Is Poker Stars Rigged?

[buttkiss56]

yep I played at one that closed many years ago and you can cheat very easily , with chat , email or whatever there was then.

 

[mcgameboy]

I wouldn't say it is "rigged", but I do think that there are way too many "Hollywood cold decks". Two hands I have seen during the 10+ years I played at Stars stand out.

1. A Triple Draw 2-7 hand that one of my Facebook friends played in. Three players at a ring game table. All three have had their second draw and they all have 4 parts to a 7 high. They all draw 1 on the third and final draw. And then all hell breaks loose. The result? They had the following.....75432 (the absolute nuts), 76432 (the second nuts) and 76532 (the third nuts). Just ridiculous. Seeing hands like that really do make you wonder sometimes if those who cry "it's rigged I tell ya" are actually right.

2. The other hand.....Fixed Limit Omaha. Three players. Flop AcJcQc. One has AA. Another has JJ. They get into a raising war that results in capped betting all 3 streets. The third player is a calling station. Turn....the case J. River blank. The third player continues to call every bet and raise, like he has a flush he just can't let go of.

Showdown.....AA guy has As full, JJ guy has quad Js. Sure enough, the third player has a flush he can't let go of. Because two of his hole cards were KcTc. He only flopped the fricking royal flush. And he never raised during the entire hand lol. That got the entire table talking for about 10 minutes.

One key thing to note though. This hand happened during level 1 of a freeroll tournament that I myself was playing in.

If Stars was truly "rigged", they would have "ensured" that that hand had "randomly" taken place at a Pot Limit or No Limit Omaha ring game table, wouldn't they? But they didn't. Fact is, so many hands get dealt out at Stars that probably almost every miracle eventuality has been seen at some point, whether it be ring game or tournament, real money or play money.

Except perhaps, for someone coming a poor fifth best in a hand of $10/$20 PLO with Queens full, because he/she lost to four players holding Quad Tens, Quad Jacks, A Queen high Straight Flush and a Royal Flush on a QJTJT board. If I ever saw THAT happen, I'd probably pass out. Heck...even the guy with the royal flush would probably pass out.

FWIW, I do not play at Stars anymore. I joined in 2001 and stopped last year. After the events of Black Friday, there was a massive influx of Russian, Ukranian, Brazilian and Argentine players. The donk pool swelled up bigtime. The bad beats became more frequent and also more ridiculous. I was never a "good loser" at poker even at the best of times. But it got to the point where I started to hate the game. I even started to hate myself. Because even when I won, I couldn't "win with class". To the extent I could make Tony G look like a f**king choirboy. I even started to get "upset" for other players who got beat by a ridiculous suckout. If I went all-in and some Russian made a truly horrific donk call and failed to hit his miracle suckout, I would give him a solid 5 minutes of abuse in the chat box.... even though I won. Even if the guy didn't know a word of English lol. And then at one point, I just stopped for a moment and I asked myself "WTF has happened to you? This is a f**king GAME!" I went from being someone who wanted to learn the game and have fun and compete to being a total keyboard warrior who seemed more concerned with giving people verbal abuse in the chat box than with playing the actual game itself. I didn't like what I was becoming. If I saw someone else behaving like that, I would take less than a nanosecond to despise them. If it was at a live game, I'd want to risk getting kicked out of the casino for attempting to punch his lights out. But it wasn't someone else. It was me. And poker was making me become that despicable person. So I stopped.

A year has passed since I stopped. My Stars account is still active. I still have £20 in it. But I really do not miss it. I don't miss the rewarding of stupidity at my expense or indeed at other people's expense, the donkaments, the crap shoots, the kamikaze play, the endless typing of Russian/Ukranian/Brazilian/Spanish chat in the chat box, the long grinding sessions for minimal gains, the cold decks where I would lose the maximum with the second nuts or win the minimum when I had the stone cold nuts and no-one would pay me off. It's just not fun anymore. Part of me wishes that the hunger will one day return. But it has not. And I don't think it ever will.

Playing the slots like I have done for the past year may be more "expensive" than playing micro-stakes poker. But it has given me one thing....the buzz of a big win that poker NEVER gave me. And that too is a reason why I am never likely to return to poker.

