I cannot win on pokerstars. Reasons ??

[toddxlogan]

[ QUOTE ]
Email support and ask them to set your doomswitch to off.

Xaston did this (he really did - I read the email and reply and they were both hilarious) and within 4 weeks won $43,000 in the end of month Stars $1m [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Would love to see this brilliant email posted. I assume it would entertain many of us.

[excession]

http://www.bet-the-pot.com/forum/viewtop...&start=3210

from his journal:


"Dear Pokerstars,



For the last ~6 weeks of my poker career I have been getting absolutely demolished. It is getting very very frustrating. I have consistently been one of the biggest winners in your $2/$4 6 handed NL cash games, but lately I've just been grinding gears. If you add in tournaments (don't even get me started on how badly you guys brutalize me in tournaments EVERY Sunday) and some bad luck in big live games and tournaments lately, and I am not doing so awesome for the year anymore.



Also, this girl that I've been crazy about for the last like 4 years of my life and I started dating somewhere in this time and for the third time, she has left me for another guy. lol. How pathetic am I? I don't really know why I keep giving her more chances. She has a great smile and really nice boobs. Those probably have something to do with it. We also have a ton of fun together. Anyway, I'm getting off topic here.



The point is I would really like it if you guys could forward this to the luck department and have them turn off my bad luck switch. I swear I never said anything bad about Lee Jones, I don't even know why you guys turned it on. But I will definately forgive you guys if you can turn off the bad luck switch for me. I want to make a ton of money this month to rebound financially and emotionally from this rough 6 week period in my life. Did I mention that my sister just moved all the way across the country to California?



By my best estimate I have paid in excess of $61,038.37 (that's just Hold Em cash games on this computer) in rake at your website, and all I am asking if for you guys to stop making my aces full of fives run into quad fives, flopped sets run into higher flopped sets, flopped flushes run into higher flopped flushes, and for the love of Lee Jones could I please flop a pair in a re-raised pot with ace-king!? If you add in tournaments, my play on my laptop, and non-hold em games I am sure the number is in the $75,000 ballpark. $75,000. That is an insane amount of money. You could basically buy a brand new Porsche 911 Carerra with just the rake that I have contributed; and all I ask in return is for you to let my won $ at showdown stat to get above 50 again. If you're feeling generous, I wouldn't mind doing well in the Sunday Million or upcoming WCOOP, but I'm not holding my breath.



Love Always,

A wicked loyal customer, "Xaston" "


The reply:

"Hello [XASTON],

Thank you for your e-mail.

After reading your email it appears that you are indeed going through a tough time. What is unusual is that you have never written an email concerning bad beats since you have been a member at PokerStars which is over 3 years ago.

It appears that your game could be affected by issues in your personal life. Poker is such a mind game and it is so important to have a clear mind when playing the game. I have reviewed your account and have found that
you are an exceptional player. You have a large number of life time FPP's and withdrawals which indicates that you have done very well at PokerStars in the last 3 years.

As I mentioned it is unusual that this is your first email requesting that you would like your bad beat switch turned off. Well I am sorry to say that this is not possible. This is because we do not have a bad beat switch to turn off. You have been such a valued player at PokerStars, there is no reason why we would not want you to keep playing here.

I am sure you are well aware that there is no such thing as a 'bad beat switch'. We have no interest in providing action or augmenting the hands in any way. Bad beats simply happen on their own. If there were no more bad beats, people would stop chasing bad draws. If that happens, then
good players like yourself won't be able to win anymore.

There is really no incentive for PokerStars to increase the size of the pots by manipulating the deal. The rake for every hand is capped at a maximum of $3 (or less, depending on the limit and number of players at the table).

At the lower limits, the pots take care of themselves. Inexperienced players who are playing all kinds of trash, and who go too far with their hands, mean that the pots get pretty big relative to the stakes very easily. There is no need for us to 'juice' the deal when the players will
play any face card, and two suited cards, and any pair anyway.

At the larger limits, the rake hits the cap so quickly that again there is no reason for us to manipulate the cards. At these limits, it wouldn't matter if the resulting pot was $1000 or $10,000 - we would still take $3 in rake.

