[pipermax]

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I am a programmer and I can tell you it is far easier to rig poker software than it is to create software to play poker from scratch.
So if anything the argument - it would cost a lot - and is real hard to do is out the window.

The way the programmer said he did it also make sense. Something I would have to do as a programmer is make sure that in the long run the cards are not distributed abnormally i.e too many pocket aces getting cracked, because then anyone can use poker tracking tools and prove its rigged.
On the other hand, I have no idea how a programmer can screw it up to throw a fifth ace. (And release it to public too!)
The really good way to rig the site is to assign numeric values based on their wins/losses/playing style/newbie etc and say the higher number is favored in the deal because he recently joined and has not won much. Based on that the deal can be adjusted on the river /turn. Also settings can control which tables are rigged and which are not. Sometimes too, higher limit tables will not be rigged because firstly, they are very few newbies there and second, the pros might pick up on it.

the net result of a well rigged site: the very good players will still win though they might still suffer a few bad beats from newbies.
The newbies /bad players will last a little longer and will be encouraged.
However, the average/not so good players will now be losing players because all they needed was a little bit of variance to keep them in debt anyway.
thus, most of the rigged site stories will come from average players only since they are the ones the most victimized. Some winning players might discover this but most good players don't play at micro/medium and so may never notice this.
As a programmer, I see nothing extraordinary with this - but as a poker player it is disturbing to know it can be done <i>undetected!</i>

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Found this to be a pretty reasonable and thoughtful response on a subject that usually draws massive amounts of flame from true believers on both sides of the "online poker is rigged" argument.

Although I'm not a programmer it wouldn't seem that it would be any harder for a site to program hand results as Bystander suggested than it would be for IGT to program the RNG on individual video poker machines to give varying degrees of advantage to the casino as they have been doing for years.