Concerning "Online Sites being Rigged"...

Hello, I know that there is no possible way for SURE I could KNOW whether or not online sites "reward" certain players or "give" cards to people who need them on the river, but I thought I'd put in what I THINK.

First of all, I'd like to admit that I HAVE seen some PRETTY RIDICULOUS hands on the internet.

That having been said, here goes:

Online, you see many more hands per hour than you do in real life. That includes EVERY kind of hand, whether it be normal, funny, a bad beat, or just plain ridiculous.
The thing is, however, how often do people talk about NORMAL hands?
That's right, never.
What I'm saying is, people remember all the bad beat stories they have, and FORGET all the "typical" hands. Therefore, there ends up being nothing but the crazy(yet true) stories all over anywhere.
I think if someone averaged every one of these stories with every OTHER hand that happens too, it would probably compare to real-life statistics.

It's DEFINITELY POSSIBLE that some online sites are rigged, but I think this idea is worth contemplating by some firm believers.

Just my thoughts

I'd like to compare this idea with crime.

According to Crimes and Crime Rates, by Type statistics - USA Census numbers, in 1999, violent crime only made up about 12.29% of crime in the USA. But you wouldn't think that percentage would be so low from what you hear on the news. Everything we see nowadays is murder or hate crime or rape. Same sort of deal with bad beats, in my opinion.

Yes it would be crime....but that's not quite the point I was making.

Watch youtube videos of bad beats, especially Daniel Negreanu's. They happen plenty in live games. I have been lookin at how much money the sites make and a site like Pokerstars makes an insane amount of money in rake that if they were rigging anything it would be just overkill in cash flow. They make almost a million dollars in rake money in one year from hosting just the Sunday hundred grand at 19g's a week. At the rate of 10% for every single SNG and MTT running 24/7, plus the cash game tables, the sites are milking everyone dry slowly. Full tilt is endorsed by a lot of pro and respected players and also make insane rake money.

If any sites do any rigging, it would probably be small and unpopular sites. The big ones make so much money in rake, that I imagine they would want to provide a simple, legit and good shuffle generator, without going into a complicated reward losing players with river suckouts system.

Yes; Another good point.

Well, then again, there is the Absolute Poker scandal, though it just might be the cheating from a few inside individuals and not the whole company.

I love it when people think that the sites have nothing better to do than systematically bust them at the $2 SnG's. Seriouslly they already try to do that, its called the rake.

Why would a site jeopardise the huge sum of money they make each day through rake by Fixing a $2 SnG which has no baring to themselves at all. Does my head in.

There's a HUGE difference between 'rigging' and 'cheaters'.

All the previous replies about big sites are correct. No need to rig the play for any player. All the reasons listed for 'sites' not rigging are correct. More hands per hour, big enough rakes, more players, level of play, etc. It is my belief that there is also one other reason seldom mentioned. More hands go to showdown online than you ever see in on live tables.

The anonimity factor allows online players to do a lot of things they would NEVER do live facing other players across the table. The more hands that go to showdown, the more river beats you will see.

Cheating is and should be the main concern. If there weren't cheaters at live tables, collusion between dealers and players, card markers, card counters and the like, Pit Bosses would all be unemployed and security cameras could be disconnected. Pit bosses aren't there just to keep track of player points for your comps.

Online there will always be hackers and cheaters, all trying to beat the system. It's the nature of gambling and their need to always create an edge in THEIR favor.

One thing I do find interesting is the current outcry for sites to make all investigations and discoveries of cheating hugely public. A BnM casino takes a cheater into a security area, resolves the issue, and players are usually unaware of the total situation or the outcome. Casinos do not take cheaters to the middle of the casino, construct a bandstand and make it a public circus.

Considering the tens of millions of online poker players, there will always be those attempting to cheat and there should be every reasonable effort to detect and punish accordingly.

ya i definately think ppl catch normal hands and monster hands, but its like human nature to think more hard bout the bad than the good u kno, think bout the good things in life and the bad things, usually ppl can remember the bad things better....so it probably does equal out with good hands and bad beats.