How to win at online poker

Alon Ipser · Feb 10, 2006

The first thing you have to take into consideration is that online poker is rigged. It isn't rigged so that the house wins an above average amount of hands because in online poker, players play against each. The online casino makes it's money by raking or taking part of the pot. So the casino rigs games in a several different ways to increase their rake.

First, they want to keep all players winning equally regardless of skill and ability. This is done by rewarding poor play so that the poor players aren't knocked out by the better players and they can stay and continue to bet. You always hear about suck outs online but how often to you hear about it in live games.

Second, they want to increase the amount of bets. They do this by giving players in early position better hands to get the betting started. If you have ever played online poker you know you always get your best hand UTG.

Third, they they want big pots. This one is done quite easily by matching big hand against big hand.

Now keeping these things in mind I have come up with some simple rules for playing online poker

1) Always play any hand and at least take a look at the flop especially if you are UTG.

2) If you receive big hole cards (AA, KK, QQ, AKs, etc) be cautious. If you flop a monster hand check the board and see if anyone else could have the nuts or draw the nuts. If there is a chance of someone getting a better hand it will probably happen.

3) Always chase flushes and straights. you will be suprised how many you will hit on the river.

4) If you flop a straight or a flush, fold immediatly. If you flop a straight someone will get a flush and if you flop a flush someone will get a fullhouse.

5) If your stack is getting a little short, just push all in. Chances are you will win regardless of what you have. You do have to keep in mind that someone with a smaller or equal stack may call you though.

A final thought; You don't see or hear much about online poker being rigged or how to get around it because most of the forums are owned by the online casinos and they do their best to tell how honest it is. There is always people to tell how to play and how they win, but if the truth were known most these people don't even play. They just get paid to spread propaganda. Use these rules to win and I hope to see you at the tables and I really mean it when I say I hope to see you at the tables.

Osmann · Feb 10, 2006

Ahhh, now I will definately start winning when I play. I expect to go pro with this newly discovered knowledge. Thank you very much

Freakakanus · Feb 11, 2006

Have a bad night Alon? I know, it's the same with me right now too.

Stick66 · Feb 11, 2006

No, I think he's pulling our leg. Y'all just don't get it yet.

holduplaya · Feb 11, 2006

wow

This is true well from my expierence so far. The truth though 90% of the people who told me or showed me thier first royal flush was playing against an opponent with quads. Most of the time I hit my flush draws on the river. 50% of the time I have a flush draw on the flop and the other 50% it was on the turn but by the river I hit my flush, well when I did hit my flush. This is very believable to some extent though. I mean they may rig the games, but that would be Illegal wounldn't it be? but even though it is illegal all they need to do is cover it up by having like 1 billion different shuffles (on some sites they say what hand number it is) but they could set the hands used within a certain range lets say 100,000,000th hand and 600,000,000th hand or shuffle and these 500,000,000 (the shuffles between the above) can be the shuffles which are going to generate them the most profit.

shuffles are the way the cards can fall and if my calculations are correct or somewhat correct, ok i'll consult my math instructor, the cards may fall 1,399,838,462 different ways.

I must be crazy correct me if I'm wrong please.

smd173 · Feb 11, 2006

Well the debate will always rage on as to whether online poker is really rigged.

I'll say the following:
I have had 3 Royal Flushes online in about 2+ years of play. The rough odds of a royal flush are 650K to 1. The odds of hitting the Pennsylvania Lottery's Cash 5 of 39 game is 575K to 1. I've been playing that game for over 10 years. I have no jackpot hits.

One of my Royal Flushes came when I was all in preflop with AsKs vs. QQ. My opponent flopped Quad Q's, I hit the Royal on the Turn.

I have never had a royal flush live. In fact, I've only ever even SEEN one live ONCE. I have seen 2 other royal flushes online (outside of the 3 I've gotten).

I've been at online sit n go's where you'll see Quads two times in the same game. I played for 8 hours in AC a few months back and saw Quads once during those 8 hours.

There are too many statistical anomalies online for it to be part of standard deviation. But the truth behind the online RNGs will never be revealed and there will always be a fresh crop of players waiting to play.

rocka13 · Feb 11, 2006

Champagne comedy Alon

Four Dogs · Feb 11, 2006

Alon, I surprised at you. This suspicion of on-line poker is nothing new, and Iv'e never seen anyone who's been able to back it up with a shread of evidence. The fact is, with all the hand tracking software available today, if there were any truth to it, it would be impossible to hide.

The argument usually goes like this.
"The poker sites are unregulated. Anyone can write software that juices the cards. The bigger the pots, the more money the casino's make. Therefore human nature dictates that, all this being true, on-line poker MUST be dishonest, and anyone who disagrees has their head in the sand."

