Maybe it's just a coincidence. I'll be
playing online and I'll have the best hand pre-flop, on the flop, on the turn, and then I get sucked out on the river.
It seems to happen all the time to me. Huge underdogs always seem to hit their cards. I might even yell out loud, "This is so rigged!"
So is online poker rigged? Absolutely not. If it was, all of the major poker sites would lose credibility. Online poker rooms are like any other business. If they do not provide the best service they will lose out to the competition.
Most of the people who complain that online poker is rigged are usually bad poker players or players who are good but have serious psychological issues.
Bill Rini recently published an excellent post called Motivations for Rigging Online Poker. Bill touches on several points including debunking several myths.1. "The casinos deal action flops to generate more action and thus bigger rake. Fortunately, like most online poker is rigged assertions, this is patently false."
2. "The second major problem with the online poker is rigged accusation... is a result of logical inconsistencies.... Essentially, what you'll find are people who say that Site A is rigged but Site B is ok. The logic becomes circular when someone else says that Site B is rigged but Site A is ok. Both parties are convinced that online poker is rigged but they are as equally convinced that the site they play on is not... Even within the world of people who are convinced that online poker is rigged, they can't even agree on which sites are and are not rigged."
3. "One type of argument states that when you cash out of a site then you start losing. This phenomenon is often referred to as the Cash Out Curse. Another variation is that online casinos want the fish to win and the better players to lose because the fish give more action and thus make the site more money. All variations of this argument stipulate that the card room has built a sophisticated system that can profile player actions and then adjust the cards based on some set of criteria."
Whenever I play online there's always one guy who says the site is rigged! The next time someone does that . . . I'm going to tell them to read Bill's post.
21. Of course it's rigged. Like others though, I dont believe it's rigged against specific people, that would be pointless. It's rigged so poor players play the site longer and good players win less than they ought to.
I also dont believe the flops are designed to build huge pots and rake as the turn card is often a scare card and often minimizes betting. Also, at the higher levels the maximum rake is often produced before a flop anyhow. It's better for the site to have smaller pots keeping more players in than huge pots where 1 player or more gets busted (hence the large amount of split pots, especially in multiway action)
I also have many 1000's of hands stored on database. Sure, my win stats for AA are well over 80% as they should be, because I dont get to see a fekn flop with half those hands. Try playing 33 like you would AA, funny you'll get to see far more flops than if you're holding AA.
Then there's KK, I get to see far more flops with these funnily enough, I'd guess around 75%, amazingly I flop an ace over 50% of the time, what are the odds of that happening eh? That's not forgetting the mandatory KK v AA 3 times out of the last 5 scenario I've experienced on EVERY site.
Then there's the flushes. In theory, when I'm holding Axs and flop the flush draw, I should be hitting my flush 1 in 4, funny it rarely seems to go that way unless it's a tiny pot and it's a good time to make up my statistical numbers. The fact is I'm more likely to hit a flush with a crappy 82s out of position in the big blind where 1 or 2 have limped than being in position with the nut flush.
Then there are the all in situations. Regardless that I'm well ahead I'll still lose at least half of them. Of those that do hold up and win, isn't it funny that many of them go on to make monster hands like a boat or the magical 4 cards to make the nut flush. Yep, a good time to make up those statistical numbers again.
How about AK and AQ in re-raised preflop action. I'm lucky if I hit the flop more than 15%. I'm more likely to hit the flop when the pot is small or it's become a multiway-pot because I'm out of position and no chance of re-raising preflop, then I'm running a race against a set or 2 pair.
The bottom line is, the good players will still win but at a much slower rate than they ought to. As far as the pokersites are concerned, as long as the RNG is giving everybody the correct statistical numbers then they're untouchable.
I defy anybody to tell me none of the above is true.
Posted at 8:50PM on Mar 3rd 2009 by Muggins