Online poker is a game where it’s okay to lie. In fact, bluffing is an important part of the endeavor. However, there is one whopper that has made the rounds in online poker forums and even in so-called “informed” articles. And that is that online poker rooms are somehow rigging their games for actions. In other words, they have made it so that flops, turns, and rivers connect with players’ hands which makes people more likely to invest money, thus making the pots bigger.
Bigger pots mean bigger rake. This is great for the poker sites, right? Why wouldn’t they want to rig the games for action if it makes them more money?
The Poker Sites Have Little to Gain but Everything to Lose
The only place that there is an incentive to rig the games for action is in cash games. This is because tournaments and sit and go’s have a set fee that the poker room is paid everytime someone buys in. And since a lot more people play tournaments, rigging does nothing to generate more money for the poker room for the majority of its games being played at any given time. Why bother jeopardizing your entire reputation by trying to boost the smallest part of your income?
Besides the fact that there are rake caps placed on each cash game hand. This means that once the pot reaches a certain size, it doesn’t matter how big it gets after that point. So they have no incentive to create more action when the action does nothing to help their income the majority of the time.
Just to be safe here, let’s play the devil’s advocate and say that the poker site did get greedy and decided to throw caution to the wind and rig their games. They would find out really quickly that it’s not really that easy to do.
Rigging Is Actually Pretty Close to Impossible to Do
Poker sites use something called an RNG (random number generator) to deal the cards. Since the cards come randomly, messing with the RNG would cause huge discrepancies in the expected frequencies versus what actually occurs on the tables. Since thousands of players keep detailed databased in poker tracking software, these discrepancies would be noticed very quickly.
Were any type of inconsistencies, even small ones, ever discovered, a huge scandal would swiftly erupt and players would lose confidence in the offending poker site. Eventually, it would lead to a huge loss of revenue for that site. The fact that you are even reading this article shows the importance of consumer confidence when it comes to online poker or gambling.
No poker room wants to risk its well-being by targetting specific players for particular outcomes. When you look at it from this angle, the entire idea of rigged games becomes ludicrous. Rigging for action is likely just something someone made up long ago as an excuse to why they can’t win at online poker. I mean, something must be wrong here, right? I keep losing but am the greatest player in the world! So, in the end, it all comes down to human ego.
Where Is the Proof?
After playing over 10 years, have never heard of actual proof ever surfacing that shows that online poker is rigged. But just to be safe, I did an exhaustive Google search to try to find some kind of evidence that it has ever occurred. Quite humorously, an article written back in 2004 ranked #1 in the search results. I knew when I read it that my search would likely be a waste of time. But onward I went.
After clicking on numerous links and searching the major forums, all I could seem to find were people ranting about how they thought the games must be rigged because “impossible” things had happened to him. In every single instance, it appeared to just be a case of someone running bad and taking a bunch of bad beats in a cluster. I saw zero evidence that anything out of the ordinary had occurred.
Trust me, I have run about as bad as humanly possible over the years and never once did it ever seem like the games were rigged against me. In fact, I recently ran $20,000 under expectation and that didn’t deter me from continuing to play. Until a reputable source shows definitive proof that an online poker site is rigging the games somehow, I will call B.S. on anyone who claims they are a victim of it.
What About All Those Times It “Felt” Rigged
To me, live poker sometimes feels rigged. The thing you have to keep in mind that no hand is ever really that far ahead most of the time. AA will lose close to 20% of the time when all-in pre-flop. And when those losses cluster together, it can feel rigged.
One of the problems humans have is that they become attached to things and feel ownership. This leads to feelings of entitlement and a sense that there is no justice in the world. The fact is, there is no justice in poker. Just because you had a run of bad luck yesterday does not mean you are more likely to run well today. That is called the gambler’s fallacy. The cold hard truth is that most people who complain that poker is rigged are simply not very skilled at poker. They just use it as an excuse for why they are losing.
Even If Games Were Rigged for More Action, It Might Not Hurt Your Win Rate
So if the games were rigged for more action, what would it look like? Hypothetically, if the flops connected with hands more often, there would be more incentive for players to get involved and put more money in the pot. You would get more pairs, more strong hands, and more draws. In other words, the games would be more exciting for everyone.
Even so, let’s talk about the elephant in the poker room.
Who would benefit from more players getting involved and taking their hands to later streets? Any sort of common sense tells you that bigger pots with wetter flop, turns, and rivers would favor the more skillful players. This would likely drain the pockets of the recreational players faster and move the money up the food chain much faster. Trust me. This is NOT what the poker rooms want to see happen.
