Do you think Poker site are rigged?

Question

I've had so many bad beat on Absolute poker that I'm beginning to think that it's rigged.

Answer 1

Well this is a matter of "cheating" not having the site "rigged" and that's two separate issues.  It's well known that there's some cheating online but the chances of you running into it versus a live game are quite a bit less.  You wouldn't believe the stories that are told as far as high stakes live games go.  

Typical cheaters though don't have access to the server like this guy did, and the typical M.O. involves two or more players in cahoots sharing card info and working together to gang up on people.  This sounds worse than it is though and the players often are bad and even two of them doesn't amount to much skill.  Poker sites are wary of this though and have sophisticated software which roots them out and bans them.

More often though you hear complaints against sites setting up their shuffle to benefit the bad players.  The truth is though that there are people who work very hard to find chinks in the armor here and in rare cases they have but nowadays it's pretty much impossible since the random number generators are all pretty clean.  If they weren't then you could write a program to figure it out and some pretty bright people have tried and failed.  There's one program out there that claims to do it but everyone ends up saying it doesn't work.

There's no such thing as no risk but overall sites work hard to ensure that their players can feel comfortable playing there.

A.J.

http://kingcobrapoker.com

Answer 2

yes they are rigged:

google ap ub scandal and read all about it:

here is a vid of a player who can see everyone's hole cards

its a reenactment based on the actual hands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FczbS7FiW...

here is an interview about the cheating

http://pokercast.twoplustwo.com/play.php...

Answer 3

The concensus is that poker sites are not rigged, at least in the way that you are implying.  People that record hundreds of thousands of hands on the most common sites have confirmed that the cards you get and the hands that occur meet the expected distribution over the long run.  So, I think you can feel safe that the sites aren't purposely generating "action flops" or letting opponents hit their 2-outers any more often than expected.

However, there have been two major cheating scandals in 2007 and 2008 at the high limit games on Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet.  In both cases, a former employee (or in Absolute's case, a former owner) had access to a software backdoor that allowed them to see everyone at the table's hole cards.  That allowed the user to make ridiculous bets like calling with Jack high to win a million dollar tournament when their opponent bluffed with 9-high.  In both of these cases, the site has refunded losses to the cheated players after it was proven to the site that cheating occured.  However, I should point out that cheaters would likely not bother with most lower limits.

Answer 4

yeah, i think you win once... then you get addicted and you think you're gonna win again... but the machine always has the last laugh... lol yeah i think it is rigged

Answer 5

No poker sited r not rigged... They are some cheaters but the sites are contently on the look out for them...  If sites are rigged then they will be shut down and big fines from everywhere....

Answer 6

Poker could be rigged anywhere, live or online, but in general it's not.  You can find collusion in both live and online poker. There are more collusion online than live simply because it's easier to collude online and it's harder to track.  I don't believe the poker sites are rigged themselves because it's just bad business for them.  They don't make more money by rigging their sites. They actually don't care if you or your opponent wins. All they care about is for you to keep playing. They make money on every single hand regardless if you win or lose.

So the only problem is collusion. You can't stop 2 or 3 people to sit on the same table and be on their cellphones while playing, discussing each others cards and how they can squeeze their opponents off their hands, only to split their winnings later. Most poker sites won't allow 2 people using the same network to play on the same table, but that still doesn't prevent cheaters from cheating.

The good thing though is that there are thousands of tables going on at any giving time on these poker sites, that the odds of you sitting on a table that has collusion is minimal but very much possible. And eventually you will get cheated at one point or another. But that could happen too in any live game you sit in. It's very possible 2 or 3 people are playing from the same bankroll on the same table. It happens and it's hard to prove.

So do we stop playing then? No, because most poker games are not rigged. I play lots of heads up poker online which makes it impossible for my opponent to cheat.

So if you wanna play poker online, i would play at the bigger sites only that have lots of security like PokerStars or FullTilt. PartyPoker too if you don't live in the US.

Answer 7

I can't say for sure about the one you mention, I have had some suspicions though, but it has been said before many times, if they did "fix it" or "rig it" then they would be exposed and the reputation that they rely on to survive would be destroyed.

They get money just by people playing, they don't care who wins or loses as long as people deposit money and play poker they are making money. If they did "rig it" they would get found out sooner or later.

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