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24 Sep
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In a scandal sure to rock the world of online poker, perhaps even above and beyond the level of the UltimateBet and Full Tilt incidents, a major poker site has admitted to rigging their shuffles after being confronted by Dave McDermott of London, England. “PokerSuns is rigged,” he wrote on Four Plus Four Forums. “They rig the RNGs so shortstacks bust and tournaments are over quickly.
(Photo: Pokerstars.com)
PokerStars remains without question the most popular online poker room out there even after all these years and attempts by other sites to dethrone it. And it is NOT even close - they have by far the best software optimized to enhance the experience of both the grinder and recreational player, the most variety of games, and the most traffic. PokerStars also has arguably the best support and until recently, the site run by Amaya even had some of the best rewards in the industry. Of course, this isn’t the case anymore since the Supernova Elite level is basically obsolete and just two weeks ago, the site announced a new major VIP Club revamp that could trim down the rewards even more.
Even so, nobody can really compete with PokerStars and that’s why it is the most beloved and yes, the most hated poker room on the internet. Many earned lots of money playing there but even more lost fortunes. And that’s where Fuckpokerstars.com comes in, a place dedicated to all those who lost their bankroll on PS and think that their RNG is rigged. But is it really? Or are those haters just sore losers who want to blame somebody other than themselves? And is this Fuckpokerstars.com worth mentioning? Well to some degree it is and you will have the read the next lines to find out why.
(Photo: Fuckpokerstars.com)
1.4 Million Hands And Some Pretty Interesting Results
Besides their countless horror hands that you can experience yourself by just grinding online poker and some very questionable plays in the process (basically how NOT to play your big hands), Fuckpokerstars.com made an interesting experiment tracking milions of tournaments on PokerStars and filtering only the situations in which two or more players were all-in preflop. The outcome was 1,360,000 tournament hands selected and analyzed carefully.
All those hands were grouped into four categories: 80% chances of winning the hand versus 20% - basically pairs vs. smaller pairs - 70% versus 30% - situations like Ace-King versus Ace-Queen so basically bigger kicker vs. smaller kicker or pair vs. one overcard - 60% versus 40% - two cards versus two smaller cards like Jack-Ten versus Seven-Eight - and flips close to 50% versus 50% - basically pair versus two overcards.
The results were somewhat interesting: the standard deviation - which is what one should expect based on statistics/mathematics minus the actual results - was well within limits in the coinflips and the 60/40 situations. In the 80/20 and 70/30 situations though, the deviation was off: in the pair vs. smaller pair situation, the overpair actually won 72.7% of the time which is indeed way under the expected 81%. In the 70/30 kind-of hands, the smaller kicker won the pot 41% of the time which is way above the expected 30%. According to Fuckpokerstars.com, over 475,000 70/30 hands were analyzed so this deviation seems to be something more than just plain-ol’ variance.
Moreover, in the Ax vs. Ax battles, the Ace with the smaller kicker won the hand 4% more than it should have been. And the Ax vs. pocket air battles, the Ax won at showdown 12% more often than what math usually tells us. Aces galore on PokerStars right?
Editor’s Take - The Truth Is Out There!
Well, for one who has played a fair amount of tournaments on PokerStars as of late, this is not quite news. Indeed, as you play more and more on PS, you start to believe that Ace with a higher kicker is actually more of a coinflip versus Ace with a lower kicker or that your big pocket pair doesn’t win often enough against the Ax type-of-hands where x is smaller than your pair (a standard 70/30 situation one might say). And yes, you would even agree that the action postflop is way over the limit - big hands running into bigger and bigger and bigger hands - compared to some other smaller online poker sites. But does this mean PokerStars is rigged? Or maybe, just maybe, our process thinking is actually flawed?
Yes, it is true, ALL online poker sites, including PS, need to be audited seriously by public organizations that actually care about the safety of its citizens and not by private companies based on some financial heavens like the Fuckpokerstars.com petition suggests. We all know scam sites like Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker were both audited by such private companies and let’s not forget what flaws their software had. But to call PokerStars scammy is way over-the-top. What we should do first is actually look in the mirror, study our play and see what we have actually done wrong and how we could have played a certain hand better. We actually remember a bad beat much clearer than a hand in which we cracked somebody’s Aces so maybe that’s why poker feels unfair sometimes.
And since you want to play on the biggest poker site of them all, don't forget to think about variance as well - you will play MTTs on PokerStars against thousands of players so you will have to win many, many flips not to mention give several bad beats in the process to emerge victorious. However, if you play on a smaller site with only several hundred players per MTT, you will have to win way less hands in order to reach the top of the ladder. And if you think there’s too much action on PS, think of how many flops are dealt with every second of the day. Or maybe think of this year’s WSOP Main Event and it’s crazy action with many quads and big hands vs. Bigger hands situations.
And if you aren’t still convinced, how about trying out an exercise a friend of mine always does when he thinks the site is robbing him? Just take a deck of cards, shuffle it yourself, deal like in a regular Holdem game and behold the RNG in action. How many bad beats did you see?
Now, is the whole game of poker rigged?
What do you think? Is PokerStars rigged? Is maybe the whole online poker rigged? Or do we have a flawed process thinking when it comes to the game we love most? Be sure to share your opinion in the comment section below.
