Since the birth of poker on the internet, allegations have been widespread that “online poker is rigged”. Such accusations generally come from poor poker players, or those with insufficient experience to grasp the concept of variance. But yes, history has shown poker sites have rigged sites in almost every way imaginable. There’s only few I would trust anymore, and IgnitionPoker.eu (previously known as Bovada) will continue to be the best until dozens of state ran sites take over which will be awhile.

1. Online Poker Sites Free Play
2. 10 Best Free Poker Sites
3. Are Online Poker Sites Rigged

But let’s discuss the answer that more players feel they’ve been “robbed”. Say you go all in with big slick (Ace-King), and are called by Ace-Queen. You’re a heavy favorite, but on average you’re still going to lose 23% of the time. Even when you go all in pre-flop with pocket aces, someone with a smaller pair is going to beat you about 18% of the time. What many players can’t get their minds around is that little factor called variance, or the statistical measure of how your results will be dispersed. In plain English, the odds may say one thing, but it’ll often take a large sample size for those odds to truly even out. You may be a 77% favorite, but you could still lose that play two or three times in a row. Winning players understand odds and variance, and the difference between them, whereas fish just assume the site must be rigged in somebody else’s favor.

Sep 14, 2010  These poker hand histories are regularly scrutinized by the poker playing community, and if there ever was some kind of “fix” by an online poker room, (that produced results that deviated beyond expected variance), it would be pounced upon immediately. So, is Online Poker Rigged? No, online poker.

The reason most poker players lose is due to poor bankroll management. Let’s say you had $100 to your name, and I offered to flip a coin. I take 100% of your wager every time it lands on tails, but I give you a 120% payout if heads comes up. It’s a 50/50 proposition, but you’re getting an extra payout every time your side comes up. Surely this is a great deal that every poker player would jump on?

However, what if I told you that you’d have to bet $33.33 on each bet? With only a $100 bankroll, and despite the large advantage I’ve given you, it would be foolish for you to continue. That’s because there is a 14.3% chance that I’m going to win the first three bets, and you’ll then be broke.

Even if you happen to win the first bet, I’ll win the next four 6.7% of the time. If you win that first bet, there is a 3.2% chance I’ll win the next five. And if you’re up three bets on me, there is still a 1.59% chance I’ll win the next six.

This goes on and on and on. But the crucial point is that if you’re a skilled poker player who goes bust often, your failure probably isn’t down to you being unlucky. It’s because you don’t understand odds and variance, and are not properly bankrolled for the games you’re playing.

Do Poker Sites Need to Cheat?

Now that we’ve covered the reasons explaining why so many falsely believe that online poker is rigged, let’s look at the reasons why it isn’t (considering you only play at top ranked sites).

Let’s start with the world’s largest online poker site, PokerStars.com. This company is licensed and regulated by the Isle of Man, a British Crown authority. It was purchased for $4.9 billion in June, 2014, by the Amaya Gaming Group, a well respected Canadian gaming company. PokerStars also operates a live card room in Macau, China, and makes billions of dollars in annual profit without cheating. All regulation aside – and it’s pretty hard to simply discount the stringent regulations that govern these sites – why would a company risk these billions of dollars in revenue just to set up a rigged game? The answer is pretty simple – they wouldn’t.

Smaller poker sites, especially those new to the market, have everything to lose by attracting serious allegations from their players. It’s always important to do a quick search on a prospective poker room, just to look for any player complaints or issues. For that reason, we only have a few left who have realized it’s more profitable to run a legitimate business than rip off customers.

For example, a room called Pitbull Poker cheated players using “superuser” accounts, allowing certain users to see other players’ hole cards. The room only made it through a couple of years, and was dealt a fatal blow once the cheating allegations hit. Pitbull operated out of Costa Rica, a country that doesn’t require online gambling licenses from companies based there.

With larger sites, the risks usually outweigh the rewards of cheating, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, two rooms that made up the Cereus Poker Network, had a similar scandal years before PitBull’s. The details of this scandal are still not fully known, but there are many indications that management was working in tandem with the cheaters.

Cereus, along with Absolute and UB, went down in the “Black Friday” indictments of 2011, when the US Department of Justice busted several large poker sites – including PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker – for UIGEA violations. PokerStars and Full Tilt (via a PokerStars buyout) repaid their players, but Cereus did not. The company is insolvent as of 2014, and owes players an estimated $50 million.

While the above examples might scare players off, the online poker world has come a long way in recent years, as have the fraud prevention and security teams. The era of superusers and cheating scandals orchestrated by operators are likely behind us. However, players should still be alert and watch for suspicious activities by operators.

So What About Cheating? Can an Online Poker Player Cheat?

Well, now we’re on to a topic that might have some substance to it. If you’re not careful with your computer security, a hacker could get access to your hole cards. Such a situation is highly unlikely, and would entail the hacker accessing the data stream from the poker site to your computer, and cracking the poker site’s extremely secure encryption in the process. In all honesty, if you were advanced enough to pull off such a feat of hacking, you’d be more likely to target the World Series of Poker, rather than picking on some poor schlep in their front room. Nonetheless, we can’t totally dismiss the possibility.

