How to rig on-line poker?

[Paul2432]

It has been a contention of mine for a while that the fact that no one has proven on-line poker is rigged is strong evidence that it is not rigged. This contention relies on two assumptions:

1) That it is not possible to rig on-line in a way that would be undetectable to a competent observer with hundreds of thousands of hand histories.

2) Competent observers with hundreds of thousands of hand histories have tried to prove on-line poker is rigged.

I feel more strongly about assumption (2) than assumption (1). My question then is, can on-line poker be rigged in such a way that it would be undetectable? If so, how would that be done?

Paul

[magiluke]

I don't see why they would want to rig the game anyway. Real casinos make plenty of money off of poker, and I'm sure the online poker sites do too.

Besides, how would they go about rigging the game anyway? Give people a better chance at getting high cards so there is more action? I, for one, know that they aren't doing that (I see plenty of 2's and 3's).

That seems to be the only thing that they can do, is give many people better hands to induce bigger pots, and therefore bigger rakes. That doesn't even work in tourneys.

[Iceman]

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That seems to be the only thing that they can do, is give many people better hands to induce bigger pots, and therefore bigger rakes. That doesn't even work in tourneys.

[/ QUOTE ]

Even if they could artificially deal more big hands, they wouldn't want to, since hands with lots of action are much slower and they would collect less rake overall.

[BettyBoopAA]

I believe that has been covered before but the rational for wanting to rig on-line poker is to make sure they continue to collect maximum rake. Online poker is filled with bad players who would go away and play no rake unless the game was rigged to help the bad players win more than they normally would. This could be done by actions flops and miracle rivers. I'm not saying I believe this, but that's the argument.

[Louie Landale]

It doesn't take much cheating at all to show a great profit. If you snag one pot per NIGHT that you don't deserve, that can tripple your profit.

Having said that, if I can peak at a few player's hole cards I wouldn't peak until the river. Once in a while I'd bluff with impunity; once in a while I'd make a spectacular call. After a couple months I'd get another computer and online service, and nobody would know.

- Louie

[Acenothing]

You must be kidding. I believe on-line cheating is taking place in a way you have not addressed. The on-line companies are the place where there can be big FRAUD.

They can see the cards during paly and some tourys have prizes of $20,000 or some big on have pay out $500,000 or more. Organized crime could and will find a way to manipulate the off shore, unregulated, groups for and you will not even know.

[benthehen]

Its simple. Create hardcore action flops and bad beat miracle rivers so that bad players keep getting their undeserved wins to keep feeding the rake. Keep all of your programmers under close watch, kill the ones that try to speak out, and blackmail the ones thinking about leaving. This way, anyone who believes this conspiracy will be too stupid to prove it and anyone who is smart enough to prove it wouldn't believe such a stupid idea.

[magiluke]

There's a difference between rigging and cheating. I don't think that online poker is rigged, but that doesn't mean people aren't cheating. I'm absolutely sure that people cheat online. It's something that is very easy to do, and not that easy to detect. I've heard about teams of people that go from site to site cheating and ripping people off. I don't really want to go into too much detail, because I don't like the idea of more people knowing how to cheat.

Also, for the record, I don't cheat. I'm very against that.

[ACW]

Arguably it doesn't matter. If you win good money, you probably don't care that much if you're being ripped off.
If you lose, it might make you feel better to think that you're being cheated rather than that you're a bad player.
In any case, the rule is simple - play in games you can beat, avoid those you can't. Whether the difference is the opponents skill or someone's immorality shouldn't affect your decision.

[kuro]

Many sites have celebrities pros that play in the small stakes games where the rake is so big that it's almost impossible to win. The celebrities pros draw more people to the game.

Ever wonder how much of the time the pro isn't the one playing under his/her name?