All larger online poker rooms use a reputable auditing firm to control the fairness and accuracy of the games. A poker room would be facing imminent abandonment and bankruptcy if irregularities would be discovered. There is simply not enough incentive for them to cheat and risk ruining their reputation in order to make a few extra dollars.
Furthermore, the premium card theory is a misconception. Overall, the online poker room would make less money with an unusual proportion of premium cards and bad beats as result. This way the games would become more volatile and the losing player(s) will have fewer funds to rake from and the winner(s) will not rake substantially more. The ideal situation for an online poker room is actually that most players are reasonably well off (low volatility) so that they will have the means and desire to continue to rake. This is actually the main reason why offline card rooms and casinos are often reluctant to offer higher no-limit games as customers go broke more often before having much time to rake to the house where the weaker players will lose much more to the strong players than what they pay in rake to the house.
Why many online poker players seem to believe that they are being cheated is mainly because they refuse to accept the fact that they may be losing players. In a normal online poker room you typically have about 5% of the players who are consistent big winners, some 15% that are more or less breaking even and the other 80% are losing money. These numbers are net after the rake is paid. With the bonuses some of the smaller players end up breaking even although they are losing at the tables. There are a great number of players who have mostly played offline and believe that they are winning players. Once these players start to play online they can not fool themselves anymore, the reason for this is because it is so easy to track your actual winnings or losses when playing online. Also far too many players play without an adequate bankroll and therefore go broke, when offline they could reach into their pocket for more cash. Online poker magnifies mistakes because of the greater speed and option to play at multiple tables. If a losing player start playing online thinking he/she is a winning player, that player will lose much faster then normally.
To sum up, do not worry a bit about rigged games. The only type of cheating you are likely to face is cheating from your opponents, which we cover below. |