 

[orion]

Playing the slots like I have done for the past year may be more "expensive" than playing micro-stakes poker. But it has given me one thing....the buzz of a big win that poker NEVER gave me. And that too is a reason why I am never likely to return to poker.

agreed 100%

 

[lausitzer28]

lets ave some fun
:notworthy
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[lotusch]

I wouldn't say it is "rigged", but I do think that there are way too many "Hollywood cold decks". Two hands I have seen during the 10+ years I played at Stars stand out.

1. A Triple Draw 2-7 hand that one of my Facebook friends played in. Three players at a ring game table. All three have had their second draw and they all have 4 parts to a 7 high. They all draw 1 on the third and final draw. And then all hell breaks loose. The result? They had the following.....75432 (the absolute nuts), 76432 (the second nuts) and 76532 (the third nuts). Just ridiculous. Seeing hands like that really do make you wonder sometimes if those who cry "it's rigged I tell ya" are actually right.

2. The other hand.....Fixed Limit Omaha. Three players. Flop AcJcQc. One has AA. Another has JJ. They get into a raising war that results in capped betting all 3 streets. The third player is a calling station. Turn....the case J. River blank. The third player continues to call every bet and raise, like he has a flush he just can't let go of.

Showdown.....AA guy has As full, JJ guy has quad Js. Sure enough, the third player has a flush he can't let go of. Because two of his hole cards were KcTc. He only flopped the fricking royal flush. And he never raised during the entire hand lol. That got the entire table talking for about 10 minutes.

One key thing to note though. This hand happened during level 1 of a freeroll tournament that I myself was playing in.

If Stars was truly "rigged", they would have "ensured" that that hand had "randomly" taken place at a Pot Limit or No Limit Omaha ring game table, wouldn't they? But they didn't. Fact is, so many hands get dealt out at Stars that probably almost every miracle eventuality has been seen at some point, whether it be ring game or tournament, real money or play money.

Except perhaps, for someone coming a poor fifth best in a hand of $10/$20 PLO with Queens full, because he/she lost to four players holding Quad Tens, Quad Jacks, A Queen high Straight Flush and a Royal Flush on a QJTJT board. If I ever saw THAT happen, I'd probably pass out. Heck...even the guy with the royal flush would probably pass out.

FWIW, I do not play at Stars anymore. I joined in 2001 and stopped last year. After the events of Black Friday, there was a massive influx of Russian, Ukranian, Brazilian and Argentine players. The donk pool swelled up bigtime. The bad beats became more frequent and also more ridiculous. I was never a "good loser" at poker even at the best of times. But it got to the point where I started to hate the game. I even started to hate myself. Because even when I won, I couldn't "win with class". To the extent I could make Tony G look like a f**king choirboy. I even started to get "upset" for other players who got beat by a ridiculous suckout. If I went all-in and some Russian made a truly horrific donk call and failed to hit his miracle suckout, I would give him a solid 5 minutes of abuse in the chat box.... even though I won. Even if the guy didn't know a word of English lol. And then at one point, I just stopped for a moment and I asked myself "WTF has happened to you? This is a f**king GAME!" I went from being someone who wanted to learn the game and have fun and compete to being a total keyboard warrior who seemed more concerned with giving people verbal abuse in the chat box than with playing the actual game itself. I didn't like what I was becoming. If I saw someone else behaving like that, I would take less than a nanosecond to despise them. If it was at a live game, I'd want to risk getting kicked out of the casino for attempting to punch his lights out. But it wasn't someone else. It was me. And poker was making me become that despicable person. So I stopped.

A year has passed since I stopped. My Stars account is still active. I still have £20 in it. But I really do not miss it. I don't miss the rewarding of stupidity at my expense or indeed at other people's expense, the donkaments, the crap shoots, the kamikaze play, the endless typing of Russian/Ukranian/Brazilian/Spanish chat in the chat box, the long grinding sessions for minimal gains, the cold decks where I would lose the maximum with the second nuts or win the minimum when I had the stone cold nuts and no-one would pay me off. It's just not fun anymore. Part of me wishes that the hunger will one day return. But it has not. And I don't think it ever will.