We would recommend not playing on public wireless internet connections. Using a secure wifi network from your home is highly advised. In truth though, even here, the chances of being hit are relatively low. The main concern would be that a hacker could access your password before it was streamed to the site, or could possibly get visual access to your monitor. It’s highly unlikely, though, that anyone capable of cracking SSL is going to be concentrating their efforts on poker.

In recent years, hackers have taken to more drastic methods. Thanks to laptop theft, high-stakes players at a 2013 European Poker Tour event in Barcelona were left with computers infected with malware. There was another incident during the World Series of Poker, a year later, where players had laptops and cash stolen from their hotel rooms.

Of course, these players were targeted due to their reputation for playing at higher stakes, but their story should be a warning to all players to be aware of their surroundings. Password protect your computers, and safeguard your poker accounts. If you begin playing at higher stakes, and become even slightly well-known, take extra precautions to avoid becoming the victim of theft or hacking.

What About Players Chatting on Social Media or the Phone?

This is called collusion, and it is the one area where cheating in online poker is a moderate concern. Online poker sites take collusion very seriously. Sites such as PokerStars.com have several security methods to prevent collusion. One of these methods is a charting system, where they log how many hands you’ve played with the same opponents.

If you’re playing with the same opponent more often than the mean, this may cause your account to be flagged by security. Your hands involving action with this opponent will then be run through anti-collusion software, to see if your plays were logical.

If the plays made little sense, and deviate from the norm – as well as from your usual style of play when not seated with this opponent – your account may be locked, and a manual review could follow. At most poker sites, if the audit reveals there is a high likelihood you were cheating via collusion, you can more or less kiss your ability to play at that site goodbye.

If found guilty, you may be subject to fines, and could potentially lose your balance and past profits. Depending on the amount taken, some jurisdictions will bring criminal charges against players for cheating at online poker. Civil suits can also be expected.

In the legally-regulated online poker markets such as Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey, sites can choose their punishment for the player depending on the situation. The penalties can be light, but cheating at online poker site can range from a small fine to a class B felony. The latter comes with a potential prison sentence of up to six years.

Not all collusion will be automatically picked up on, though. If players only engage in collusion a small percentage of the time, such behavior may fly under the radar. If ever you feel you’re being colluded against, stop playing, and email the site telling them of your suspicions.

If it is found (either now or in the future) that these players were colluding, and that you were the victim, any online poker room worth its salt is likely to refund your money. Your chances of getting compensation will be vastly increased if you’re polite, so write your email using a friendly, non-accusatory tone. Also bear in mind that it can be hard to conclusively prove collusion, so don’t assume you’ll be successful. Just be sure to leave a game once you believe collusion may be occurring. Poker sites are doing their best to keep the games safe and free of cheats, so leave it to them to take care of these matters.

Which Online Poker Site Is Not Rigged?

All in all, collusion should not be much of a concern unless you’re consistently being taken apart in high-stakes games by a team of professional cheaters. In the vast majority of cases, it won’t take long to catch these guys.

Most people who conspire to cheat or collude against other players are also bad at the game. The most common type of collusion involves players sharing their hole cards via instant messaging applications. While this is wrong, and still amounts to collusion, it doesn’t provide them with much of an advantage. Many cheats will resort to such behavior only once they’ve tried and failed to win legally. For the most part, they’re harmless.

If you’re looking for info on which sites are the safest to play at, you can read about that in our article Safest US Poker Sites.

It’s reasonable to ask, “Is online poker legit,” because cardplayer pay a lot of money into online poker rooms. This is a two part article, first covering online poker and second examining which sportsbooks are legit. I recommend www.IgnitionPoker.eu (previously known as Bovada) for poker and Bovada.lv for sports betting, and so does everybody else who isn’t paid off. If you only consider a legit site, one run by state or Federal licenses, then you must by physically located in Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania. For those that live there the PokerStars, Borgata, and WSOP are the most active in the 4 licensed states.

I didn’t just pull these sites from nowhere, I’ve been in the gambling business for over 10 years now. I’ve seen and dealt with all sorts of millionaire and billionaire scum bags; people that should be on the TV show “American Greed”. The only legit poker sites I suggest are mentioned on my homepage or on the ‘safe list‘. You’ll notice the list is pretty darn short, and I’ve dealt with approximately 45-60 gambling sites. PokerStars is the largest online poker site there is. Borgata is powered by Party Poker, while WSOP.com uses 888poker software. If you consider a non rigged, legit poker site to be one run from the United States, then you will have to be physically located in Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, or Pennsylvania to be able to play. But I can point to unregulated poker rooms that which gives

Online Poker Sites Free Play

But Aren’t U.S. Licensed Sites Legit?

