Am I playing robotic hold'em

A few weeks ago, when I started learning Hold'em, I was encouraged to play thousands of games on playmoney tables on the internet and I have followed that advice. I am thoroughly enjoying the experience and, coupled with what I have learned from two books and 'Google', I am gradually learning the game.

Now my question: I have been told by two other learners that what I am playing is worthless robotic hold'em on the internet and that this was exposed by 'Watchdog'.

What I would like to know is whether or not my poker skill or lack of it is truly reflected in my results as I play online? Am I in a real game or is it 'fixed' by tapes? I know that I am playing real people as I can chat to them as I play and the almost instantaneous results appear to be correct, but am I being duped in any way? Hopefully not!!

Incidentally, I use PokerStars, UltimateBet and PartyPoker.

Thanks,
Emrys Davies.

I think you are playing against real people, if that is your question.

I have already acknowledged that I am playing against real people.

I dont really understand the question. If you're just playing extremely methodical poker then thats fine for a beginner and for play money tables. You'll eventually want to learn to vary your game up when you start playing real money games. I.e., at a 10nl table you don't want to raise 3x bb with AK-AQ-AJ, 4x bb with AA-KK-QQ, etc every time you have these hands. One time you can raise to 3.5xbb with AK and the next 4x bb. I would also suggest learning position and what cards to raise with in certain positions. For example, you dont want to raise without premium hands from utg. Later positions you can raise with other hands.

If I have completely misinterpreted this question then my apologies.

Edit: One last thing on position. I believe it was Sklansky who said you always have to have a better hand to call with than to raise with.

If you're playing limit, this is 100% true imo.

Seriously, let me guess, your friends have deposited like 50 bucks online, played $50NL with it, took one bad beat and gone bust, and hence the "zomg it's fixed!" ramblings?

I'm not an avid viewer of Watchdog (mainly because it sucks), but I've never heard of there being anything specifically regarding online poker on the programme. A quick google search would seem to support me.

Basically, your fellow learners most likely suck at poker and don't understand variance.

don't listen to "dorkus malorkus", he's a robot too. you can tell by his exemplary punctuation. nice try, machine!

Don't listen to Combuboom saying Dorcus is a robot because Combuboom is a robot.

Robots stick together like good robots should

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BITE ME

y/n/q

don't listen to pigpen02 saying don't listen to combuboom saying dorkus is a robot, because pigpen02 is a robot as well

See? The robot turned on its caps lock in order to have more force in the words, which it uses to fight off the claims that infact it is a robot.

emrys1

When I read your post I got the feeling they were suggesting you were playing holdem almost 'by the book'. During the phase of learning that you are in, this is NOT A BAD THING! Continue doing what you are doing. Learn to post hand histories (HH's), ask us some specific questions, mention the 'robotic holdem' thing, and we can help you understand what your crictics were mentioning, and how you might want to deal with it.

Ignore those bickering C3PO's!

Oink. click..Oink. click..Oink. click..Oink. click..Oink. THUMP! No I am not, and that was not a recording.

Actually, that shows he is NOT a robot because a robot would say, "WOULD YOU LIKE TO BYTE ME?"

Your friends are also learning so take what they say with a grain of salt. I am guessing that what they are meaning is that they don't see how you can get any reads or tells on the computer. As you learn the game and the players you will notice that betting patterns, speed of bets placed and several other things will tip you as to what they have. Google on line poker tells.

Sadly no-one so far has understood my question. It has nothing to do with me learning how to play poker or the strategy involved. I am merely asking if the setup at the poker site is genuine, is the information I receive repetitive. Am I simply playing a machine which has been fed with data which has been fed in over and over again. Am I playing a robot. In short is it a farce. Is the set-up robotic in as much that if I had the brainpower to study, assimilate and digest the values of the cards dealt etc. on the various sites I would be able to use that information to my advantage when a tape of it is repeated in future games..

The R in RCG's stand for Random not Repetative.

ASSIMILATE





Lol how can someone seriously think this. I cant answer it seriously.

omg ill try.

Man you arnt playing against robots, or a computer... but 99.9% of the people you play are real. Some sites are known to have "bots" which is probably what some joe1pokerAA told you. Thats the .1 and the bigger sites have great bot protection stoping them completely.

so you are playing REAL PLAYERS.

As to whether online poker is rigged, there are numerous threads about it here, and the overwhelming conclusion appears to be that isn't. There has been a case of a computer consultant working at one poker site allegedly playing whilst watching the hole cards of all the other players, but this lasted a very short period of time and we have been told it can't happen again

So you're asking if there is some pre-determined set number of hands that is repeated. Like if I have AsQs this hand and the board come KsJs10s, I'll know that in exactly 62,000 hands I'll have this exacts same hand again. The answer is no. The cards are random and that makes it just as likely to happen on the next hand as any of the 62,000 to follow.

I get the feeling this guy might also question if his day to day life is real...or...if he is in, the Matrix! du du duuuhhhhhhhhh

The answer is out there, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to

Watch out for the Rabbit Hole, Alice!!!

LOL love it

Right you are!

PokerStars talks about their randomization techniques HERE.
1) They use a true hardware random number generator developed by Intel which uses thermal noise as an entropy source.
2) They use "user input, including summary of mouse movements and events timing, collected from client software."

I love that last part. You know what that means, right? Each player, in some small way, controls their own destiny. When/where you move the mouse determines what cards will show up. Now, there's no way of knowing which of the millions of pixel your opponents mouse-arrow will pass though, so you can't predict an outcome, but you're still adding data which will be used toward the outcome.

I admit, when I'm all-in sometimes I'll wave the mouse around randomly, figuring that if I get sucked out on, at least the loss might be partially my own fault.

Used to play at a site that had 3 to 5 bots with bounties on them. The site made sure there was no question which player was their bot and also had different rewards for the player that knocked them out posted in the tourney info. (bounties were bonus points)

They always got knocked out....

To those bots posting here, rotflmao fyi ty gtg cya

The cards are random, buddy. They have fancy al-ge-bro and trick-a-no-metry that takes care of that.

But if you are worried about bots... well, I'm a drunk one, so they're out there.

I'm still learning also, but have found that play money games are about worthless, no one plays like they would in a real money game. Freerolls seem to be all right for learning. Just my thoughts