Except for the last part, I actually agree with the logic chain except that it's incomplete. There is more money in running a tight ship than duping the rubes out of a few pennies. The most reputable sites know that their good standing is the only thing between them and going the way of Planet Poker (an interesting story for another time). That is why they do subject themselves voluntarily to regulations and auditing through various ad hoc licensing authorities such as the Kahnawake Gaming Commission or some of the Carribean Nations. Well, who says they're legit? Nobody, but these on-line casinos are not operating in a vaccuum. They're competing in a huge market against 100's of other casinos. The slightest whiff of irregularities, varified or not, could mean the loss of thousands of members and millions of dollars.

Simply put, there is no need for the most popular sites to alter the outcome of any games and doing so would be self destructive.

Dorkus Malorkus · Feb 11, 2006

lol @ 4dogs ^^

Alon Ipser said:
1) Always play any hand and at least take a look at the flop especially if you are UTG.

Exactly. UTG is a great position to be in because you get the first chance to bluff at the pot after the flop too!

Alon Ipser said:
2) If you receive big hole cards (AA, KK, QQ, AKs, etc) be cautious. If you flop a monster hand check the board and see if anyone else could have the nuts or draw the nuts. If there is a chance of someone getting a better hand it will probably happen.

Better yet, just save yourself the heartache and fold preflop.

Alon Ipser said:
4) If you flop a straight or a flush, fold immediatly. If you flop a straight someone will get a flush and if you flop a flush someone will get a fullhouse.

...and if you flop a full house, the site will go down.

Alon Ipser said:
5) If your stack is getting a little short, just push all in. Chances are you will win regardless of what you have. You do have to keep in mind that someone with a smaller or equal stack may call you though.

This is bad advice. Online poker tourneys are rigged AGAINST the short stack so they can be over with quicker and the site can make more rake of course! But never fear my friends! As long as when you find a good hand while shortstacked you DON'T PUSH ALL IN, and instead leave 1 chip behind you, then the law of inverse rigging applies and you're something like a 900:1 overdog to win!

Four Dogs · Feb 11, 2006

LMFAOROFPIMP

Alon Ipser · Feb 11, 2006

I am glad this article is going over well. I plan on doing some more in the future including "Aliens and humans are interbreeding", "The greenhouse affect is actually caused by human overpopulation and flatulence" and "Why soccer is better than American football".

Four Dogs · Feb 11, 2006

Alon Ipser said:
I am glad this article is going over well. I plan on doing some more in the future including ...."Why soccer is better than American football".

lol. Once again, there is not a shread of evidence to prove this.

Greg · Feb 11, 2006

OH NO YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT.

:boxing:

tenbob · Feb 11, 2006

Four Dogs said:
lol. Once again, there is not a shread of evidence to prove this.

Getting more hilarious by the second....... whos next ????

robwhufc · Feb 11, 2006

Four Dogs said:
lol. Once again, there is not a shread of evidence to prove this.

Football (Soccer) played in 200+ countries. American Football? 4? 5?

Four Dogs · Feb 11, 2006

This is because REAL Football requires a higher level of testosterone than can normally be found in the average European, male. That's OK though, you guys are better at other less masculine things. Like art and wine tasting and..... ah....COOKING! Yeah, you guys can cook better than us! Unless it involves fire.

tenbob · Feb 11, 2006

Four Dogs said:
This is because REAL Football requires a higher level of testosterone than can normally be found in the average European, male.

Pah, rugby= real mans sport, and no body armour required. And as for a tought sport ???

hurling HURLING [hurling] outdoor ball and stick game similar to field hockey . The national pastime of ireland, it was played for many centuries before the Gaelic Athletic Association standardized the rules in 1884. In the United States, hurling was played by early Irish immigrants, and it is still played by some Irish-Americans, especially in areas of recent immigration. An extremely rugged game, hurling is played on a field 80 by 140 yd (73.15 by 128.02 m) by two opposing teams of 15 players each. The ball, made of rubber, is 9 to 10 in. (22.86 to 25.4 cm) in circumference, cork-centered, and covered with horsehide. After it is picked off the ground or caught in the hurley—a tapering, curved, broad-bladed wooden stick 3 ft long—the player runs with the ball as far as he can and then hurls it toward a teammate or toward the goal his team is attacking. Only the hurley may be used in advancing the ball. The goalposts are 16 ft (4.88 m) high and 21 ft (6.4 m) wide, with a crossbar 8 ft (2.44 m) above the ground. Three points are scored by driving the ball into the net under the crossbar, one point by hitting it over the crossbar.