In fact, the opposite is true. Online poker sites want the losing players to hang around longer, pay more rake, and stay happy enough to keep depositing more money. Artificially bloating pots only favors those well-equipped to adapt and ultimately may actually lose money for the poker room.
Things That Actually Could Go Wrong in Online Poker
Rigged games or any other form of “cheating” done by a poker room is not something I lose sleep over. However, there are a few things that actually are a legitimate cause of concern:
- Black Friday 2.0
Besides voting, there is little we can do about the political forces surround online poker. The scary thing is, there is already precedence for governments screwing around with our right to play online poker. First, there was UIGEA of 2006 and then there was Black Friday. Hopefully, poker will officially be recognized for being a game of skill by the mainstream powers that be and we can move past the draconian restrictions. - Account Hacking
This has actually happened a few times in the past, including one on Doug Polk a few years ago. Luckily, most poker rooms take this issue seriously. So, even if your money disappears overnight to some low-life hacker, it is likely your funds will be reinstated. - The Games Will Get Solved
As game theory progresses and things are figured out more and more, there is a small chance that the mainstream understanding of poker will become so acute that there will not be enough losing players in the games to make profit possible. This has already happened somewhat for sit and go’s. Due to our understanding of ICM, the games have become very difficult to beat and have thus dried up a bit over the past few years. However, new formats such as Jackpot SNGs (spin & go’s) have injected new life into the format. - Unbeatable Bots Will Be Invented
In isolated matches, poker bots have already been able to beat top pros over a large sample size. Even so, these programs are designed only for heads-up play currently and would likely not be viable in 6-max or full ring games. We have to wonder though, are the days where we can be sure we are not playing on tables full of bots numbered? I sometimes worry if the charts I created for my book will one day be used against me (lol).
What Poker Sites Do You Trust?
When it comes to my perspective on choosing a poker site to play on, trust might be the wrong word here. I view my online poker bankroll is an investment and no investment is ever 100% safe. Case in point, look what happened on Black Friday.
Even so, the odds of having your bankroll stolen by an online poker site are probably similar to your odds of being in a plane crash. Millions of people have played online poker over the past couple of decades, and only a few have actually been legitimate victims of such an incident. In fact, even after Black Friday, which was the biggest poker scandal in history, most people eventually got most if not all of their money back.
Use Common Sense for Any Online Interactions
Regardless of the games being rigged or not, you should always approach anything that involves your bankroll with caution and discretion. Avoid small and obscure poker sites that have not been around very long or have a track record of slow payouts or other shenanigans. I recommend that you play only on large reputable poker sites with a long track record of legitimacy.
Personally, I have played on Bovada and Ignition for years, keeping as much as $10,000 on the site at one time. I was never worried about losing that money and slept like a baby at night. However, I recommend that you keep only the minimum needed to play your current stake and cash out the excess often. Keeping a large portion of your money in an offline account is just smart bankroll management nowadays.
Conclusion
After nearly 20 years of hearing people blame their bad play on “rigged” poker sites, people have to be getting tired all the whining. The unfortunate thing is that people new to online poker might not realize the true source of why people are complaining and think that there is some truth to all the noise. So, if you fall into that category, please stop it before you run newbies off. 🙂
For those of you who are still unsure, give one of the major poker sites a call and asked them about the integrity of their games. They will explain exactly how their RNG works and happily answer any other concerns you may have. For the most part, online poker sites have excellent customer service. If you don’t get a friendly experience, move on to the next one. It’s just like buying a car, if you get a bad vibe when you walk in the door you walk right back out.
This argument only applies to “just for fun”(no real cash) online poker games, since they are the only ones I’ve experienced this with.
“In fact, the opposite is true. Online poker sites want the losing players to hang around longer, pay more rake, and stay happy enough to keep depositing more money.”
You just made an argument for why they’d want to give poor players an advantage. The algorithm would not be that difficult to formulate: if usually each available card has an equal chance of being added to the common cards, simply determine the cards which are needed by statistically inferior players and artificially increase the likelihood that these cards would added to the common cards. The effect would be somewhat subtle, but certainly would be noticeable over time. I believe this is occurring on the “just for fun” WSOP mobile app.
The losing players are the ones that need to buy chips, which is how the “just for fun” pokers sites make money: here you have an incentive. Rigging makes sense for these sites. Obviously this is not so serious, as the better players are not actually losing money.
