to $800…like i said, very experienced and meticulous, my play never changed and analysed constantly…last straw. sitting 3rd in $5rebuy at pokerstars…start with 4000 people (1st place approx. 10K), down to 80 players…I’m dealt AA and lost to A10off…2 hands later…dealt AA…trip A’s on flop..lose to 4 flush….1 hand later..dealt AA (unbelievable and completely fishy at this point)…all in against k6 off..flop A98, turn 7..river is 10….lose to rediculous str8…so pissed off I develop a spreadsheet and keep track of all AA and KK dealt to me….after one month I have AA 59 times….53 are heads up….I won 4 times……..(wtf)..how is this even possible…email support…they sent standard letter stating AA should win approx 89% of the time…..asked that support look into this (KK was slightly better at 11% win rate)…support decline and asked that I not circulate my hands/spreadsheet as they will “not” provide colaborating hands I have played and thus cannot support my claim…..imagine that…unbelievable response…frustration level getting too high and in danger zone healthwise..I don’t know what the criteria is or the reasoning behind this or who benefits…but sure as !@#$ not fun…so far from realistic poker….please no comments about seeing more hands while online….the percentages take this into account…..good luck all..have fun if possible…unfortunately I am huge fan of game but cannot be involved in this travesty of bullshit anymore………and cannot find a solution or a site that will guarantee proper play…..
15. poker | February 22nd, 2010 at 3:13 am
Great site! I love online
poker and really enjoyed this site. I play online poker at sites like
Full Tilt and I check out the different site rankings at
http://www.Dozenpoker.com, to see which site is a Top and which is Flop.
16. Poker Royale | March 3rd, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I can completely understand how people can become frustrated with loosing and think the stats are impossible, but like the credible author has stated, sh*t happens, I’ve had horrible strings of looses but I’ve also had increadible hot streaks, that’s how gambling goes. If you don’t like it don’t play. simple.
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