Something very strange......

[FlFishOn]

There's really nothing I know of that would prevent a site from doing what you describe. I'd imagine it's a +EV play from the site's prospective. Makes sense to me. Take a few
good starters away from the regulars, dish 'em out to the new players, movers-up. Every one will be happy, well, not quite.

To test for this is nightmareishly complex. Any site doing it would be beyond detection.

[CORed]

[ QUOTE ]
I was playing .1./.2 on paradise poker and then moved up(for the first time) to .25/.5 and the first hand i got was AA. It was strange, I kept getting great hands, it almost felt like I was getting good hand because I moved up my limit. Anyone else get this kinda feeling at all? or am I just really stupid and dont know what the hell im talking about(in thinking a site could ever possibly be rigged)

[/ QUOTE ]

The human mind is "designed" (or has evolved) to find patterns quickly with a minimum of information. It is so good at this, that when dealing with random events, it finds patterns where none exist. If you want to be succesful at poker, you must learn to think in terms of probability and EV. The fact that your pocket aces got run down the last three times does not meant that you should fold them this time, nor does the fact that your opponents have been spiking two pairs, straights and full houses with offsuit rags mean that you should start playing those hands.

You will get streaks where you get dealt many great hands in a row and they win, streaks where you can't get a decent hand if your life depended on it, and, worst of all, streaks where you get dealt lots of great hands, which somehow keep ending up second best, and streaks where everything seems "normal". This will happen whether you play live or online. Your mind will try to correleate these streaks with some recent event. If you're playing live, this might be a dealer change, deck change or seat change. If you're online, it might be a cashout, changing limits, or changing sites. THESE STREAKS ARE RANDOM EVENTS. THEY WERE NOT CAUSED BY ANYTHING YOU, THE SITE, THE DEALER OR THE PLAYER IN SEAT 5 DID.

[Victor]

my first live hand of real holdem was aa. clearly rigged.

[Mendacious]

I'm in the process of writing a book called "WinMode Surfing" that I'll be happy to sell you. Essentially what these players says is correct, but, IT IS ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. The key concept is teaching you to correctly anticipate the next mode switch cycle, and to switch modes on you, and then to move up in limits again-- which obviously resets you back to "win mode". This technique is guaranteed to make you millions.

Oh yeah, and if you must cashout during a win cycle, the key is to direct your cashout to a third party account which I will provide for you-- because that obviously confuses the cashout detection algorythm and prevents the downshift to one of the less profitable modes.

[ QUOTE ]
The human mind is "designed" (or has evolved) to find patterns quickly with a minimum of information. It is so good at this, that when dealing with random events, it finds patterns where none exist.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its funny because I had this same discussion last night. Whenever I get into a bad frame of mind, either by suck outs or by making the wrong play, I tend to change deck colors. My wife, walking by, noticed the color change and asked why.

I had to think long and hard about it. I know it doesn't change anything but the images being displayed, but its, for me, a subtle trick to get me rethinking. I've often wondered how many people's rituals for "good luck" are just that: A way to clear your state of mind. A placebo, if you will.

[FlFishOn]

" If you're online, it might be a cashout, changing limits, or changing sites. THESE STREAKS ARE RANDOM EVENTS. THEY WERE NOT CAUSED BY ANYTHING YOU, THE SITE, THE DEALER OR THE PLAYER IN SEAT 5 DID. "

Prove it.

You can not.

[krimson]

Yep, I recently moved up to 300/600 from 0.01/0.02 and I get AA every hand and hit a full house on every flop!

[Zetack]

[ QUOTE ]
" If you're online, it might be a cashout, changing limits, or changing sites. THESE STREAKS ARE RANDOM EVENTS. THEY WERE NOT CAUSED BY ANYTHING YOU, THE SITE, THE DEALER OR THE PLAYER IN SEAT 5 DID. "

Prove it.

You can not.

[/ QUOTE ]

You say "You can not" as if this were some significant fact.

Neither can he prove that gravity always works, or that what you perceive as sight isn't what I perceive as sound. So what? Withought some contextual significance to a failure to prove something, the mere fact of failing to prove something isn't particulary significant or even interesting.

--Zetack

[CountDuckula]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This way, you'll get hooked and contribute more rake. But sooner or later (usually after a cashout) they'll switch you back to "Losing" or "Breakeven" mode so that you'll be contributing to the 'fish' so as to keep them alive long enough to suck all the rake out of them too.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exact same thing happened to me. I got switched into losing mode just for thinking about cashing out.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't, but that's because I was wearing my trusty tinfoil hat (dual layer, with shiny sides inside and out, so I can keep the mind-control rays out, and keep my thoughts in).

-Mike