Rake pumping is a secondary priority
The ideal rigged site would have lots of players swapping their money aroung where no one loses big and no one wins big. The winning formula for on-line poker sites is the more players playing the more money that comes in....
Lets take the theory of rake pumping by inflating hands with strategic cards. The max rake per hand is usually $3. Fixing a hand so someone's boat gets beat by a bigger boat might mean the rake increases from $2 to $3. Oooooo big deal!! A ONE DOLLAR INCREASE. Oooooooh!
Now, someone might argue that if you multiply this by millions of hands then this would add up. This is possible but UNLIKELY. Why? Because"
1. If a site overdoes this play to make ONE EXTRA DOLLAR from one hand....people will get wise. To increase rakes by $1,000,000 a month they would have to pull this play a million times a month. 33,333 times a day. Now think about it. Do you think people MIGHT get suspicous if boats are being cracked 33,333 times a day?!
2. If players get their big hands cracked too often, they will get ticked and likely leave the site thinking the site might be rigged.
So how does one rig a site without ticking off your customers? Answer: Feed the fish. Fish are the lifeblood of poker sites. They attact other fish and GOOD players. If software is written so that a fish wins one extra big pot a day, the fish stay longer and the sharks stay longer to feed off the fish. This way the site continues to collect rakes from the sharks *AND* the fish....
If I were to analyze sites for cheating, I would collect data calculating the odds of big hands occuring PER street and comparing it with the actual data... If there is a significant disconnect between the two numbers, then I would be suspicious.
I stopped playing at Empire/Party because the bankroll swings were unlike ANYTHING I experienced. I left with a $500 profit but I just do NOT trust these sites. I DO TRUST Prima and PokerStars...
Also my PokerTracker stat data was TOO perfect for the frequency I received AA/KK. After 22,000 hands I expected the frequency to be close but the numbers were an EXACT match.....
By the way, real brick and mortar casinos have been caught cheating their customers...if it is against their interest to cheat their customers then why have they done this?.... And why can't this on-line sites do the same thing.
Is human nature different in B&M casinos as oppose to on-line casinos? Gaming commissions were created for B&M casinos because some business owner got greedy..... Are the owners of on-line casinos LESS greedy. And by the way, there are no gaming commisions for on-line casinos. And that worries me....
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