Poker is a game of skill, with a small dollop of luck tossed in. Because of this (or perhaps in spite of it) there are many online poker players who have postulated a number of conspiracy theories about the game. A brief scan of a few poker forums will reveal plenty of cries of “the game was rigged!” and “I can’t win after I cash out.” As with most conspiracy theories, a reasonable explanation usually exists.
There are a variety of poker conspiracy theories that should simply be ignored. Let’s take a look at a few of these…
Players have been debating for years whether or not everything is on the up and up when it comes to online poker, with much of the conversation on poker forums focused on PokerStars. As the industry’s top online poker site for almost a decade, it’s no suprise that PokerStars faces allegations every now and again from disgruntled players who swear that they’ve been cheated.
The Cash-out Curse
- Sep 26, 2006 Arguing that Online Poker could be rigged because it is not regulated is a moot point. There is no governing body, but there doesn't need to be one. Statistical analysis polices online casinos. And that analysis is provided by the most trustworthy party involved in the online poker process.the players themselves.
- Nothing could be more suspicious than a rigged poker article without references to those rare unfortunate times where a dishonest room tarried the Great Game’s reputation. The Wild West of poker, along with the heroes and villains it bore, has gone the way of the setting sun. Regulatory bodies police game integrity with militant efficiency.
One of the most popular and ridiculous poker conspiracy theories that you’ll find on message boards and poker forums is the cash-out curse. This conspiracy theory presumes that a player who cashes out some of his money from an online poker site will experience a horrible losing streak when he returns to play. The theory figures that a “curse flag” will be placed on the poker player’s account, singling them out to be dealt bad beats.
What would be the motive for such a policy? Poker conspiracy theorists say that a poker room’s motivation for the cash-out curse is twofold: firstly, they’re trying to punish you for cashing out and discouraging you from cashing out in the future. Secondly, the card room hates it when players cash out and redistributing the money to other players allows the house to eventually receive the money through the rake. Although it may be possible to see the twisted logic in this sort of reasoning, the simple fact is that the online poker cash-out curse is not real.
Poker is a game of constant, volatile fluctuations - what we call variance. Typically, a player will cash out after experiencing a nice winning streak. The average casual player will have a few wins, look at their bankroll, and think “Hey! That’s enough cash for that new set of golf clubs I had my eye on.” When he returns to the play poker online, he returns with an inflated sense of his poker skills. He doesn’t feel like he can lose, and when he inevitably does, he cries about the cash-out curse.
The situation is worsened when an online poker player who has cashed out is over-confident and decides to move up in stakes, where more advanced poker players are waiting to take his or her money.
Bad Beats
A “bad beat” typically occurs when you’re playing poker and receive a strong hand after the flop. Despite your seemingly monstrous hand, another player calls with a weak draw and beats you by getting a lucky card on the turn and/or river. Although this is actually a rather common occurrence due to the luck component of the game, it has led several naive poker players to cry conspiracy theory.
The theory is that poker sites are rigged to ensure that weak players don’t lose all of their money to better poker players too quickly. This is because a bad poker player who lasts longer will lose more of his money to the rake instead of to another player. The conspiracy theory postulates that bad poker players have their playing sessions extended by the online card room intentionally, at the cost of bad beats for stronger players.
The reality of the situation, of course, is that bad beats occur naturally. Firstly, online poker players, especially those at the micro limits, tend to be weak, passive, and loose with their chips. When the overall quality of the game is very loose, with players playing far more hands than they should, there are bound to be situations where a bad player sees lucky cards and beats a better player. Bad beats even occur deep in the main event of the World Series of Poker. In addition, online poker is played at a much faster pace than live poker. It would stand to reason, then, that you’ll see many more bad beats.
Action Flops
This is another theory that is based on the online card room trying to make more money from the rake. The theory states that the online poker site intentionally deals flops that help multiple hands in order to build up the pots, and therefore increase the rake that the card room receives.
This conspiracy theory is also explained by the loose nature of online poker, particularly at the lower limits. With so many players seeing the flop, there are bound to be instances where the flop helps multiple poker hands. Comparing live poker to online poker, pots will often be larger and more players will be eager to pursue weaker hands.
Again, it’s important to remember the random nature of the way in which cards are dealt.
Random Number Generator (RNG) Dealing Systems
The random number generator (RNG) is the backbone of any online poker room. An understanding of how they work will help dispel any of the conspiracy theories you’ve read so far in this article. The purpose of a random number generator is to ensure that there are no biases and that cards are distributed in an unpredictable fashion.
You might be surprised to know, but it’s impossible for a computer to produce a truly random shuffle all on its own. An unpredictable external stimulus is required for a pseudo-random shuffle. Online poker sites have various ways of creating a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG), which rely on real world physical processes that are unpredictable. Examples include:
- Combined mouse movements from players connected to the online poker room.
- Thermal movements around the computer’s thermal entropy chip.
In many respects the online poker rooms go beyond what is actually necessary to create an unpredictable and random shuffle to provide a fair and unbiased playing environment. Using such methods also ensures a potential hacker cannot break or crack the random number generator.
Many of the conspiracy theories suggest that online poker rooms somehow fix their random number generators to produce certain results. The fact is that any attempt to create some kind of set of rules or decision engine into a random system would immediately invalidate the randomness – and a dysfunctional random number generator would be extremely easy to spot.
Also, let’s not forget that there are online poker players with hundreds of thousands of hand histories, saved in poker tracking software programs. These poker hand histories are regularly scrutinized by the poker playing community, and if there ever was some kind of “fix” by an online poker room, (that produced results that deviated beyond expected variance), it would be pounced upon immediately.