Stick66 · Feb 11, 2006

Why does one guy have his eyes closed and the other have the ball at his crotch? Hope he's wearin' a cup!

tenbob · Feb 11, 2006

MrSticker said:
Hope he's wearin' a cup!

That would make him a bit of a wuss, this was the first photo that i found, i could probably have found some better one's but that would take too much effort.

Have to agree with Four Dogs on the soccer front, its a Nancy boys game.

joosebuck · Feb 11, 2006

once at a heads up table i got quads 4 times in 20 minutes, no joke

holduplaya · Feb 11, 2006

Four Dogs said:
This is because REAL Football requires a higher level of testosterone than can normally be found in the average European, male. That's OK though, you guys are better at other less masculine things. Like art and wine tasting and..... ah....COOKING! Yeah, you guys can cook better than us! Unless it involves fire.

LMAO nice one you sound like one of the local monday columists.

Four Dogs · Feb 11, 2006

joosebuck said:
once at a heads up table i got quads 4 times in 20 minutes, no joke

Oh yeah, that's right! This thread started out about poker.

Stick66 · Feb 11, 2006

Poker. Oh yeah. In "The Big One" at PStars, I got -J2- 7 times, suited once. No, I never played it and it would have never won the hands.

I Need Money · Feb 11, 2006

Alon Ipser said:
The first thing you have to take into consideration is that online poker is rigged. It isn't rigged so that the house wins an above average amount of hands because in online poker, players play against each. The online casino makes it's money by raking or taking part of the pot. So the casino rigs games in a several different ways to increase their rake.

First, they want to keep all players winning equally regardless of skill and ability. This is done by rewarding poor play so that the poor players aren't knocked out by the better players and they can stay and continue to bet. You always hear about suck outs online but how often to you hear about it in live games.

Second, they want to increase the amount of bets. They do this by giving players in early position better hands to get the betting started. If you have ever played online poker you know you always get your best hand UTG.

Third, they they want big pots. This one is done quite easily by matching big hand against big hand.

Now keeping these things in mind I have come up with some simple rules for playing online poker

1) Always play any hand and at least take a look at the flop especially if you are UTG.

2) If you receive big hole cards (AA, KK, QQ, AKs, etc) be cautious. If you flop a monster hand check the board and see if anyone else could have the nuts or draw the nuts. If there is a chance of someone getting a better hand it will probably happen.

3) Always chase flushes and straights. you will be suprised how many you will hit on the river.

4) If you flop a straight or a flush, fold immediatly. If you flop a straight someone will get a flush and if you flop a flush someone will get a fullhouse.

5) If your stack is getting a little short, just push all in. Chances are you will win regardless of what you have. You do have to keep in mind that someone with a smaller or equal stack may call you though.

A final thought; You don't see or hear much about online poker being rigged or how to get around it because most of the forums are owned by the online casinos and they do their best to tell how honest it is. There is always people to tell how to play and how they win, but if the truth were known most these people don't even play. They just get paid to spread propaganda. Use these rules to win and I hope to see you at the tables and I really mean it when I say I hope to see you at the tables.

are u being serious are u just pulling my penis?

blazed_ronin · Feb 13, 2006

I agree with your theory

I was playing online all weekend and, as is my normal practice I wasn't chasing inside straight draws when I had 4 to a straight after the flop ,(unless i was getting the odds to call, but let's face it that happens like never) but after folding my tenth or eleventh, in an 8 hour session i checked my hand history only to find out that everytime I folded, the River card made my straight. Now I can believe that anything is possible no matter how improbable, but come on folks, 11 Inside straights made on the river, in a row?? As well, someone almost always had a lower straight or top two pair. Now I'm no conspiracy theorist (Yes, there was someone on the grazzy knoll, I know this cause it was me, and I helped fake the man on the moon video) but this does sound fishy. I've checked a few hand histories of other friends of mine and have observed the same kinda of wierd quirks. The best has to be 4 aces getting beat by a royal flush and two hands later 4 jacks getting beat by 4 kings. I undesrstand that a lot more hands are dealt online than Live play, but these kinda beats are a little odd if you ask me. Hell I'm a card magician and still can't pull off those kind of bamboozles. Anyways I had to my two cents.

But the moral of this story is, When your online draw to an inside straight.
Never, Never, I mean almost never Draw to one in a live game.
______________________________________________________________

Ladyfingers: You raised tens on a lousy three flush
The Man: That's what it's all bout, isn't it. Making the wrong move at the
right time.

The Cincinnatti Kid

How to win at online poker

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