So online poker isn't rigged? You tell me...

[tetsuo]

You might find this true story interesting.

It's about the crap algorithm that PlanetPoker employed at one time, and how it was cracked.

http://www.developer.com/tech/article.p ... 6221_1?o=0

[Nortonesque]

[tetsuo]

Here's some links to three sites' RNG specifications.

http://www.ultimatebet.com/about-ub/rng.html

http://www.partypoker.com/news/events/b ... wm=2000793

http://www.pokerstars.com/rng_audit.html

For others, just search Google for (e.g.) 'pokerroom rng'.

[Mad Genius]

So I said I wouldn't play for a year. BUT. I recently discovered a gold mine so unfortunately I'm gonna have to break my word once again. A couple of nights ago a buddy of mine who is a relative newb when it comes to tourneys was pretty deep in one of the small buyin pokerstars tourneys so I decided to stop by and help him out on some tough hands. I don't know if other people feel this way but when I am watching poker (online poker no less) and I'm not playing I get very frustrated. So I decided to at least check out who was playing, etc. Pretty soon I got to watching one of the 5k headsup matches being played. I was surprised at the quality of play, or lack thereof, as I saw plenty of re-raising preflop with A5s and JTs. Most people simply suck at headsup play and I figured to give one of them a shot. Over the past two days I've been playing headsup and am 5/6 so far playing $50 Headsup matches. I've found these to eliminate most of the luck factor as we almost never get our money in preflop. As a matter of fact, I have only had a preflop allin once in all my matches, and my 88 held up against 44 there. Overall I would recommend these headsup games as they are pretty easy to beat, don't take a long time, and the rake is less than the normal sit n gos (5% compared to 10% at lower limits, less at higher limits).

[k3nt]

Tetsuo, thanks much for all the links. Very, very interesting reading, especially the story about how the site was broken years ago. I feel silly now for what I said earlier about randomizers, and much more inclined to see some possible merit in Mad Genius' worries. So, my apologies to the Genius.

[Nortonesque]