Being an online poker player for a few years now, I have heard so many times accusations that online poker is fixed. I must confess all the different reasons given for this I can understand them all. I also have had occasions where I have nearly thrown the lap top out of the window and ranted that the sites a total fix and I am never playing again. But within a hour I am back on the site playing away. So why do we think online poker is fixed ?, online poker is a massive industry, what benefit would it be to the operating companies to fix games ?
I plan on this blog to explore the different reasons people think online poker sites fix games and to attempt to work out fact from myth.
Bad Beats
Lets start with bad beats, there are a multitude of different reasons people think bad beats are set up from action flops, to the dealer pause before the river card, sucking out, bad players rewarded, small blind, big blind stitch up and many more. The truth is though bad beats happen in live poker and online poker. View some of the short clips below from both live games and online poker games. Some show good play and someone getting lucky?, and others show why people think online poker is fixed. But then the same would have to be said for live poker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY3b27vZwYk Phil Hellmouth v Tom "Durrr" Dwan Live
http://www.pokermoneyisthebestmoney.com/2009/gus-hansen-suckout Online
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x85ebk_european-poker-tour-ept-highlights Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qgfXsecRSc Online
These are just a few do a search in google and you will find lots of examples.
If you view the Gus Hansen suck out, this covers a few examples of why people believe online poker is fixed, it has what's called the small blind, big blind stitch up, bad beat and suck out.
Lets review it.
Hansen in the small blind raises. there are no other callers, he has j9 reasonable enough hand to raise with a lot of the time he is going to steal the big blind with the raise. The big blind re-raises, but not enough to get Hansen to fold, was this a mistake, if the re-raise had been all in would have Hansen have called, I doubt it and then their would never have been a bad beat, remember people have to call in order for a bad beat to happen in the first place. The flop comes 9 6 5, with two clubs on the board and straight draw possibilities, Hansen thinks he's in front and pushes all in I suspect nervous of the draws on the board, he gets called with the QQ and then hits the J on the turn. Goes down as a bad beat, suck out etc. But lets reverse it, what if the J hadn't had come, people would say it was still fixed, i.e it gave Hansen the top pair knowing he was going to push with that board. What I am trying to say is this type of hand gives cause whichever way it plays out for people to say online poker is fixed.
Professional poker players, who make a living from the game whether it be on line or live, watch every hand, even when they are not in it and anaylise why they lost hands. They don't blame the site or the dealer, they do sometimes blame the other player for bad calls etc, but never the site or the dealer in live games. This should tell us something, these people make a living my working out what they could have done different, not blaming the site.
I believe the biggest problem lies with the amount of players on line today and the tournament, cash games types people play. Read any experts book from a few years back and they will all say how long it took them to understand this game fully, to play solid so to speak. With the amount of information now available on poker, tv shows, Internet and the amount of sites you can play on people get a pretty good understanding of how to play solid poker very quickly. It is these people I believe who mostly bemoan and state online poker is fixed.
Why ?
I have a couple of theories here and one contradicts itself a little which you will see later. I believe most players who have a good understanding of what is solid play, pots etc play in games beneath them, they play in 1 dollar to say 5 dollar tourneys or small cash games and don't understand that at these tables you are going to get novice players who not fully understanding the game yet will call, when in a million years you wouldn't and they will suck out sometimes. In addition you get very good players who watch the table and very quickly work out who is only going to play with premium hands and will of course call with their rag hands and yes will sometimes hit.
Remember just because you start with AA, KK. AK what ever it does not mean you will automatically win.
Another point to remember is what cards have been folded, if you have 10 10 and two tens have been folded your not getting another 10, if somebody has 3 7 suited for example, and nobody else had that suite or a 3 or 7 surely the odds of hitting increase, common sense says they do.
Anyway I have to finish up for today now but will carry on this article tomorrow.
I plan on this blog to explore the different reasons people think online poker sites fix games and to attempt to work out fact from myth.
Bad Beats
Lets start with bad beats, there are a multitude of different reasons people think bad beats are set up from action flops, to the dealer pause before the river card, sucking out, bad players rewarded, small blind, big blind stitch up and many more. The truth is though bad beats happen in live poker and online poker. View some of the short clips below from both live games and online poker games. Some show good play and someone getting lucky?, and others show why people think online poker is fixed. But then the same would have to be said for live poker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY3b27vZwYk Phil Hellmouth v Tom "Durrr" Dwan Live
http://www.pokermoneyisthebestmoney.com/2009/gus-hansen-suckout Online
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x85ebk_european-poker-tour-ept-highlights Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qgfXsecRSc Online
These are just a few do a search in google and you will find lots of examples.
If you view the Gus Hansen suck out, this covers a few examples of why people believe online poker is fixed, it has what's called the small blind, big blind stitch up, bad beat and suck out.
Lets review it.
Hansen in the small blind raises. there are no other callers, he has j9 reasonable enough hand to raise with a lot of the time he is going to steal the big blind with the raise. The big blind re-raises, but not enough to get Hansen to fold, was this a mistake, if the re-raise had been all in would have Hansen have called, I doubt it and then their would never have been a bad beat, remember people have to call in order for a bad beat to happen in the first place. The flop comes 9 6 5, with two clubs on the board and straight draw possibilities, Hansen thinks he's in front and pushes all in I suspect nervous of the draws on the board, he gets called with the QQ and then hits the J on the turn. Goes down as a bad beat, suck out etc. But lets reverse it, what if the J hadn't had come, people would say it was still fixed, i.e it gave Hansen the top pair knowing he was going to push with that board. What I am trying to say is this type of hand gives cause whichever way it plays out for people to say online poker is fixed.
Professional poker players, who make a living from the game whether it be on line or live, watch every hand, even when they are not in it and anaylise why they lost hands. They don't blame the site or the dealer, they do sometimes blame the other player for bad calls etc, but never the site or the dealer in live games. This should tell us something, these people make a living my working out what they could have done different, not blaming the site.
I believe the biggest problem lies with the amount of players on line today and the tournament, cash games types people play. Read any experts book from a few years back and they will all say how long it took them to understand this game fully, to play solid so to speak. With the amount of information now available on poker, tv shows, Internet and the amount of sites you can play on people get a pretty good understanding of how to play solid poker very quickly. It is these people I believe who mostly bemoan and state online poker is fixed.
Why ?
I have a couple of theories here and one contradicts itself a little which you will see later. I believe most players who have a good understanding of what is solid play, pots etc play in games beneath them, they play in 1 dollar to say 5 dollar tourneys or small cash games and don't understand that at these tables you are going to get novice players who not fully understanding the game yet will call, when in a million years you wouldn't and they will suck out sometimes. In addition you get very good players who watch the table and very quickly work out who is only going to play with premium hands and will of course call with their rag hands and yes will sometimes hit.
Remember just because you start with AA, KK. AK what ever it does not mean you will automatically win.
Another point to remember is what cards have been folded, if you have 10 10 and two tens have been folded your not getting another 10, if somebody has 3 7 suited for example, and nobody else had that suite or a 3 or 7 surely the odds of hitting increase, common sense says they do.
Anyway I have to finish up for today now but will carry on this article tomorrow.
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