Yes, I agree that they could benefit from rigging. My point is that they would be crazy to try doing it. There are a lot of smart poker players with huge databases. Any statistical discrepancy would quickly get noticed and a scandal would erupt. It would be the ruin of the poker site. Trust me, they have good enough margins not to have to resort to cheating.
Well it seems all these “professionals” have been brainwashed to think a 20k downswing is normal in a game where you are top 1% at. “Downswings” literally are the proof of rigging. Downswining where you have a statitical edge ? yeah ok buddy!
2 examples…
First I had top pair and I had my opponent on flush draw so I raised big. He calls and 2 comes non suited so I raise again big . He calls again.
Another non suited 2 comes on River so I push cuz there is no flush. I lose because the 2-2 gave him a set. Did I play it perfectly? Yeah. It wasn’t my play .it was rigged cards.
#2 ihad full house with 3 queens on board and ten . I had K10. I push all in cuz very few hands can beat that.
The river is 4th queen which negates my pair into split pot. I woulda lost if he had an ace. But why did he call?
Both examples were bad play rewarded by juicy cards.
In hand 1: It’s impossible to put someone on an exact type of hand or exact hand. Instead, think of the entire range of hands they can have. Then, the decision might not be obvious. Raising big on flops with top pair is actually a mistake quite often, depending on your SPR.
In hand 2: Hard to comment without knowing the pre-flop and flop action. The fact that a fish called without a boat or better is a great sign you are on a soft poker site. If you are not winning on such a site, and based on the way you describe hands, it is obvious that you need some training. I recommend reading Professional No-Limit Hold’em (Flynn) and watching any Phil Galfond training videos you can. Doug Polk is another good source, just avoid the YouTube stuff and look more at his training materials. This will give you a great good game foundation. Also be sure to check out my poker tutorial on my homepage, it’ll help get you up to speed on where profit comes from in poker. Stop focusing on what the poker sites are doing and more on your strategy.
I am not saying this to call you out, I genuinely want you to get better and start winning and thus be a happier poker player. 🙂 Good luck!
After reading through this, I’ve come to my own conclusion that as a casual online player, I pretty much just stink at poker. If I played more aggressive and got into more pots, with a well balanced bet mentality…I’d do much better. Learning about the odds of poker would probably help a bunch too.
Thanks for the article.
Hi Keith, keep your head up.. no one is really good at this game. After all, it’s the most complicated game in the world. Check out my free strategy guide pages att https://automaticpoker.com/how-to-play-poker/
I hope it helps and thanks for commenting!
Absolute nonsense. I’ve been playing online and live poker for 20+ years. In live poker I win more often than not. Online poker – I lose vastly more often than not. The algorythm is programmed to target those with the highest percentage chance of depositing more money after a loss. Regardless of how good you are, they will make sure you lose. They don’t want you stockpiling their money. They want the newbies to win and become addicted – regardless of the fact that I have KK and I’m all in against K4 and 567 flops, with an 8 on the river!
Old muggynuts that wins, later loses the lot – whilst I deposit another few hundred.
The algorythm works on the odds of the house making the most profit – not the cards. After 20 plus years of playing live and online, it couldn’t be any more obvious. When the algorythm targets you to lose. You will lose, no matter how good you are or what calls you make.
Lastly, if it wasn’t rigged… the top 10 players in the world would dominate online poker and rake in all the money. All the new players would get ripped to shreds and never come back. Thus rendering online poker dead. Zero profits. The algorythm is written to ensure the best players don’t win all the time!
Thanks for commenting. This is a common sentiment by people who have trouble winning online.
I know the games seem rigged sometimes. The truth is, online poker is just harder than live poker.. the players, overall, are technically better. This gives the illusion that the games must be rigged. There is no algorithm, it just doesn’t work that way. It’s a random card generator that favors no one.
The reason the top 10 don’t end up with all the money is due to new deposits constantly flowing into the poker economy. Recreational players expect to lose and just treat it like a live casino.. set a budget, lose the money, redeposit, etc.
The only real “rigging” that is done, is to cater to the loud minority (regs) that want special features to help them play more tables more effectively. Hotkeys, auto sit out, auto rebuy, etc is what has hurt online poker the most. Poker sites add features to appease regs while taking away things that recreational players love. For example, sites raising the minimum buy-in so that people can’t short stack. There is a direct correlation to the toughness of a poker site relative to its min buy-in for cash games. The sites who have no messed with this are softer (Ignition/Bovada) the sites that have (ACR and Pokerstars) became so tough to beat it’s not even worth playing there.
My advice to you, is to just find the softest online poker site you can and you’ll find that the games suddenly don’t appear rigged anymore.. because the key to winning at poker is to play against worse competition.
