It is common for a poker player to directly accuse or insinuate that online poker is rigged. This is usually a result of a player receiving a “bad beat”. Phrases are jokingly made such as “jokerstars” referring to the popular poker network, PokerStars. However, a lot people share the common theory that the poker sites rig their software as to encourage action; increasing their profit. The theories and conspiracies cannot be proven, and many an investigation has been made into the credibility of these accusations.

Logic and reason

Rigging a poker site would be like cheating at your final exams – the costs outweigh the gain. If a poker site is caught rigging their software then it is likely that the said site will lose all the credibility and loyalty of its customers; customers that it has taken many years to gain the trust of. Rigging a poker site, according to Game Theory, would be irrational and illogical.

Human Behavior

Human nature is a strange thing; psychologists Jean-Paul Sartre and Soren Kierkegaard were a couple of the first to look into human behaviour and more recent psychologists have studied the minds of poker players. One thing that has been discovered about online poker is that humans are naturally very suspicious. Reasons for this natural suspicion lie in the fact that the mechanism controlling the outcome of an event cannot physically be seen. Unlike in a live game, you are unable to see the cards being shuffled and cut.

Preventing Rigging

According to Poker Stars, there are 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 different ways to shuffle a deck of cards.

Amazingly, the site uses the players to choose the order of the cards using “user input, including summary of mouse movements and events timing, collected from client software”. In the event that there are problems with this as a RNG (random number generator), they have a backup: “true hardware random number generator developed by Intel, which uses thermal noise as an entropy source”. Furthermore, the RNG is certified by 2 independent organizations: Cigital and BMM International.

Cigital: An independent software risk management organization working with such companies as Qualcomm, Visa International, Texas Instruments, AOL, MasterCard, General Electric, Motorola, Pfizer Health Solutions, and Ericsson.

BMM International: A global organization that provides independent computer systems assurance and compliance certification testing services, the Australia-based company is a client of the Australian government among other organizations.

Possible Rigging

The poker industry is an incredibly tough market and one that is definately not easily entered. The large businesses such as PokerStars, Full Tilt and Party Poker have swallowed their competitors and taken a huge majority of the market between them.

Smaller poker sites may have an incentive to rig their software as profits might be low and security standards/regulations may be of poor quality or even non-existent. These companies may get a slight edge over their competitors as they have very little to lose and a lot to gain by rigging their software.

Absolute Poker Scandal

Sept. 13th. Potripper won a $1000 buy-in tourney, Absolute Pokers largest tournament. The player CrazyMarco, who finished second, insisted that there had to be cheating involved in Potrippers win. One of the most obvious signs was when Potripper bet around 20k with T-high, got pushed all-in by CrazyMarco, and called the sick 180k to beat CrazyMarcos 9-high bluff.

CrazyMarco demanded the hand history released, and to his surprise, Absolute Poker was more than willing to help him with this matter. Feb. 21st, APs support send him a file, but this was far from the ordinary hand history he had requested. The file he recieved was huge, and after a short peak he turned of his computer and went to bed as he was unable to gain any information from the data file himself.

Two weeks later rumors are heating up at PocketFives, and Marco posts in the forum that he has this enormous file from the Potripper tournament. The moderator of the site, adanthar, offers his help, and Marco sends him the file. It turns out the file covers the entire tournament, all of the players’ hole cards, and other normally highly confidential information.

- Potripper folded the first two, then saw all flops, unless the times where an opponent had two queens or better.

- Potripper won all showdowns in the tournament.

- Potripper folded on the river every time he was behind – and raised every time he wasn’t.

- Potripper only bluffed when the opponent(s) had weak hands.

Conclusion

The online poker (and casino) industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Credibility, respect and loyalty are at the top of the agenda for any of these businesses and therefore rigging would most likely have detrimental affects on the business.

Rigging of a poker site may be rare and unheard of, however there is the possibility that a freak incident such as the Absolute Poker Scandal may occur.

Author: Nick Pateman

Poker Forums at pokerisrigged.com offers unique and quality reviews, strategies, advice and hand analysis. By signing up you give yourself a leading edge in improving your poker ability.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Pateman

Related Posts:

• Yet Another Software Review – Poker Edge
• How To Play Online Poker At Multiple Tables
• Poker Calculators and The Sklansky Group Hand Rankings
• Free Online Poker Games
• Win Big With Online Poker Software!

There are hardly any free online sites that let you enjoy some interesting poker challenges. In fact, most of these exciting challenges are not available free of cost. There are poker sites that lend out pretty huge payouts but need the aid of online poker software. Poker software providers thus enjoy immense benefits on account of the huge demand for poker or any other gambling software.

Purchasing poker software requires the player to spare a little thought on the kind of games he wants to play. Before making a software purchase, one should ensure how to use it. There are multiple variants of poker games offered by online casinos, which run on different software programs. Some of the games require software to run. Hence, a little research is always welcome prior to settling for the poker software of your choice. An essential point to remember is the compliance of your computer operating system with the new poker software. In case you overlook to check this out, your purchase might turn out to be a complete waste.

Getting hold of poker software to play your favorite game is not much of a hassle. Besides, the software can fit every budget as the prices range from free to a few hundred dollars. However, purchasing expensive poker software does not call for greater monetary victories. A real big win can only be achieved through correct strategies. Little research on the player’s part would definitely go a long way in letting you choose the kind of game that you can make the most of. It’s wise to opt for the software that would allow you to play your game to optimum satisfaction.

Information on poker software provider is available over the Internet. Amateurs need to brush up their search criteria in case they find difficult to land up in a trusted poker site. One can check out an amazingly rich set of gambling online resources for more information about poker software downloads. The steps to an online poker thrill are just a few clicks away. All you need to do is to purchase, download and enjoy the excitement of bigger challenges.

