I’ve dropped my buy-ins down to token sums because I’ve realised that you can’t win online. If you play too well you get punished for scaring away the fish. The number of times I’ve been rivered by rubbish is incredible and it goes way beyond the margins of probability.

I recently spoke with a professional hacker who has worked in data security for over ten years. He assures me that the only way to win online is to cheat. There’s a foolproof way of doing it involving global routing but in the spirit of the game I’ll leave it at that.

While I cannot prove it or back it up with evidence. I have a strong feeling that the games are rigged. If you play for hours on end day after day, I think you can get a ‘feeling’ about the question if you are on the good or bad side of variance. I am winning, and while I do believe it is also because Im better than my opponents, I have a strong feeling that I have been catching way more suckouts than statistics would entitle me too. Miracle suckouts happen, but I seem to get lucky with them way too often (and I play in a way that I dont HAVE to suck out a lot of the time)

In the biggest game Ive played thus far, I have been all in with K3 suited against AA and I caught a straight. not for a chop, but for the win. and then there are just countless of sets that turned into FH’s against a flush on the turn or river. I caught some bad beats as well, but I really feel like I am getting more than my share. Adams theory/explanation makes a lot of sense, and those are valid points, but I am a player who does not get it in with the worst hand most of the time but I just seem to win them more often than I should. And people usually feel like they are unlucky, but i actually feel like I am lucky, which says something I guess. Just wanted to share that.

As for sharkscope, I think programs like that and pokertracker are lame as fck, but you gotta do what you gotta do to make a living I guess. Peace.

My main thought is; “how is poker programming conducted, is it an art or science, and do all the internet poker sites program the software/cards in the same programming formula.”

With the lack of government standards regulation cheaters and hackers like Russ Hamilton will continue to exist and players will continue to somewhat correctly wonder if poker programming of a site is rigged.

I played $10 – $20 LHE (full ring game) & $1-$2 NLHE (6-max). Each time I tried it out….there would be the usual roller coaster of winning a bit & losing a bit going on until I got into a big hand for the limit I was playing.

I was crushed in most of the big hands as a small to huge favorite & that was the reason I could never win there….PERIOD!!

I finally gave that site up for many reasons. The #1 reason was playing hands like this: I would have KK & my opponent would have AK….there would be preflop raises….the flop would come K-4-4…my opponent would go all-in & of course I would call & watch the turn & river be running 4′s to make his Ace high the winning hand…it was just unbelievable!!!

Also – I know there are all sorts of 3rd party programs players are using….one’s that are allowed there & one’s that aren’t (PokerStars says they ban certain one’s….but the 3rd party programs say they can’t be detected).

Whatever happened to poker being played….player vs. player? Now it is player vs. another player who is a computer whiz & has all the hands I’ve ever played in his database & use formula’s to put the most significant info right next to my avatar: or bots, shills, proposition players, etc.

What’s Next? Are you going to be sitting at a “live” game & have a player sit down along with an associate who has a laptop computer or some other device to enter all the info they can get on everybody else at the table & every hand that is showed down?

The way I’ve had the most success playing online poker is to avoid the biggest sites like PokerStars & Full Tilt poker. Try out some of the smaller sites until you find one that you like. I believe that in general there are less people at these type of sites that have databases that include you in them.

I am still ahead playing online poker over all….but not near as much as I would have been if I would have avoided PokerStars like the plague.

One thing I found out regarding PokerStars speaks volumes about how they operate. The FINAL TIME I tried that site out….I E-mailed them & asked if I could change my screen name there because I didn’t want any of my opponents have having a lot of info about me that they gleaned by 3rd party software programs.

LOL – they E-mailed me back & told me that I couldn’t & it was for my own good because of security issues.

And to all the folks who say that all these sites are fair & nobody ever gets cheated. Obvioulsy we all know about “Ultimate Bet” & “Absolute Poker”…so it can & did happen…& when caught…both sites stonewalled until “Players” came up with incontrovertible evidence.

Remember these two adages: “Doing the same thing over & over again & expecting different results is one definition of insanity” and “CAVEAT EMPTOR”!!

Of Course – this is just IMHO & I know there are players on both sides of this argument & there probably always will be.

congratulations PokerStars on banning sharkscope; although I have had my account blocked on sharkscope it caused me a lot of problems while playing money sit and go tourneys because opponents would check stats and report to the table which I thought to be very unfair. Again, thanks for this action and I remain a dedicated poker player only on pokerstars because it’s the only PERFECT site for real money or even play money play! Thanks

Pokerstars blows. The only thing good about it is the graphics.