Playing the slots like I have done for the past year may be more "expensive" than playing micro-stakes poker. But it has given me one thing....the buzz of a big win that poker NEVER gave me. And that too is a reason why I am never likely to return to poker.

Very good post...
And as described in your post is exactly one of the many reasons I gave up on online poker too...
Love the game,still do,but I rather play some local tourneys in pubs and casino's as at least I can see what is going on and I can observe my fellow players at the table...

 

[mcgameboy]

lets ave some fun
:notworthy
Outdated URL (Invalid)

OMG lol. I noticed that tourny was PSO Open League. Another one of the reasons I began to hate the game. Where playing actually meant timing out every hand until the Russians and Ukranians started typing PRIVET and DEBRIL (what those words actually mean I have no idea but I suspect they are not complimentary lol) in the chat box ad nauseum.

 

[lausitzer28]

privet = hello

the other word idk maybe he means devil in english

i sometime play little buy in tourney at stars and always bust with KK pocket tens and so on.
at all i agree with you have similar experiences startet to play online poker in 2007 and my biggest win was 1K at Carbonpoker. at pokerstars i never could win anything above 50 euros and i would say they are all rigged in some way. sometimes i play tourney in 2 different rooms as example pokerstars and playtech and very often i get the same starting hands at the same time no joke.
when i play online poker i dont expect to win anything. its easier to win soem money with Roulette, Blacjack, CasinoHoldem in my op

 

[Perez777]

Hi guys. Actually everything solves experience

cash(+6,8к):



In мтт +5k approximately

 

[BMWSTACK]

Very good post...
And as described in your post is exactly one of the many reasons I gave up on online poker too...
Love the game,still do,but I rather play some local tourneys in pubs and casino's as at least I can see what is going on and I can observe my fellow players at the table...

The post doesn't prove anything. Over time all these hands will eventually happen. The same exact thing can happen in a B&M, you just don't hear any conspiracy theories in a B&M because its not computer software doing the dealing.

The thing people always forget is the amount of hands seen online significantly outnumbers hands seen in B&M setting.

The only thing I can agree with is the possibility of collusion between players. Of course they have ways to catch that, but that is the only concern I ever had, hence the reason why I would typically stacy away from cash game or sit and go's, and would primarily play larger tournaments.

 

[Zabier]

The post doesn't prove anything. Over time all these hands will eventually happen. The same exact thing can happen in a B&M, you just don't hear any conspiracy theories in a B&M because its not computer software doing the dealing.

The thing people always forget is the amount of hands seen online significantly outnumbers hands seen in B&M setting.

The only thing I can agree with is the possibility of collusion between players. Of course they have ways to catch that, but that is the only concern I ever had, hence the reason why I would typically stacy away from cash game or sit and go's, and would primarily play larger tournaments.

I know this is a thread that stopped a month ago but felt I wanted to comment. I agree with the poster above. You will find patterns anywhere if you look hard enough and I really don't think online casinos rig coding to make sure they maximise profit. I do however, like the poster above, believe that players work together to maximise winnings. I've only played private tables with people I know and trust in real life for a while now. I still play freeroll tournaments if I am bored or low buy-in tournaments but avoid sit 'n' go single tables and cash game tables.

 

[JackTenOff]

It does amuse me when people say 'I busted with Kings/Aces, stars is Rigged!!' if you get it in with aces/kings 5 times in a tournament, statistically you will lose one! Stars tournaments usually have far fare more runners than other networks so to make a deep run or winning it you will need to get extremely lucky even if you do get your money in as a fav every time.

 

[Zabier]

It does amuse me when people say 'I busted with Kings/Aces, stars is Rigged!!' if you get it in with aces/kings 5 times in a tournament, statistically you will lose one! Stars tournaments usually have far fare more runners than other networks so to make a deep run or winning it you will need to get extremely lucky even if you do get your money in as a fav every time.

Exactly, plus, how often do bad beats happen in real life as well? I would probably say I have worse luck in real life!

 

[heliluddite]

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