Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Is Online Poker Rigged (Part 2)

About 11 months ago I wrote a post here regarding the online game. I had read a bunch of comments about people doubting the validity of the online game on the All Vegas Poker site in the discussion forum.

If you go back to that post you can see that a lot of people have some serious doubts about the game. I have never had so many people leave comments regarding their experiences online. I still get comments regarding that post.

As you know I am not a big fan of the online game. I have never made a deposit but I do have a money account at one of the major sites (won it in freerolls).

The biggest complaint I hear from people is getting called with hands that shouldn't be in the pot and somehow they hit their one or two outer on the river. Does this happen in live poker?? Oh sure occasionally but it almost seems that these people know what card is coming in the online game. Do they?? Hopefully not but why were they in the pot. Are they just bad players who get lucky?? That could be.

The other biggest complaint is the amount of high hands that show up online. I know playing a 1.00 buyin tournament on February 3rd on a site which will remain anonymous I had quads 2 hands in a row. Quad 8s and Quad 10s. I kept the hand history as I know people wouldn't believe me. What are the statistical likely hood of that happening?? I know playing live tournaments and I play 3 or 4 times a week I can go months without quads but online I get them about every other week at least. Of course some people say its because of the amount of hands dealt online but to me it seems a bit out of whack to what happens live.

The online game is now a multi million dollar business with all the leading poker pros having sponsorships and such. So they would never kill the golden goose. I wonder if any of them have ever investigated the actual mechanics of how these sites are run. Have they ever been to the center of where the online is run out of?? Or do they just take their sponsorship money and close their eyes. I think the latter is more likely. I admire Darvin Moon for not taking a sponsorship offer before the Main Event Final Table last year.

I know most of my poker playing friends play far less online now than they used to. Why?? The bad beats they were getting. Way over over proportional to what happens in the live game. It seemed if they moved up in dollar value it happened more. Does that make sense??

I think the online game could be great if it was run like our lotteries with government overseeing the operation and taking a certain percentage and say putting that into health care or education. They would still have lots for sponsorships of the poker pros. Now these sites are run and we have no idea where all the money goes. It certainly doesn't help the people of Canada or the U.S. I know this might not be a popular viewpoint but if the online game in my mind is going to be legalized here in Canada and the U.S. that's what needs to be done. Otherwise how do we know everything is above board?? Right now we don't. When people make a deposit they trust that it will be run fairly and that the percentages will hold up on a consistent basis. That's the least they can expect.


I am not saying it isn't above board right now but there sure are a lot of doubters out there. It would be great to wipe out that doubt and know when you sit down at your laptop everything odds wise is exactly the same as live play.

I know personally I love the live game. I love the interaction with the players, the dealers and the chips. I played poker long before there was an online game. The online game does have a huge place in poker today. It has opened up the game to millions who might never have played and that's a good thing. What are your thoughts on the online game??

2 comments:

  1. When I played on Party Poker 2003-2006 it was definitely not rigged - I made steady money.

    I had hand histories for hundreds of thousands of hands in Poker Tracker - everything was as it should be.

    I stopped after UIGEA, because the fish were gone - you had to ferret a lot to find them.

    But what really made me give up online is the fact that poker sites allow aids to be used during the game - collecting hand histories AFTER the game is OK, using devices during playing is a form of cheating - a casual player practically stands no chance. They also allow semi-bots.

    If people think they see too many quads and other such fantasies, it's because the game is played differently online. If I have a weak set, I'm going to chase people out on the flop in a live game - maybe I would've hit quads - online they're tougher.

    Weird things happen in live games as well.

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  2. I have to disagree with you some Wolynski. Yes you could make money online a few years back. Now it doesn't happen so much. AS for the high hands the people I have played live with have numerous stories of straight flushes getting beat by royals and quads over quads at a much higher rate than the live game. Does it happen live? Sure. I just want the online game regulated so that peole who are crasy enough to put their money online have at least know that everything is above board and the odds are the same as the live game.

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