Not only is there no genuine incentive for us to do it, it would be impossible for us to implement without getting caught. We have always provided hand histories to all of our players. Some of these players have analyzed hundreds of thousands of hands that they have played here - and
not one of them has found anything unusual.

If you are getting frustrated with your play over the last 6 weeks, this cannot be benefitting your game. Could you be chasing more draws or being more aggressive in general? Or could you be tightening up as you are worried about your bankroll? Every poker player including myself will
experience downswings at one point or another. Downswings cannot be avoided when playing a game that involves this amount of luck.

It also appears that your tournament play has recently suffered as well.

The nature of tournaments is that you will often go out with the best hand. In any tournament you have to win a lot of showdowns to survive to the end and have to get very lucky to do so.

Let’s take an example event where you’re only ever all-in three times in the event, and every time as a 70% favourite. Sound like a great position?

Well, no, not really. Losing any one of those hands eliminates you so you need to win all three. The chances of winning all three of them? About 34%. That means you’re a very big underdog to actually stay in that event.
While you may be a favourite in each individual hand in the context of the tournament as a whole you need to get lucky to stay in.

And that’s a good example, where you’re a big favourite in every hand.
Throw a couple of coin-flips in there (your pocket pair vs. an opponent’s over cards for example) and the percentage drops dramatically.

This is why tournaments have such a large variance. You do have to get lucky to win, even if you hold the best hand every time. All you can do is try and get your money in with the best hand and hope that it holds up. If it doesn’t, well that’s just poker; that happens to every single player on our site.

You won’t be surprised to hear that many poker players feel they are always extremely unlucky in critical situations. The simple reason is that these are the occasions that hurt the most, and hence we remember them more vividly. All the straightforward pots you took down prior to reaching that critical moment are swiftly forgotten - you only remember the time your opponent did river his gutshot because it caused your untimely exit. That’s the nature of tournament poker.

I am not obliged to teach or instruct you about your poker game, however looking at your results, it appears that there would not be much that you did not know. Please be patient through this downswing and I am sure that you game will shine through in the not to distant future.
If you have any further concerns or would like us to provide you with statistical reports or hand histories from your account, do not hesitate to contact us and we will gladly assist you.

Once again thank you for your patronage and I wish you all the best playing 2/4 nl in the future.

Kind Regards,

Richard
PokerStars Support Team”


GG PS support!

Of course they did throw his doomswitch to 'off' and a month later he took 6th in the end of month Sunday million for $43k!

[Josem]

[ QUOTE ]
I would guess that almost everyone on this forum would be looking to maximize profits if we owned pokerstars/FTP etc...and if that means throwing some house players in here or there then so be it. It is totally undetectable and we will probably never know the truth unless someone very high up leaks the info, but why would that ever happen? There is no way I would ever bet against this.

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That's an incredibly huge and offensive slur against a bunch of people that you simply don't know.

Your own hunger for money and lack of ethics is not something that you have a right to project on other people. Many people on earth are not in the habit of stealing money and fraudulently ripping people off (as you suggest) simply because it is possible.

It's about time that people who accuse others of fraud, theft, and other outright illegal activities started providing some evidence to launch such outrageous accusations or stopped making them.

[thing85]

I just want to add that Stars is obviously rigged because I'm currently on a ridiculous, unsustainable heater running 30 BB/100 over my past 2500 hands. OMG the sample size is large enough.

[MicroBob]

That's pretty cool.

Amazing that they respond to so many e-mails so quickly and sometimes so lengthily.
Obviously many other sites do not give nearly as many appropriate responses nor give them in a timely manner.

Stars still rocks.

[ClubChamp04]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I would guess that almost everyone on this forum would be looking to maximize profits if we owned pokerstars/FTP etc...and if that means throwing some house players in here or there then so be it. It is totally undetectable and we will probably never know the truth unless someone very high up leaks the info, but why would that ever happen? There is no way I would ever bet against this.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's an incredibly huge and offensive slur against a bunch of people that you simply don't know.