So, is Online Poker Rigged?
No, online poker is not rigged. The conspiracy theory presuming that online poker is in some way rigged is misconception that has been proliferated through poker forums and internet message boards. It’s human nature for a person who loses or has an unfortunate streak of poor luck to claim that the system was rigged, simply because it’s more difficult and uncomfortable to accept the fact that they were responsible for their own losses.
Players who continue to spout on about online poker being rigged (known as “rigtards”) are usually the same people who have a hard time accepting the fact that they might be a losing poker player. Instead of learning more about the game of poker and trying to improve their poker skills, they assume that system is working against them. It’s not!
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By Tim Ryerson
Tim is from London, England and has been playing poker since the late 1990’s. He is the ‘Editor-in-Chief’ at Pokerology.com and is responsible for all the content on the website.
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By Andrew Collinson
Legal Expert
If you've ever played online poker for any length of time then you'll have probably have read the phrase, 'this game is rigged' somewhere online.
Uttered on forums, in chat boxes and anywhere someone will listen, the phrase is a favourite of tilting players the world over. But do they have a point, and how can online poker be rigged?
Fortunately, in reality, the people that often say that online poker is rigged are nothing more than disgruntled grinders on the wrong side of a bad beat. However, in some instances, there is some substance to the claims.
How Can Online Poker Be Rigged?
In essence, online poker can be rigged in two main ways: internally or externally. Luckily, instances of rigged games are extremely rare.
1 - The Site Is At Fault
Pppoker Rigged
When an instance of unfair play or cheating occurs, it can be deemed as an internal if the site is at fault. Although this cheating isn't always malicious, it can occur and often costs players a lot of money. The main reason for so-called 'internal cheating' is often because of a software or security flaw.
Online poker sites aren't usually in the business of actively deceiving players. However, some employees of the company might be.
Two of the most famous instances of this kind of cheating occurred at the now defunct Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. Thanks to a software glitch in the system (which remained unexposed for a number of years), a handful of unscrupulous employees were able to exploit each site's software and see their opponents' hole cards.
Naturally, this gave them a huge advantage at the table as 'super-users' and allowed them to win millions of dollars in illicit funds.
Is Wsop Online Poker Rigged
Fortunately, these two incidents haven't been repeated since as legit online poker sites now ensure all their software and employees are monitored extremely closely.
2 - Player Collusion and Multi-Accounting
An online poker site can often acquire the tag 'rigged' if a player or group of players are cheating.
Although this isn't the doing of the site itself, they often take the brunt of the abuse and, moreover, are held accountable for the incidents.
Common forms of cheating by poker players include:
- Creating multiple accounts in order to increase their chances of success in a single tournament.
- Being able to exploit a glitch in the system to gain more information on their players.
- Buying hand histories from).
- Colluding with players at the same table in order to exploit unsuspecting opponents.
Cheating is a lot less common than it was, and sites are better-equipped than ever for hunting out cheats.
Famous Poker Cheats
In the early days of the game there were many more instances of players saying 'rigged online poker sites' were stealing their money.
Although times have changed and security is now a lot better, the embryonic stages of the industry did see a number of high profile incidents of cheating.
Russ Hamilton - When the UltimateBet scandal broke and it was revealed that an account was able to see other player's hole cards, the one name people alleged was behind it was Russ Hamilton.
Winning Poker Network Rigged
Josh Fields - A former online tournament player, Fields was the first high-profile player to be caught using more than one account on the same site.
Sorel Mizzi - Alongside Fields, Mizzi was found to hold multiple accounts on various sites and he used them to enter a single tournament numerous times.
Scott Tom and AJ Green - It's alleged that these two players used software that allowed them to see everyone's' hole cards on Absolute Poker under the account POTRIPPER.
Brian Townsend - Like Mizzi and Fields, Townsend was caught multi-accounting on Full Tilt and later admitted to doing the same on PokerStars.
Mark Teltscher - Playing under the name 'TheV0id', British pro Teltscher was accused of multi-accounting in the PokerStars' 2007 WCOOP Main Event.
Darren Woods - An English player, Woods was convicted of creating multiple accounts at 888poker in order to earn more commission from his affiliate deal.
Protecting Yourself
Rigged online poker is a real thing and is something you need to be aware of. So, how can you keep yourself safe at the tables?
Random Number Generator - Before you join an online poker site, make sure it has a certified random number generator that ensures its games are 100 percent fair.
Looking for strange lines and soft play - Players that collude will often play differently against each other than the rest of the table. Look for players making strange folds and not playing back in obvious spots.
Noticing players who always sit together - A group of players that always sit in the same cash games could be working together to steal your money.
Reviewing your stats - One of the ways the online community discovers cheaters is by reviewing their stats. If a player is winning at an implausible rate, it could be a sign they are using illicit tactics.
Reporting Collusion and Cheating
If you're not happy with the service you've received and feel as though an online poker site is rigged, you can take your grievances to the site itself and, ultimately, it's licensing authority (such as the UK Gambling Commission).
Each governing body is responsible for investigating any complaints made against an online poker site in their jurisdiction.
Can Online Poker Be Rigged
If you do suspect that an online poker site is rigged, you should contact the site in the first instance and then follow up with a complaint to the licensing agency by phone, email or post.
When you do this, make sure you outline the nature of your complaint, including: the site you've played on, the series of events you find suspicious and any other background information you feel is relevant.
Every site and its licensing agent are obliged to investigate all complaints and, if necessary, freeze any accounts they suspect of cheating. Once an investigation is complete, you will often be notified of the findings and, if necessary, you'll have any funds you've lost as a result of the cheating refunded.