[TrivialPiper]

Does anyone else think it's possible that P*s is rigged? Is it possible that they have computer players at the tables who receive favorable, unlikely cards at the most opportune (for them) time? I've taken some ridiculous beats on P*s, but when I play in my home game I am consistently in the money and winning frequently. I finally cashed out my account and will just play for fun from now on. Either P*s is rigged or online poker is just not my thing. Thoughts?

[BlakeC27]

Originally Posted by TrivialPiper

Does anyone else think it's possible that P*s is rigged? Is it possible that they have computer players at the tables who receive favorable, unlikely cards at the most opportune (for them) time? I've taken some ridiculous beats on P*s, but when I play in my home game I am consistently in the money and winning frequently. I finally cashed out my account and will just play for fun from now on. Either P*s is rigged or online poker is just not my thing. Thoughts?

If Poker Stars is rigged God help us all. I've taken way more bad beat on Stars than I've given out but I was watching some of the WSOOP Main Event last week and there were a lot of excellent hands running into each other at key times. So who knows? Create a poll and see who agrees.

[MacGrad]

If you even have a thought that it's rigged, then you're not cut out for online poker.

You're comfortable in your home game, but that could be because you know how to play against the regulars. Have you played any tourneys at a local casino? Or in Vegas? If so, are you a consistent winner in those?

I'm sure everyone here will agree that online poker is a totally different animal than "casino" poker... it takes a different strategy than home tourneys, due to the highly aggressive nature of online players. I do have a suggestion for you: if you do well at the play money games, don't assume you'll do well in the real money games if you go back to them. I mean, I'd play a heck of a lot differently if I was playing with Monopoly money than I would if I was playing for what's in my wallet...

(... even though I'm tempted to start carrying Monopoly money in there. )

[BlakeC27]

Originally Posted by MacGrad

If you even have a thought that it's rigged, then you're not cut out for online poker.

You're comfortable in your home game, but that could be because you know how to play against the regulars. Have you played any tourneys at a local casino? Or in Vegas? If so, are you a consistent winner in those?

I'm sure everyone here will agree that online poker is a totally different animal than "casino" poker... it takes a different strategy than home tourneys, due to the highly aggressive nature of online players. I do have a suggestion for you: if you do well at the play money games, don't assume you'll do well in the real money games if you go back to them. I mean, I'd play a heck of a lot differently if I was playing with Monopoly money than I would if I was playing for what's in my wallet...

(... even though I'm tempted to start carrying Monopoly money in there. )

The amount of hands played per hour online is totally different too, so your bound to see a lot more strange things going on online than at your local cardroom.

[shanghai_sparky]

As much as I tend to think that it's rigged to produce large pots (and thereby large rakes), I highly doubt it.
Just pull out a deck of cards and deal hands to an imaginary number of players.
You will see the same goofy hands that we see on line.
The fact that people play trashy cards and bluff with anything (and sometimes win) is more a factor of the 5000 hands dealt every few minutes. The Moneymaker revolution and ESPN always showing the terrible calls and suckouts can also be pointed to.

Players are less likely to make terrible plays in person with the same people in the game from night to night.
Online, if you get busted out, you can just move to a new table with a fresh batch of victims.

[HanahanStan]

Not real sure about Poker Stars but all the other sites have a "Hanahan you're screwed" button, and the dealer seems to push it quit regularly.

[VARoadstter]

So the way you asked the question the answer is really irrelevant:

A) it's not rigged - online poker isn't your thing

B) it's rigged - why would you play at a site that cheats you?

Now, you've cashed out so I suppose that's what's best in your case either way. I don't think it's rigged. Perhaps your issue isn't so much a few bad beat, but rather playing Hold'em.

Hold'em is a very well structured game in that it has just enough betting rounds to make each round meaningful yet still offer plenty of opportunity for the player with the best hand to make money with it. The structure also has some well defined statistical parameters which make it nearly impossible to have an opponent pay you off when they are drawing completely dead. This element of chance is what keeps the fish coming back as they will sometimes be able to survive very steep odds and turn a "sure" loser into a miraculous win. If this weren't true, the fish would very quickly tire of getting their money snatched away every time they sat down. The difficult thing for the player on the other end of the spectrum is that you have to be able to handle this possiblity. If you are prone to tilting when your hands lose to improbably river cards and it affects your judgement then you end up playing like the fish you were so busy trying to catch.

I know it sucks to get your winners beat - I hate it, too. That's the way hold'em works, though.

Good luck!

[A-Ro]

Also if you're finding your taking on a lot of bad beats as opposed to giving them, just by the law of averages your "luck" should change.

People that tend to play good cards pre-flop won't deliver nearly as many bad beats as fish will.

[BlakeC27]

Originally Posted by A-Ro

Also if you're finding your taking on a lot of bad beats as opposed to giving them, just by the law of averages your "luck" should change.

People that tend to play good card pre-flop won't deliver nearly as many bad beats as fish will.

Good point.

[hachkc]

Originally Posted by TrivialPiper

Does anyone else think it's possible that P*s is rigged?

Possible yes, probable no. The short answer is if its rigged, then its been rigged in my favor for at least the last year as I'm +$$$ for over 61k cash game hands just at P* and over 100k hands across all the sites I play. I should add most of my hands are cash games and not tournaments though I'm down $75 in the 95 or so tournies I've played in.

Is it possible that they have computer players at the tables who receive favorable, unlikely cards at the most opportune (for them) time?

Yet again, possible but not probable. The only argument I've heard that COULD have any merit is they "juice the action" to create more rake and get tournies over quicker but then that should affect each player identically. I'm not saying this is true but its the only argument that I COULD possibly believe.

I've taken some ridiculous beats on P*s, but when I play in my home game I am consistently in the money and winning frequently.

I have taken and delivered some ridiculous beats and not just on P*, its simply the nature of the beast. It does take some time and effort to adapt to online poker. Take a given home game where you get maybe 20-30 hands per hour versus an online game where you easily get 45-60 hands per hour for a single table. When you add in multi-tabling, you see easily 5x the number of hands in a fraction of time. This means you will simply see more bad beats. Just out of curiousity, how many times have you profited from donkey plays by your opponents when they didn't hit their 4 outer or didn't have odds to draw? My guess is alot but most folks tend to not remember these type of hands but only the hands that they were sucked out on.

I finally cashed out my account and will just play for fun from now on. Either P*s is rigged or online poker is just not my thing. Thoughts?

I'd say online poker is just not your thing. Personally, I've determined that online tournies are not my thing for a number of reasons so I play cash games almost exclusively. The majority (90%+) of tournies I play online are either CT or HPT related events. As someone that was a consistent loser online for about the first 4mos online, I can attest to the fact that it does take time and dedication to become a winning player. Also, there are peaks and valleys (variance) where you'll win a bunch one month and then lose a bunch next month. You just need a good bank roll to ride these out. Here is my basic advice:

1. Get a bankroll and play with in it.

2. Get product like PokerTracker or PokerOffice to track and analyze your play. A good hud like PokerAce is nice addition.

3. Get a good book related to the types of games you play. I will freely admit that the recent Sklanky book NLHTAP has immensely helped my NLHE play. Some of the advice is pretty common sense but I find that common sense is usually only common once someone tells you about it.

Good luck.