Playing online - for the birds???

[sucka]

OK - let me just say first off that I'm no big believer in the 'consipiracy theory' that online gambling sites are out to cheat their players. Nor am I saying this just because I've taken one hellacious beating the last several days playing online - it's been atrocious and I won't go into details. After some review, it's apparent there has been some bad play on my part - I certainly don't deny that. But some of the stuff I've seen online has really got me thinking that if you decide to play online you truly are gambling - in every sense of the word.

Now, I've been a student of poker long enough to know that a bad run of cards is bound to catch up with you - and you'll never see it coming nor will you know how long it will last. I play poker voluntarly, and that I can accept. To be honest with you I wouldn't mind all that much sitting there folding trash hand after trash hand - it's part of the game. However, I find that online in comparson to B&M that there are an improportinate number of times where so many players have such good hands - hands that in many cases tie them to flop and as they get better and 'force' (I use that term lightly) players to stay in the pot.

Does this happen every hand? No. Why would it - it would be way to obvious and smarter players would soon pick up on the pattern. The thing is - as long as it doesn't occur to an individual player too often they won't really think too much about it. You can see something strange but if you weren't in the hand you just think, "Ouch! - glad I folded...".

As someone mentioned in a previous post - there are more 'dramatic' flops in online rooms than anywhere I've ever played before in my life.

Of course, all this being said - I can't prove anything and really have intrest in wasting my time trying. Just keep in mind that these sites are run offshore with NO regulation or supervision by any gaming commission. They are free to do whatever they want. Sure, they can say some big 10 auditing firm came in and made sure there shuffle algorithim was legit - but who really knows what that means.

I'm 99.99% sure that after this current buy-in gets gobbled up on my next run of Group 1 hands being taken down by 2 outers I'm done playing online. I've been a winning poker player for some time. I've been a dedicated student of the game - reading or studying something poker related nearly every day for over the past year. I don't know what's going on online - perhaps it's just that I don't play very well there. I do tend to get distracted and don't have the patience to sit and stare at my computer for hours on end playing for $1 or $2 an hour against relatively good players fighting a tough rake. In the end, I guess my free time is better spent elsewhere. I'll save my poker time for when I actually get to 'sit down' and buy a rack and envelope myself in the game.

Finally, I thought I'd share a final story about my online escpade. Tonight I decided to grind out what was left of my original buy in and continued to witness some very extraordinary activity. This hand was the one (and the details around it) that convinced that playing online just isn't for me:

Fortunately, I wasn't involved in this hand - but I grabbed a history and here's how it went.

I get one of my all-time favorites, Q5o on the button. :-)

UTG+1 raises folded to MP who re-raises folded to cutoff who makes it 3 bets. All call.

*** FLOP *** : [ 3c 3s 4h ]

Check, bet, raise...all call.

*** TURN *** : [ 3c 3s 4h ] [ 2d ]

bet, raise, raise...all call.

Your dying aren't you??? :-)

*** RIVER *** : [ 3c 3s 4h 2d ] [ Jc ]

bet, call, call.

UTG+1 and MP both had AA and cutoff had KK.

Isn't that special.

The great part was MP had just had AA the hand before as well and won a huge pot.

The even better part was that AA and KK were both dealt the very next hand and showndown on a board full of rags again.

Unreal. I don't know what the odds are of that occuring but it has to be astronmical. If I saw that event alone in an evening I wouldn't think that much of it. However, combine that with some of the other weirdness I've seen over the past several sessions it starts to get to be a little too much for me.

Anyway, maybe it is just random and I'm seeing a group of statistcal anomolies in the extreme short term - but I've only spent about 5 hours playing online the last 2 days - and it's freakin' me out. Maybe like someone mentioned, since I think something weird could be going on I'm not playing my best game. Whatever it is I'm tired of thinking about it. It serves me best just to stay away and take my game to the casino's.

Anyway, thanks for listening. I'll see ya in the card rooms.