The fairness of online poker is a subject that became quite popular on the web in the last decade and a half, and that is thanks to the rapidly growing poker society over the world. We will remind you of some of the biggest poker scandals in history and show you more about how online poker works nowadays. You will have the chance to find out how to spot if online poker is rigged.
Reasons Why People Believe That Online Poker is Rigged
Ever since the digital world entered our reality, things like the lack of physical croupiers pushed players into thinking that there is a trick. The truth is that most players seek a reason different from their poor skills to justify their losses. But still, there are some cases from the past proving that sometimes online poker is rigged.
Online Poker Scandals
We could point to a few most famous online poker scandals that increase doubt in online ventures. Some cases below proved that platforms are rigged, while others were alleged in financial crimes. Read more about these case files and decide on your own if online poker is rigged or not.
Let’s examine each case separately and find out if online poker is rigged or not. It is good to know such stories because the industry improved significantly based on them. Don’t forget such big businesses are led by the goal of enhancing and adapting their services regularly to keep up with the competition.
Black Friday 2011 – USA Against Online Poker
The long story short is that in 2011, three of the most famous and prominent at the time poker operators in the USA were seized by the federal government. None of the companies expected anything likewise to happen, but it did. Some websites closed real-money play for US players for the time being, while others just shut down entirely due to the incapability of paying all of their US customers.PokerStars was the biggest and most reputable company of all, which was able to payout not only its debts but also to purchase Full Tilt and payout their debts too.
The result was that the allegations against both companies were dropped in 2012. Meanwhile, Ultimate Bet took roughly ten years to do the same. It was proved that none of the online poker sites was rigged, but the financial sustainability of each online platform was raised as a potential problem. Here is a full output on the story of the black Friday poker scandal.
Ultimate Bet – Super Users Scheme
This is a case where we can consider that online poker is rigged, although it is not entirely true. Let’s elaborate more on this subject, and you will find out. Ultimate Bet was a company created by the pro poker player Russ Hamilton and the businessman Greg Pierson. This was one of the most successful poker platforms in the USA at the time. However, due to the fast developing technology and the suspicion that someone on the platform might be cheating, they created the Super User account.
The idea was to create several special accounts available only for a short circle of people from the management and be used to prevent cheating on the website. But was online poker rigged? We can’t say that because the super users could not interfere with the gameplay, but they could see the cards of all table participants.
Now you probably get how all this became a multimillion scheme. The thing was that “god-mode” and play mode couldn’t be launched from the same computer. Therefore, there were two people needed for this scheme to work. On one hand, the first person could see the hands of the players, while the other user could use the information brought by the god-mode user.
The poker society discovered the whole case at the time. The first poker analytic software came on the market simultaneously, allowing players to follow their win rate and other aspects of their performance. In this way, it was discovered that some users have unrealistic winning rates. This is how the whole scheme actually came to light.
Pitbull Poker – A Platform that Dissappeared
This platform never gained much attention, but it was still able to scheme money out of its customers for over five years. Because it was all developed on Flash, it was easy for skilful hackers to use extensions and see the cards of all players. The poker society suspected this at the time, which is why it was probably closed in 2009, while no players were paid. However, one question remains – is poker online rigged?
Well, for the time being (2003-2009), it was definitely possible to break the code and make a profit out of it. Back then, many players might have considered that online poker was rigged, but nowadays, it is impossible to scheme any reputable online poker platform. In the following paragraph, we will prove why it is so hard to rig online poker.
How Rigged is Online Poker and Is that Possible at All
The truth is that nowadays, it is nearly impossible to rig an online poker platform, not only because the security is extremely high, but because players are way more vigilant than ever before. After all, the online poker industry went through a lot in the last decades and learned from its mistakes.
If you are a conspiracy theory lover, you will probably fall for the several Reddit discussions on the theme “Is online poker rigged?”. The latest we checked was from 2021, but you will find such from 2012 too. Again, some allegations were thrown in the air without concrete evidence that online poker is rigged.
There are two main reasons why you lose more money while playing online poker. Many players in a bad streak will refuse to accept that their poor skills are actually the problem. In addition, the thing that makes things even worse is the pace of online poker, but how does it matter?
The lack of a human hand, or more likely the presence of artificial intelligence, makes the gameplay way faster and more strict. To explain that more comprehensively, we will compare the number of hands on live poker and online poker with six players. With an average pace and enough poker chips, you can deal 25-30 hands per hour, while online, this number goes between 75 and 100 hands. When we consider that many online poker players play on 2-5 tables simultaneously, this makes the played hands for an hour between 400 and 500.
This is why many players think online poker is rigged, and people lose money quickly. Again, thanks to the game’s pace, you may often lose even with strong pockets like AA or KK. Your winning chances when holding such a hand are mathematically below 20%, so don’t expect miracles. From this perspective, luck overcomes skills.
How to Find Out if Online Poker is Rigged
Another truth is that even if your platform for online poker is rigged, you won’t be able to find it on your own, or at least not right away. If you play at reputable global online poker rooms, you won’t have any issues because they all strive to provide better services just like the best online casinos in the UK.
The easiest way to do it is to share with other players your opinion. When speaking about professional poker players, or VIP high-rollers, they usually use the before-mentioned poker analysis software that gives them an insight into their gameplay. If suspicion about a platform or a player is raised in the poker community, many passionate players will follow and observe the games of the “cheaters”.
Of course, the truth won’t become evident immediately because to consist of statistics and estimate the winning rate, there is a need for gameplay examination. If you are determined enough, you can do the same with the best poker players on the global scene that we have listed in the following paragraph and compare them with the person you have doubts is cheating.
Some Poker Players are Just Good
Because the easiest way to learn how to be a better poker player is to observe and study the best players, we have gathered a short list of them. Some are modern competitors, while others are old-time rollers who paved the way for all future generations of poker fans.
If ladies are reading this article. You will be pleased to find out which are the best female poker players. In general, the online poker and gambling industry is considered the future for all pro players who like to compete in the big leagues. Take, for instance, Charlie Carrel, who made his debut as an online poker player and then moved to live tournaments.
The best about online poker is that you can stay incognito as long as you want, and also because people don’t see your face, eyes and emotions, which improves your gameplay, especially as a newbie. Being able to hide any potential poker tells is crucial on the poker table. Follow the pro players and the platforms they use, so you don’t wonder if online poker is rigged.
Is Online Poker Rigged – the Definitive Answer & Top Sites
Nowadays, there are literally thousands of online platforms that offer poker. They win way more money by serving decent and fair services to their customers. We want to highlight that platforms have no interest in rigging online poker or other games simply because they make more money without doing anything illegal.
All of the best online sites strictly observe and investigate all players to ensure that proper gameplay is delivered to all players. All the online poker providers realise that they will lose more money and players if they decide to rig the games instead of providing better services.
If you observe a player and you have doubts, you can always contact customer service, and they can investigate the case as soon as possible. Nowadays, an excellent reputation is all a business needs to prosper and flourish. In order to be on the safe side, we always advise our readers to trust only licensed operators. We can’t miss mentioning that free-play poker sites are perfect if you want to practice and learn the basics of the game.
FAQ
To your attention, now we place the most frequently asked questions we were able to gather about online poker and how it could be rigged. Use the provided jump links in each answer to explore its more extensive version. Do not hesitate to reread the article if you want to double-check some details.