Yes, it’s utterly preposterous to think an offshore unregulated poker site( a game in which deceit is the main premise) would cheat it’s clients. I’m sure only the most riggidly ethical people are running these sites. But seriously, these sites are 100% rigged and contrary to your assertion, it is not that difficult from a programming standpoint to do so. It’s also very difficult to prove even for those keeping large databases of their hands. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost to the most inconceivable calls(which would happen either never or a statistcally insignificant amount of times in live poker) only to get beat by runner runners. Other people have had the same experiences and in fact have documented them on you tube videos.
It looks like you have made up your mind on this. However, just keep in mind that the poker rooms would gain nothing by “rigging” and have everything to lose. I’m just not convinced. Show me the empirical proof of the rigging and I will revisit my opinion. I’ve played millions of hands and seen crazy stuff, but it all falls within statistical ranges of probabilities. The expected number of pairs, two pairs, etc. Expected amount of wins and losses when all-in. Nothing crazy expect the normal poker craziness that makes the game so fun. Beyond everything else, if the games actually were fixed.. the best players would figure out how and exploit it. That’s probably how it would get discovered in the end if they tried to hide it. Superusers? Yes, possible. RNG rigging? No way.
Of course you can not find any HARD EVIDENCE about rigged game. I mean how could you? The goal of “rigged for more action” is targeted to EVERY SINGLE ONE of the player. Everyone end up buying more chips than they should be. Remember, it’s EVERYONE! When everyone is paying more, then there is no comparison. When there is no comparison, how could it be any evidence? Unless the developers gave you two versions to compare with (one rigged, another one not), but why would they?
Oh, and also, about your statement of “only the losing player complain about rigged game”. I’m a player who wins the most in the group, but I’m also the one who strongly suspicious about the games.
Hard evidence would be a discrepancy in the frequencies over a large sample of hands. This would be very noticeable. The truth is, RNGs are heavily regulated and there’s no way sites can get away with messing with them. Also, don’t you think an employee would whistleblower at some point? Suspicion is good, though. Trust but verify.
Yes. You are absolutely right.
After reading what everyone has said I wanted to comment, Iv bin playing for 12 years studied the game hardcore Iv played all different stakes HIGH and low and Iv had some big scores but nowadays I think there is a lot of collusion in mtts with player stables and staking groups and also in Ring games massive collusion low stakes , illegal programmes are being ran to track peoples games and hand histories especially if your a threat to there money making enterprise, BOTTOM LINE the game is FULL of DIRTY LAUNDRY
There will always be those willing to attempt to cheat. To actually be good enough at it to make a huge difference and to be at the detriment of others is really difficult. There is a reason they have to cheat; they are terrible at the game. A terrible group of players trying to cheat will likely make the games even better than if they hadn’t played at all since they can’t win. Take bots for example.. I’d rather have a few predictable and mediocre bots on my table than a lot of other lineups. As long as we continue to study and focus on beating the games, the cheaters will never be able to match our win-rates nor will they make the games unbeatable. My two cents. 🙂
I only started playing on line poker when COVID hit, so only for 6 months. Some friends set up a home game private club. We have maybe 30 members now. Over a hundred have joined only to quit quickly due to what they perceive as “rigged” hands. What I seem to see, and what many of the players I play with seem to see, is the proliferation of “TV” hands, meaning those that typically get televised during major tournaments. So many runner-runners. So many river beats. So many upsets. It’s exciting and maybe the site could benefit from newbies telling their friends how exciting it was there. To those of us who still play, we have all become cautious and tuned down the aggression. And we all still see it happen and moan “typical on line poker”.
I have played on several sites and a lot of odd things happen on most. I contacted support on one very well known site about what appeared to be happening on their site and I was directed to a link that was supposed to verify that their site was random. What i found was the testing site was not testing the how random the cards were being dealt but how random was the RNG. The idea was to make sure the players could not beat the RNG to gain an advantage.
Their arguement is, if nobody has an unfair advantage over another player the game is fair. The fact that their RNG does not include every possible hand combination doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if the odds of getting a flush or straight are 10 times greater playing online opposed to playing real poker.
But the odds of making every type of hand are exactly the same on every poker site. Millions of hands tested by numerous players confirm this. The odds of getting a flush and straight are exactly the same live as they are online. I have played a lot of live poker, and it’s amazing how many “rigged” hands there are dealt by a live poker. That’s what’s cool about the game and makes it profitable, there is just the right balance of “luck” to keep bad players coming back and allowing for good players to make a living.