Is online poker rigged?

Question

I'm pretty sure that Full Tilt is rigged. I've never had so many set up hands in my life and people never miss draws on me or lose coin flips.. it's insane to say the least! Are there any other good sites out there that aren't rigged? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Why would companies that make hundreds of thousands of dollars a day want to jepordize their buisness by rigging it??

Answer 2

Try http://bettingwise.hit.bg/Betfairpoker.h...

I am sure fulltilt is not rigged but this site is good and big too

Answer 3

I don't know, but i sure would like to.

Answer 4

You don't remember the hands where you went in and you won some; you just remember the hands that you stayed in far longer than you should have and lost big. And then you blame the poker sites. That's what makes poker worth playing for poeple like me.

Poker is a game where bad players win slowly and lose quickly.

Answer 5

Poker sites make money with tournament fees and rake.  It also costs the poker site money when you deposit and withdraw.  To constantly have players deposit money wouldn't be very cost effective.  Also, poker sites don't make money when you have none in your account.  You do the math.

Answer 6

If your question is "Is online poker rigged against me?" then the obvious answer is "Quit smoking pot, it's making you paranoid!"

But there are two or three ways that online poker (at any site) could be rigged, and I've seen and heard plenty of anecdotal evidence that they ARE rigged in exactly these ways, and no reasonable assertion why these things would NOT be true.

1) More action hands.  

The majority of hands in a live poker tournament, especially in the early rounds, don't see the flop and VERY few see the river.  Very few chips move around the table in those rounds, and very few chairs get emptied.  In online poker, that means you have people on your computer system, using your resources, but no longer generating any income for you (they've already paid their fee.)  The sooner you can get tables cleared, the sooner you can make more money off those players.

Every hand in online poker is computer-generated.  It would be very easy to generate an 'action grade' for the hand, based on the number of playable hands it has.  Simply by testing every hand (or every 2nd or 3rd hand,) and only dealing the hand if it has enough 'action potential', you can significantly increase the action and shorten the tournament time, without favoring any particular player.

2) More bad beats.  

As I said before, every hand in online poker is computer-generated.  That means the hole cards, flop, turn and river are all known (or knowable) before the cards are dealt.  It would be very easy to generate a 'bad beat grade' for the hand, based on a formula that IDs playable hands through the flop/turn/river where the less-favored hand wins.  Again, by testing every 5th or 8th or 15th or 25th hand and only dealing it if it has enough 'bad beat potential' the site can create more bad beats.

Why?

Bad beats keep bad players at the table, because they're usually the ones overchasing with the flush and straight draws.  But bad beats DON'T usually scare away good players, because good players know when they play a hand right, and they figure good play will win out in the end (and it usually will.)

3) The Targeted Player.

This is the evil, "look over your shoulder, where'd all those black helicopters come from" variation that conspiracy theorists love.

I'll give one example of how easy it is to do, and one reason why sites would want to do it.

Again, every hand in online poker is computer-generated and the whole outcome (less the betting) is known or knowable in advance (and even some of the betting can be assumed, for example AA or KK is not going to fold.)

So it would be simple to test every 20-30th hand, and not deal until you get a high-action, high-bad beat potential hand.  Then, before dealing, simply 'spin the table' so that the silver medal hand, the one destined for the raw end of the bad beat, lands on your targeted player.

Why do it?

One example.  You have a low stakes player, buys in for $50, stays in the $2/$5 tourneys and the .10/.25 cash tables.  But he plays pretty well, and every time he gets that bankroll up to $100 or $150 ... he cashes out.  Takes $100 off the table, where you can't get any rake or fees from it, and goes back to playing his nickel/dime games.

This guy's of no value to you.  He's not bringing new money, and he's not keeping money in play.  He's taking $$$ off your tables, and putting it in the bank, and never increasing his stakes.

So kill him.

Answer 7

Couple points:

1. I play on Poker Stars now. I used to play on FT. Imho, I get more bad beats at PS than FT, but I hardly played at FT. Imho, if these guys know what they are doing (and given the money they're giving away) I'm 99.99% certain their methods will withstand any scrutiny, otherwise they would be out of business.

2. I've gone through some bad streaks: I lost $200 in 3 days because every single JJ-AA pairs I had lost, maybe 0 for 22 in that span.

3. The other week, i went 2 for 20 on AA's only. Of the two I won, one was folded down to me on the all in, the other was when the AA's stood up to JJ for the first time in 4 tries.

4. Currently, I just (hopefully) ended a bad streak where I went around 0 for 20 on coin flips, where I was heads up and one of us had either a small pair or over cards. Every time, they hit their overcard or I missed mine. A few times, I hit my overs and they tripped.

5. Try to be philosophical. You know the example about flipping heads 100 times in a row? It's certainly possible. If you bet tails, you're in bad shape, but if you bet heads, you're golden. What I think is that winning is about stringing together a few key wins in a row, and if you win more than your opponents, you will win the tourney. If you can't string those wins together, you aren't going to win.

6. Bankroll considerations: like any single hand, you want to minimize your losses and maximize your wins. I have gone through some unbelievable losing streaks, but I have won enough that I am currently around 120X my initial bankroll. When I lost, I lost $1-10, when I won, I won $14-$200. Currently, my overall ROI is 18%.

7. Playing style: usually, when somebody takes a "bad beat," that means they were ahead in the hand and they knew it, which means they are trying to play tight. A loose player seldom takes bad beats since they are always behind anyway. If you are getting beat playing tight, _you aren't playing tight enough._ Don't go all in with only a pair, wait until you have 2 pair. Don't push with a pocket pair, wait till you hit trips. Don't call an all-in with a flush draw on the board unless you already have trips or two pair. And for heaven's sake, never EVER call a bet that puts you all in with only top pair. That's probably the most common beat there is.

Edit

8. As I was writing this, I was playing. I lost 5 $1 tourneys in a row. The first one, I got knocked out 2 places from the money when I called KK with AA, they hit the 5 card flush on the river. The other 4, i got knocked out when I got strung out on a straight that never arrived, and 3 games where I got beat with AK or better and lost to a worse hand. Then, on the 6th, I won for an overall profit of $8.50. Also, in that one game, i was down to less than 3X the big blind 3 times. I outdrew with worse hands 3 different times. I took out 2 small stacks on the final table in the same hand when my q3 os hit a straight. On the final heads up hand, They made a pair of sixes, but I used his six on the board to make a straight with t8. So just play good poker and yes, you need a lot of luck to win.

[edit]

8.5. Another example: I just played a 180/$11 sng, and on the final table, the eventual winner pulled about 12 wins in a row with the worse preflop hand. I was in the middle when I went out with an M of about 1.5 in 7th when A6 outdrew my K5. Two guys below me finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, just because they won when they needed to, but both of them got steamrolled by the player who won the 12 in a row. So the beats are actually pretty irrelvant. to win, you have to win. "playing poker" as many people are fond of saying, does have some effect, but eventually you'll be all in and have to win the hand, regardless of preflop ranking.

Answer 8

No. It is not rigged. I Play at Stars not Full Tilt but neither is rigged. None of the major sites are. There was an issue with Absolute recently but that was only because it was an insider cheating. Stars and Full Tilt are perfectly fair.