Anyone heard anything: "What no one is saying about internet poker"

[suited aces]

Got an email today from amazon.com about this book by Carl Varrone.

"But when playing online, rampant cheating and endless numbers of bad players make the luck factor the deciding factor. This book will let you understand the two different games being played, comparing live play to online play. What No One Else Is Saying About Online Poker highlights how the internet has changed the game into a free for all that could bring even the most experienced professional poker player to his knees, begging for mercy."

This alone made me think the book is probably a joke. Still, interested if anyone has heard anything.

Linky

[renereal]

i do see alot more weird things happen on online poker then live poker. im not sure if the poker sites rigg there software to help there rake somehow.

[Senator7]

[ QUOTE ]
i do see alot more weird things happen on online poker then live poker. im not sure if the poker sites rigg there software to help there rake somehow.

[/ QUOTE ]

Online poker is more like a video game than actual poker.

[phydaux]

[ QUOTE ]
But when playing online, rampant cheating and endless numbers of bad players make the luck factor the deciding factor.

[/ QUOTE ]

The internet sites do NOT cheat the players. They don't have to. They have the rake. Why would they cheat when they're guaranteed 5 % of all the action?

The only possible cheating players can do is collution. It's easily done, but also easily detected. And the sites have a vested interest in rooting it out.

Playing poker vs bad players requiors a differant skill set than playing vs good players. However, a skilled player can adjust his game and come out a long term winner vs bad players. This was the whole point behing Small Stakes Hold'em.

[Senator7]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
But when playing online, rampant cheating and endless numbers of bad players make the luck factor the deciding factor.

[/ QUOTE ]

The internet sites do NOT cheat the players. They don't have to. They have the rake. Why would they cheat when they're guaranteed 5 % of all the action?

The only possible cheating players can do is collution. It's easily done, but also easily detected. And the sites have a vested interest in rooting it out.

Playing poker vs bad players requiors a differant skill set than playing vs good players. However, a skilled player can adjust his game and come out a long term winner vs bad players. This was the whole point behing Small Stakes Hold'em.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not saying they do it, but they also have the power to manipulate pocket and community cards to create larger pots and more rake.

[phydaux]

[ QUOTE ]
i do see alot more weird things happen on online poker then live poker. im not sure if the poker sites rigg there software to help there rake somehow.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's all perception. More wierd things happen because more hands are played per hour.

Playing B&M, you'll get delt ~20 hands an hour. Even if you play 40 hours a week, you might hit a straight flush maybe once a year.

Four-tabling on-line you can get delt nearly 200 hands an hour. At that rate you'll hit full houses about once an hour and a straight flush maybe once a month.

The sites don't cheat the players because they don't NEED to. They have the rake. Thety make their 5 % no matter who wins the pots. Cheating players would just kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
The internet sites do NOT cheat the players. They don't have to. They have the rake. Why would they cheat when they're guaranteed 5 % of all the action?


[/ QUOTE ]

This is like saying why would casinos ever cheat? Why would casinos skim profits(which they have done before)?

I agree that it'd be stupid, but anything is possible. Especially in an unregulated industry that has a history of drawing the kind of element that would cheat. It's a potential goldmine for any syndicate.

[ QUOTE ]
The sites don't cheat the players because they don't NEED to.

[/ QUOTE ]

Enron didn't need to cheat it's customers either.


b

[renereal]

well the only reason why i think online is rigged a litle is they want to keep bad players from losing too much money at one time so they kinda of give them breaks were they can win a little by catching lucky cards so that they dont get to discouraged and it keeps them playing for alot longer then they would if they kept busting out and having to re deposit money all the time.

[phydaux]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not saying they do it, but they also have the power to manipulate pocket and community cards to create larger pots and more rake.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is foolishness, and borders on flagrent trolling.

You do realise that even on-line casinos are regulated, don't you? Kahnawake Gaming Commission?

And the cards are shuffled by an RNG. RNG is a well documented area of mathmatics. On-line casinos go to great lengths to demonstrate that their shuffles are, in fact, random. The claim you just made states that their shuffles are NOT random, and that they minipulate the cards to increase pot size, and thus rake.

So, if you're running an on-line casino and raking pots to the tune of 2 million dollars a day, would you risk having your business shut down and all your customers abandon you just so you could rake 2.3 million a day?

2 million at virtually no risk vs 2.3 million with MAJOR risk of ruin?

Not just a bad business decition, but if you're CEO of a publicly traded company (and many of the on-line casinos are publicly traded) then you risk JAIL for malfeasence.

They don't cheat. They don't HAVE to cheat. And a well run, fair casino is nearly a risk-free business. A casino, B&M or on-line, is as close to you can get to having a lisence to print money. And no corporation that runs a casino will be willing to screw up such a sweet-heart deal for an extra punkass million or two a day.

[phydaux]

I'm done. If you turn a blind eye to reason and logic, then I wish you well with your charms, totems and superstitions.

I leave this thread in the hands of those wiht no knowledge of economics. Do with it what you will.