Online Poker Integrity and Fairness: Is Poker Cheating?

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Tons of messages on internet forums claim that online poker is rigged and that no one can win due to non-random card dealing. While many new players may feel this way, it is in the best interest of poker sites to keep their games fair and have a random order of dealing. We’ll talk more about it here at Xgtiger Casino. Let’s take a look at the most common integrity and fairness issues in online poker:

The fraud proof that is against Online poker

Almost all online poker rooms allow you to download hand histories while you play cash games or tournaments. From hand history documents, you can find information such as:

  • Who won the hand?
  • Who lost his hand?
  • Stack sizes
  • The exact time the hand was played
  • All actions during the hand
  • Hole cards can be seen in the showdown

You can check how often certain hands are eliminated by importing hand histories into a poker tracker software like Holdem Manager 3. Remember that you need tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of hands to draw any statistical conclusions. If your Pocket Aces are cracked 2 or 3 times in a row, it’s probably just bad luck. And everyone will face bad times in poker, especially those who play a lot.

What about financial incentives for poker sites to cheat games? The most common arguments for this involve creating more leverage to charge more rake, but this is simply bad logic. If poker sites gave away their games to generate more rake, players would know the games were unfair, and the poker site would likely take a big hit in their player traffic once the spread spread. word. The poker site also risks losing its license and losing business, so the risk is not worth the reward for them to do this.

The Uncertainty Shuffle and RNGs

Shuffle is intended to vary the cards and make poker games fair. Lucky number generators are software used to ensure that the draw is not uncertain and does not favor any player over another. It’s no wonder that random number generators (RNG) are considered one of the most important parts of online poker. Software used for draws cannot control who wins or loses. Instead, it deals with cards; the rest is up to the players. The algorithm cannot produce a predetermined winning hand. Online poker rooms tend to have their RNGs verified by 3rd party auditing companies such as Gaming Laboratories International, which helps to demonstrate to players that the games are being run fairly and honestly.

While RNGs ensure an uncertain shuffle, you can still run into potential risks while playing online poker. Let’s look at the most common methods of cheating and how to spot them:

Ways You Can Be Cheated in Online Poker

Insider Cheating on Superusers

Superuser accounts are poker accounts that have the ability to see all the hole cards on their playing table. Such accounts will know exactly when to fold, bet or raise, giving them a great chance to win the hand. Normally when you play poker, you only show your hole cards, and other players’ cards are not visible. On the other hand, a superuser account must have access to the gambling operator’s poker server, which means they need to be an insider to do so.

One of the biggest online poker scams was the one involving Absolute Poker & Ultimate Bet in 2007, when a group of players discovered superusers playing as if they could see other players’ cards, winning repeatedly . The investigation was carried out, and it actually turned out that these superuser accounts were capable of all the hole cards, allowing them to make incredibly profitable moves at the tables.

After the Ultimate Bet scandal, poker sites must have realized that they could lose their business and reputation quickly if superuser accounts were set up. No other cases of superusers have been discovered since then. There have been cases where some players have gained superuser-like status by installing malicious software on their opponent’s computer, allowing them to view their opponent’s entire deck while playing. For this reason, all IM programs should be closed when playing online poker.

conspiracy

Collusion can occur in any poker game with three or more players. It is a form of cheating in which two or more players act using a secret, common strategy to gain an advantage over the other. Collusion is strictly against the rules of poker, and sometimes it’s hard to see if players are colluding at a table.

In most cases of collusion, players share their hole cards and try to push other players out of the pot or lure them when one of the colluders has a strong hand. In poker tournaments, collusion can also mean chip dumping, i.e. losing chips to a particular player on purpose.

Soft Play

Soft playing is a form of cooperation in which a player fails to bet or raise in a situation that would normally deserve it. It can also mean taking a less aggressive line against a particular player or avoiding winning money from them.

Ghosting

In a fair poker game, all players at the table play alone. Ghosting refers to a player giving advice to another player while they are sitting at a cash game or a tournament table. In online poker, software such as Teamviewer and Skype can be used for ghosting. The player can talk to their ghost if they are faced with a difficult situation before making a decision.

Ghosting is a big problem in the later stages of tournaments when prize pools are high. Ghosting is believed to be the most common form of cheating that occurs in online poker.

Multi-accounting

Multi-accounting means that a player opens two or more real money accounts on a poker site, giving them the opportunity to pretend to be different players in a game to increase their chances of winning. Multi-accounting is a problem for both honest players and the poker site because a cheater can receive multiple poker bonuses by creating several accounts. If a player is caught creating multiple accounts, all of his statements and balances will be suspended for violating the TOS.

Poker bots

Bots are a problem in modern online poker because they have evolved in strategy and can be difficult to detect. Poker bots are computer programs that play poker online and are strictly prohibited on every poker site like Lucky Cola. Poker bots can mimic human actions, but they make very few mistakes because they never get tired or unfocused like humans can.

You can spot a poker bot if you notice a certain player playing for a very long time without taking a break or if they play multiple tables without making a mistake. Combined, these two things give a player a high chance of becoming a bot.

Conclusion

Are you an avid gaming fan and want to know how to bet on online casino games? At Xgtiger, you’ll get the latest information on this year’s best casino games and a variety of gaming options, all in one place.

To start your online gambling journey, all you need to do is create an account on the site, deposit funds and you’ll be ready to bet on the best and most anticipated casino games.

Frequently asked questions

Cheating can be done many ways, including collusion, sleight-of-hand (such as bottom dealing or stacking the deck), or the use of physical objects such as marked cards or holdout devices. Cheating occurs in both friendly games and casinos. Cheats may operate alone, but also may operate in teams or small groups.
 

Fortunately, online poker rooms have many measures to prevent multi-account cheating. For example, to enable the cashout facility, players need to upload a copy of their ID. Also, rooms have a security feature that prevents the same IP address from registering at a tournament more than once.

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