online poker: is it statistically fair?

hello gents. just wondering if some one could tell me of any threads that have a general discussion on online holdem and the unbelievable bad beats and wins that occur. My main question is are the calculators/predictors/dealer programmes used within most online poker sites fair and use truely reliable, in probability terms, software?
And if not, are these problems intrinsically unsolvable.
hope that makes sense and hope its neither to basic or too general a question.

Hi kidgoals,

There is currently a discussion (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=3502800&page=0&view=colla psed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=1) going on in the internet gambling forum about poker sites being rigged. Personally I am 99.99% certain the main sites are not deliberately rigged. I base this on having investigated my own numbers over a large number of hands, including freqencies of flushes, straights, set over set etc. And just simple common sense. I believe some people have posted their own numbers in the internet gambling forum, with analysis. Have a look at the FAQ.

For a discussion of software, the problems of a generating random numbers and ways of dealing with this, see this article (http://www.pokerstars.com/security.html) from Pokerstars (scroll down to the "shuffle" heading).

For an interesting read about past software issues that allowed cheating to occur, see this article (http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/616221) from 4 years ago.

[LetYouDown]

Wow, his first post...about online poker being "rigged" and it elicits a serious response. He must be very very lucky /images/graemlins/grin.gif.

[Luzion]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, his first post...about online poker being "rigged" and it elicits a serious response. He must be very very lucky /images/graemlins/grin.gif.

[/ QUOTE ]

The OP was truly wise in choosing this section to post and not General Hold'em or Internet Gambling then... /images/graemlins/grin.gif

After wading through Multi-mega-bazillion posts on 27 poker forums I have concluded:

1.) They are or they are not
2.) They do or they don't
3.) Sites where someone wins is a good and honest site
4.) Sites where someone loses are bad and dishonest

/images/graemlins/crazy.gif