People who think online is rigged...

[BruinEric]

To the original post: what is clear when you hears these odd "keep certain players around" theories is that it shows they know little/nothing about software.

Seriously. How freaking hard would it be to set up an algorithm that:
1) Rewards certain players deemed "best for the site"
2) Is not detectable when large groups of hand histories are studied for statistical patterns.
3) Is not a full time job for a huge group of programmers who have easy blackmail-bait on a high-profile and/or publically traded company.
4) Is not a program loaded with bugs which would screw up a noticeable amount of times.

The beauty of a proper shuffling algorithm is that it is not a huge, complex program.