Whether you’ve never been exposed to poker or you’re a regular player online, many have asked and wondered about this question: Is online poker rigged?
The answer is NO. And these operators have proof. Poker sites use regulators and highly sophisticated random number generators to keep their games safe, secure and fair for the players who use it.
1. PokerStars
Security
PokerStars starts making sure the software is secure from the minute the software is downloaded. At the time of the download, the installer has a built-in feature that signs the file using a RSA 2048-bit code certificate, issued to Rational Services Limited and verified by VeriSign, a major public certificate authority.
This process ensures that the client installer came from PokerStars and that it wasn’t altered in the time between publication and installation. The software should contain the same certificates as those assigned in PokerStars’ own Certificate Authority and is authenticated on their servers. Everything clients input is validated on the server side.
PokerStars’ software uses the industry standard TLS protocol and PokerStars’ bit RSA key (which RSA states will be sufficient until 2030). These server keys are updated every three months. PokerStars supports the following ciphers: AES128-SHA (128 bits) and DES-CBC3-SHA (168 bits).
Each PokerStars account can increase its security by adding other methods of logging in: security questions, Stars PIN, SMS validation and a RSA token.
Fairness
PokerStars uses shuffle algorithms for its software, with two independent sources for the random data: user input and Quantis. The former, user input, summarizes mouse movements and takes into account event timing directly from the client software.
Quantis, comparatively, is a hardware random number generator from ID Quantique, a Switzerland-based company. According to PokerStars, this company uses quantum randomness as an entropy source.
ID Quantique states on its website that it was the first to develop a quantum random number generator in 2001 and remains a market leader when it comes to hardware random number generators (RNGs).
So, in a typical shuffle, PokerStars uses typical probability and statistics, shuffling 52 cards in 52! ways or 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,404,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ways. To get an even and unpredictable statistical distribution, PokerStars uses 294 random bits from user input and the quantum randomness.
Bet Online Poker Is Rigged
Thus, if a user does not meet the required amount of entropy as gathered from both sources, the next hand is not played until that amount is met from the Quantum random number generator.
They also use a cryptographic hash algorithm and pseudo-random number generator to mix the entropy levels for greater security and to protected against user data attacks.
The algorithm changes bit data into random numbers without bias by converting them into numbers (ex. 0-31 in a range of 0-25) and then discarding numbers and recalculating if outside that range.
When it comes to actual shuffling, a random card is taken from the deck and placed in a new deck. This process is continued until all cards have moved from one deck to the other. This process and the algorithm that creates it protect against a bad distribution.
All the information provided on the random number generator on PokerStars is submitted to an independent organization, Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) who audits PokerStars to confirm the randomness and security of the system, according to PokerStars Support.
So don't uninstall your PokerStars account just yet; they have a reputable system to show their games are fair. So head on over to PokerStars and decide for yourself.
2. 888poker
Security
888poker also utilizes RSA public and private key encryption technology to make sure that all data is securely transferred online. Payment details are on a secure server protected by a firewall, according to 888poker.
The processing services for payments are handled by Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd., which also utilizes this method of encryption.
Fairness
When playing with 888poker online, a random number generator determines the outcome of the games. According to 888, the system has been tested through millions of rounds, examining the results along the way. The dealer in each game is actually a computer in most cases (with the exception of sports betting and live games).
Games that are outside the purview of 888 undergo additional procedures to make sure that they adhere to the appropriate standards and that they pass 888 in-house testing on both the system and the random number generator.
888 uses independent auditors to review the casino’s payout percentage on a regular basis and these are available to the public here.
Don't let us be the deciding factor! Experience 888poker firsthand!
3. partypoker
Security
Partypoker’s operator, bwin.party, has its evaluation certificate from iTech Labs with a range of poker games found compliant to iTech’s standards: ring games, Texas hold’em, Omaha, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo, Bad Beat Jackpot, partypoker Million, Sit & Go, Single Table and Multi-Table. Blackjack and regular and special tournaments have also been evaluated.
In the past, the poker games had already passed these tests, which including verifying that partypoker used a random number generator for card shuffling.
iTech tested the functionality of all games and tournaments, made return to player calculations and verified game rules and procedures for software integrity.
This last evaluation, in July of 2005, also ensure that the change control mechanisms and regular monitoring of critical modules were allowing the software to respond accordingly.
All game information is sent between the player’s computer and the partypoker servers with 128-bit encryption and SSL.
Fairness
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The random number generator and other systems, algorithms and practices ensure that partypoker remains fair to each player, the site states.
The deck is shuffled and the cards are generated through a random number generator. These numbers are scaled and shuffled from 32-bit raw numbers to generate a 52-card deck.
According to partypoker, this is an acceptable, statistically sound method to create randomness. This algorithm and shuffling code were used to generate over two million shuffled decks and met the test standards on a monthly basis. The source code is also reviewed by iTech to make sure that the internal state is secured and seeding is from an entropy source.
A study that statistically tested random number generators at the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that new metrics to investigate randomness helped to gain additional confidence that random number generators are acceptable from a statistical point of view.
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Thus, random generators should continuously be tested to ensure quality, but “are very important in the construction of encryption keys and other cryptographic algorithm parameters.”
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So maybe the next time you call out an online poker site for being rigged, start by making sure your gameplay is solid. Now, you can focus your efforts elsewhere, like on your video poker strategy.
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