[Augie]

I don't know about other sites, but Stars is the most respectable and honest poker site around.

As for software being 'rigged', have you ever thought that perhaps the game of poker itself is 'rigged'?

What I mean is that every poker game is set up with a certain amount of possibilities based on probability, and that the most popular games have an enormous amount of 'luck' built into them. They are popular just for that reason. Many of the games where luck is not as much of a factor are almost dead, basically because skilled players would kill the weaker players too often, and clean them out too soon.

So we are left with games like holdem and 7stud where the probabilities of hands have a large luck factor (just think about some preflop holdem allin scenarios, even when you have way the best of it, your opponent usually has a 20-40% of winning anyway - if you don't understand that this translates into a lot of 'bad beats', then you don't really understand probability theory).

Throw a rake into these games with large luck factors, and what you get are games that require very high skill levels to beat over the longterm. Poker is not easy, because the various games that we play are 'rigged' with a large luck factor, and various rakes that cut into every players bankroll.

In fact, most of the games we play are so rigged with that damn luck factor, that there are quite a few bad players who have been winning for months or years, and conversely, a significant group of good players who are not winning over the same period (and probably many of those have given up on poker).

So, if you want to be a winning player:
1. Understand the nature of the game
2. Attempt to learn and play the game well
3. Play at reputable online sites with lower rakes (Stars)
4. And try to find the softest games (loose-passive players) where you can find many opportunities to get your money into the pot in spots where you have the best of it - the more opportunities the better, so that you can give the long-term a chance to exert itself as soon as possible

Alright, stepping off of soapbox now . . . I'm sure many have stated similar elsewhere.

The point - poker IS RIGGED, but not in the way you think it is.

Be good.