Author: Wain Roy

Wain Roy is an internet marketing professional expert in various industries like real estate, web design, finance, medical tourism, Canadian pharmacy drug and gambling online resources

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wain_Roy

Related Posts:

• Yet Another Software Review – Poker Edge
• Poker Calculators and The Sklansky Group Hand Rankings
• Do Online Poker Tools Really Work?
• Best Poker Tools – Think Like a Poker Pro
• How To Play Online Poker At Multiple Tables

For an inexperienced player, design is important, in order to follow the game and analyze various movements at the playing table. It is also necessary to check the sound effects. Further, see whether the graphics involves special features.

Another important factor determining online poker software is playability, i.e. whether the games run smoothly without any interruption. The poker room’s capability to host large poker tournaments and possibility to play at various tables at the same time are factors to be checked. Statistics and usability of the interface are the other factors vital for online poker software.

Based on the specific needs of the players, different online poker software tools are available. For example, in order to determine hand strength for Hold’Em, Stud, and Lowball, one of the excellent tools is the Pokenum Poker Hand Analyzer, which has features to add cards to the board. Likewise, poker chart software program introduced by the Ace Analysis Company provides graphs and analysis, which helps users to track their performance history throughout the poker career. There are many websites in the market, selling online poker software. In some instances, online poker rooms use their own proprietary software.

Among the top names in online poker software are Texas Hold’Em Assistant, Dave O’Brien’s Smoke’em Poker, iPoker, Wilson Software Turbo Poker, Frugal Gambler Video Poker Teacher, IRC Poker, and All Video Poker for Palm OS. Nowadays, free online poker software tools are also popular.

Author: Alison Cole

Online Poker provides detailed information on Online Poker, Online Poker Tools, Free Online Poker, Play Online Poker and more. Online Poker is affiliated with Poker Tables.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alison_Cole

Related Posts:

• Yet Another Software Review – Poker Edge
• Poker Calculators and The Sklansky Group Hand Rankings
• Win Big With Online Poker Software!
• Do Online Poker Tools Really Work?
• Best Poker Tools – Think Like a Poker Pro

By clustering hands based on win rate and strength, it’s easier to keep track of basic betting strategies associated with each individual hand. For example, in Sklansky Group 3 hands you will find 99, AQ, ATs, and JTs among others. The best cluster though is Sklansky’s Group One which includes AA, AKs, KK, QQ, and JJ. They are going to show very high percentage win rates on your poker calculator as well as ‘raise, and re-raise’ recommendations.

In adopting the Sklansky Group of Hands your poker calculator could in effect make you a ‘book player’, because many, especially the mathematical poker calculators don’t take other factors into account at the poker table. However, as a guideline, your poker calculator is going to have the exact odds, and correct mathematical indication served up for you, David Sklansky style.

Poker calculators have adopted this because, well they are just software designed by programmers, and not necessarily poker enthusiasts, but Sklansky is a Poker icon, educator, and author. I have had several poker calculators running at the same time for testing, and have found very similar results and percentage recommendations, because they generally use the same statistical backbone as Sklansky Group of Hands.

The difference between them lie in how their other features are factored in, such as how it monitors your position, how many players in the pot, how many tight or aggressive players, stage of a tournament, and if a player’s stake is up or down significantly.

Although published years ago, by using The Sklansky Group of Hands, poker software offers credibility to the ranking system, although it sure didn’t need it. Professional players have known these rankings and what to do with them for years. Seasoned opponents will also know how to use them against you, if you are an obvious book player, so mixing it up is always a good idea.

Some other books published by David Sklansky include The Theory of Poker, Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, and Hold’em Poker.

Author: Marty Smith

Marty Smith is webmaster of http://www.PokerCalculatorReport.com where all the online poker calculators are tested and reviewed, including Sit and Go Shark, Calculatem Pro, and Poker Spy. He is also editor of http://www.PokerStrategyArticles.com where poker writers can submit thier own articles and links.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marty_Smith

Related Posts:

• Yet Another Software Review – Poker Edge
• Win Big With Online Poker Software!
• Do Online Poker Tools Really Work?
• Best Poker Tools – Think Like a Poker Pro
• How To Play Online Poker At Multiple Tables

Unlike other poker training products, Poker Edge has a large database which is connected to over one million players and records their game data, including their percentage of wins and losses and which online poker room they are using. What this means is that Poker Edge provides its users with the ability to discover which sites and tables contain weak players, meaning that you can exploit weak tables to maximize your wins.

In fact, anyone who registers at one of the poker sites that is supported by Poker Edge and plays even just one game, will have data recorded about them that can be accessed by Poker Edge users. By anonymously being able to track information about an individual’s playing style, and the actions they are likely to take, its far easier to ascertain the hand that they have and make your own playing decisions based upon the gathered facts. Poker Edge provides all this information overlaid onto your playing screen – meaning that you don’t have to keep flicking between screens to analyze your opponents.

In addition, you can also use Poker Edge to track your own game and make improvements to increase your winnings. By providing this combination of opponent’s information and self development, Poker Edge is an extremely useful tool for anyone wishing to improve their game.

We are currently tracking over 1 MILLION players.

Are you one of them?

Shawn has been a SNG Poker Coach and mentor for several years now. Find out more about being a winning SNG Poker player by visiting his website and signing up for his FREE SNG Poker Training Course entitled “From Fish to SNG Poker Shark in only 17 Days” at http://www.sngtrainer.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_Konig

Related Posts:

• Poker Calculators and The Sklansky Group Hand Rankings
• Learning the rule of 2/4 to estimate out odds
• The Best Online Poker Tools That Makes You A Winning Poker Player
• Win Big With Online Poker Software!
• Do Online Poker Tools Really Work?