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Live poker is significantly easier than online (if you're comparing the same limits). So it's very possible to crush your local 10-20 game, then jump online and get absolutely destroyed at that "same" 10-20 game.

You'll also have a higher (hourly) variance online because you see more hands per hour. The variance per hand is also higher because players are more aggressive online.

Add these all up and it's no surprise at the number of "online is rigged" posts we see (it's not).

The most likely explanation is - you're not very good.

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i've made a bunch of posts about strange stuff i've seen B&M in a limited time. i did this to counter the "online internet is rigged" argument. yes, i have seen the same person get pocket pairs consecutive B&M in my very limited experience.

and a friend of mine worked customer service for a huge site (maybe party) and he said the people that emailed and complained about "rigged site" would turn out to be seeing the flop 60%+ or something like that.

but OTOH, i don't see why it couldn't be rigged slightly-moderately, especially beyond the top 3-4 sites. it's not like these sites are continuously audited by the big 4 accounting firms. couldn't the site tweak the card flow slightly to generate more action or have house bots that get an extra winning draw an hour... is it that crazy? even though i'm not a subscriber to the theory in general.

put another way, if there was headline in next week's paper about a major site being slightly rigged, would you be shocked?

the one thing is that a fair number of people would know about it and it would hard to keep quiet, but you could say the same about so much stuff (like JFK assassination - o.k. i lost everyone)

i don't like the "online poker is rigged" because i keep getting rivered. but i really don't know why it couldn't be tweaked somewhat by the programmers... hey, if enron can be rigged, why can't a major poker site?