Your own hunger for money and lack of ethics is not something that you have a right to project on other people. Many people on earth are not in the habit of stealing money and fraudulently ripping people off (as you suggest) simply because it is possible.

It's about time that people who accuse others of fraud, theft, and other outright illegal activities started providing some evidence to launch such outrageous accusations or stopped making them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't fool yourself, these sites are running a business and not a ethics convention. Business men look to maximize profits and are geared to do that. Obviously I don't know whats going on behind the scenes at these sites but I also don't know why you're so adamant in their defense. Can you not see a reason they would do this when there is no risk involved? You want proof...ok let me contact the guy who wrote the rng and see if he has anything to say, I'll get back to you with his answer.

[Josem]

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Don't fool yourself, these sites are running a business and not a ethics convention. Business men look to maximize profits and are geared to do that.

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Do you throw such wild accusations against every other person in business? Do you accuse your corner store owner of being a thief reguarly?

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Obviously I don't know whats going on behind the scenes at these sites but I also don't know why you're so adamant in their defense.

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Because it's an offensive statement made out of ignorance.

I'm merely saying that if you're going to accuse people of being thieves and frauds, you should provide some reasoning and/or evidence.

I think it is wrong that you feel that you can make such offensive accusations without expecting people to react.

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Can you not see a reason they would do this when there is no risk involved?

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1) 'cause some people have morals and believe it is wrong to steal? There are many people in the world who don't steal because they might caught, but there are even more people who won't steal because it is wrong.

2) It is false to say that there is no risk involved. There is clearly a serious risk of losing all the profits, plus a risk of quite serious criminal charges.

[ QUOTE ]
You want proof...ok let me contact the guy who wrote the rng and see if he has anything to say, I'll get back to you with his answer.

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...and until you provide proof, you should stop accusing people of being frauds, liars and thieves.

any proof would be a start.

PokerStars management don't accuse you of being a thief, don't accuse you of being a fraud, and don't make other quite serious accusations without evidence. You should return the courtesy.

[questions]

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Don't fool yourself, these sites are running a business and not a ethics convention. Business men look to maximize profits and are geared to do that.

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Do you throw such wild accusations against every other person in business?

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FYI, in the US, I believe that it is the case that corporations have a fiduciary duty to lawfully behave in a manner which maximizes profit - that is not a "wild accusation". If there is something unethical about doing your duty, please explain. I recognize that none of the poker sites are US-based, but the operative principle is undoubtedly the same, even so.

[BruceN]

Like many others, my PT stats show Im a 1.8 BB/00 winner at low stakes (1-2,2-4) on other non Stars sites and a significant loser at Stars. (about 60k hands)

The answer to this whole thread is simple, the players are on average much better at Stars,(ie much better than me)more TAGS per table on average in full ring FL. I have to drop 2 levels lower to begin winning.

Table dynamics at other sites seem to include more Tight Passives with a couple of loose players thrown in which with my style are much easier to beat.

Like OP more of my monster hands seem to be cracked, but I dont really expect two TAG opponents to fold to my aggresive turn raises against my set of Kings in a monster pot on a broadway heavy board with open ended and flush draws available. As has previously been said, table selection is a key skill.

[Josem]

[ QUOTE ]
FYI, in the US, I believe that it is the case that corporations have a fiduciary duty to lawfully behave in a manner which maximizes profit - that is not a "wild accusation". If there is something unethical about doing your duty, please explain. I recognize that none of the poker sites are US-based, but the operative principle is undoubtedly the same, even so.

[/ QUOTE ]

That may well be a law in the US, although I'm surprised by the direction to maximisefit. As a former Australian company director, I can tell you that the rule here is, amongst others, to act in the best interests of the company. This is not limited to profit.


In addition, I note your edit to act in a "lawful" manner towards this supposed profit object. It would seem self-evident to me that stealing, defrauding and thieving from your customers (as the fruitloops who make this unsubstantiated allegations allege they are doing) is unlawful. I assume that stealing internationally is as unlawful as stealing from someone in the same country.