Are Online Poker Sites Fair Or Rigged

The online poker sites would have you believe that their software is fair for all players. In fact many of the online poker sites are required to submit their software for rigorous testing to prove it is a fair game for all players. However, is the software really fair? On the other hand, is there something going on in the background that many people never realize?

Many victims of bad beats will scream “this site is rigged” while others will counter that the suck outs and bad beats are all a part of poker and it happens even in live games. While that is true, it still begs the question as to whether there is more to the online poker game than meets the eye.

In a recent study conducted by a popular poker forum, the question, “Are Online Poker Sites Rigged?” was posed and the results were nearly split with 42 percent saying yes and 58 percent saying no. However, opinions by players really have no bearing on the truth as to whether there is something amiss in the software.

Attacks Against Online Poker Sites

As I laid out in my last article, “The Regulatory Reitzification of Online Poker Rooms,” the reason so many fly by night poker rooms (AB casinos) are so lucrative is because the small time players feeding a growing herd get taken out in the turn of a card. The fundamental problem with poker sites is that they cater to well known and big name players. Which helps to explain why the likes of Full Tilt and PokerStars are so popular.

The average poker player is looking for a quick fix and will be much quicker to278) accept a bad beat, thus finishing their tournament much faster and with less effort. But, is this the only factor why these sites have such a competitive hold on the market?

The sheer size of the poker community and mass obscurity of poker sites really opens the door for attack when the site is more flooded with players than it has ever been in its history. When the poker rooms are experiencing aorically low volume of players, it is essentially a free for all for the players to take advantage of the weak players and then piggyback the poor decisions they made to a higher level of play.

For example, what happens when the most prevail player goes all in on a heads up with pocket Q’s? The board positions are reversed and the guy is now the MPO500. How many times does a player lose a hefty pot to a poor hand, but then completely meltdown when his Q’s are cracked?

Unless you are playing in cash games, players have the right to fold any hand as long as they have not invested any money into the pot. With a limit of $100, a player would have a maximum of $2,700 in chips to playable hands before he is blinded out. However, online poker rooms have taken a more radical step and made a new rule. “No limit”.

If any player is willing to risk going all in, regardless of what his cards are, he can go all in no matter what his cards are. The maximum bet is now the minimum of the amount of money that can be lost by the player in the hand and the maximum risk is limited to the current pot, which in the case of online poker rooms is often a substantial amount.

Playing in these cash games is exponentially more difficult than playing in tournaments because the amount of money you are up against is far higher. This puts more stress on your poker skills in different ways. You are now in fact required to make a move before you go out. You move all in before the flop but you have not made any decision yet. You need to take a decision as to whether you want your current hand to stay the same or if you want to fold.

While your decision is not necessarily influenced by the amount of money you have in play, the result of your move can influence the next one. Probabilities can play wild when money is on the line. It takes a lot of skill to make those clutch calls when you are not sure of the outcome, but when you have a lot of cash in play, it can influence positively as you push all-in. Moreover, the more you play online poker, the more you are likely to notice thesehands.

The majority of times, the best solution to an don’t come across one, but if you see one occasionally, you can sometimes get quite superstitious about it and refuse to play. Either way, if you do see one, be sure to treat it as just that: a probability event. Play your hundred dollars as you would a dollar and anticipate making the same number of top pairs, back doors, straights, flushes and more, just as you would for an ordinary probably.