I´m systems and game developer, there can be a manipulation script to privilege some player. I have already done a C # simulation showing the algorithm from the shuffling, distribution, betting, checking of winning hands, pot distribution and so on.
Without the supervision of some serious entity, there is no way to have credibility in the game if there is no way to confirm the smoothness of the game.
For example a simple condition in a script could already manipulate the game favoring a particular player such as for example I will explain below:
We have 4 players on the table, tournament with ID 1234. The names are Eder, Ryan, Mark and Joseph. before starting to distribute the cards the script will check if anyone on the list will benefit.
Not to mention that I already know the order of the cards before hand. There are 52 cards in the deck so I store them in an array of 52 positions.
The first 8 are aimed at the players, the 9 is the first burn, the 10 to the 12 position are the flop. The 13th is the second burning to 14th is the Turn, the 15th is the third burning and the 16th is the River.
With all the advance, without having to PLAY I already know that player X will have the winning hand due to the combination of values. The first player will receive the cards in positions 1 and 5, the second player will receive the cards 2 and 6, the third player will receive the cards 3 and 7 and finally the fourth player will receive the cards 4 and 8.
Where would the manipulation go? Think of it this way, the first 8 cards would be:
1 - 2h
2 - As
3 - 5d
4- 8c
5 - 3h
6 - Ad
7-Ac
8-Kc
Then we would have:
Player 1: 2h-3h
Player 2 - As-Ad
Player 3 - 5d-Ac
Player 4 - 8c-Kc
cards in sequence in the deck:
9 - 5c (discard)
10 - 5 h (flop)
11-kd (flop)
12 - 4h (flop)
13 - 9c (discard)
14 - 7d (turn)
15 - 6 h (discard)
16 - 7c (River)
in this way you would already know in advance that player 2 would win the hand with a pair of Ace.
But the script will check the condition of the player's name: if (NameOfPlayer == "Eder") Function_Make_the_player_be_victorious();
In this way the function of forging the result where you will invert the cards of positions 15 and 16 enters, causing player 1 to have a Straight Flush of 2 to 6 of hearts.
This is a simple example of how you can have in-game manipulation