It’s debatable. In fact, in total I’ve had $147,116 taken from me by the U.S. government. The money was not stolen by offshore poker sites but THE U.S. GOVERNMENT! The process of legalized poker in the U.S. was a complete scam. They attempted to shut down every online poker site that was running for US customers, simply because they wanted zero (0) competition as they launched their own poker sites.

Let me ask you this. How is it that the Ultimate Fight Championship (UFC) – which has nothing to do with online poker – was the first to open up an online poker room in Nevada? How is it that poker sites like Bet365, Paddy Power, Everest Poker – which are traded on the London Stock Exchange and have market value in the billions of dollars – were not given priority in the immediate launch of poker in the US? Those 5-star poker sites never accepted US customers after UIGEA and adhered to all laws both domestic and international.

Yet the UFC gets the first poker license in Nevada. Not only that but the operations at “Ultimate Poker”, UFC’s poker site was light years behind any poker site based offshore that is legit. The Nevada Gaming Commission helped the local business already making them and the state money, because UFC was affiliated with Station Casinos (at the time). That is governmental corruption at its finest. Did I mention UltimatePoker went out of business, because they didn’t know how to operate a poker site?

Legit Poker Sites

Beginners might wonder what a legit poker site needs, so let’s define our terms. Below is a short list of the factor you should consider, always with explanations for why they’re important. Don’t use poker rooms if they don’t check off everything on the following checklist.

10 Best Free Poker Sites

• Player Traffic: Without traffic, sites can’t have a selection of high stakes, mid stakes, and low stakes cash games, tournaments, and sit’n go events.
• Good Software: Top software means fewer issues, plus access to features like Bovada’s Zone Poker, which increases your hands per hour.
• Experience: This entails everything from software support to customer service to knowing how to monitor cheaters at the table.
• Banking Options: It often comes down to sensible payment options, including credit cards, web wallets, and crypto-currencies like Bitcoin.
• Other Games: If poker websites offer casino gaming or sports betting, it means lots of casual poker players (soft competition).

Which Poker Site is Not Rigged?

My buddies ask me all the time about this because it’s my job and one of the sites I most often recommend is Ignition Poker (previously known as Bovada). Having met the owner personally, he is an honest person and puts himself in the public spotlight when others hide under rocks. His previous ownership, now owned by Morris Mohawk is probably worth about 1-2 billion USD. In a closed meeting, he discussed how if anything ever went bad, he would personally make sure all his players and employees got paid from his own checkbook. On top of that the site has the most player traffic going by PokerScout and has an Alexa rank of 9,730. For a comparison, HBO has about a 4,600 Alexa rank which means millions of people use it. Most sites are in the million number ranks – which is terrible.

If you are in Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or Delaware, then the answer might be different in 3 or 4 years from now as the WSOP grows its player base. The WSOP is now forced to be legitimate and all licensed poker sites in the U.S. look like the saviors of safe poker sites. In truth, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was an unnecessary federal law which shut down poker sites, drove out legit online cardrooms, and dismantled a perfectly well run market. If lawmakers had not stepped in we would still be playing at Party Poker and making money would be just as easy as it was all those years ago. But lawmakers must justify their jobs and business owners must deal with the fallout the best they can.

Be Careful of Scamming Affiliates

I could go on for hours about how people to this day are crummy affiliates who are touting poker sites to play. They are getting large up-front chunks of cash in the $100,000+ range to mention their poker rooms because they rank high for popular terms in Google and Yahoo by using spammy search engine optimization techniques over and over again to maintain rankings and visitors. I have email chains proving certain companies insolvency and forthcoming bankruptcy, yet they continue to operate. The most recent mass scale offenders were Lock Poker. This was one of the longest running scams, but U.S. law enforcement agencies never took action. Eventually, journalist John Mehaffey brought Lock Poker’s abuses to light. Players left the platform and the site shut down in 2015.

Thus, poker review sites serve a useful purpose. With honest reporting and the facts on their side, card players can make informed decisions about online poker rooms. US Poker Sites continues to monitor legit sites here, so players have the info they need. We are pretty straight forward, so we hope this site helps.

For what it’s worth, I do not believe any poker sites are ‘rigged’m but cheating and collusion goes on regularly and will never stop. Legit poker sites takes steps to eliminate collusion, but cheaters find new and inventive ways to collude. It’s a cat-and-mouse game that will never end entirely. It’s better just to play for small amounts of money – however you define “small amounts” – you don’t mind losing one way or the other.

Is Ignition Poker Legit?

So if legitimate poker sites try to make games safer, then you might ask which card rooms you should trust. Ignition Poker is the top option for American online poker players, so I’ll use it as an example. Ignition Casino launched in the spring of 2016. A few months later, Ignition bought Bovada Poker’s player pool, instantly establishing itself as the second largest online gambling site which accepted US poker players. Since then, Ignition Poker vaulted to the number one spot.

Ignition Poker therefore has all of the elements of a world class online poker site. It’s linked to an online casino, so many soft players or fish join its cash games and tournament events. The gaming platform uses Bovada proprietary software, so Ignition uses trusted and well-tested technology. It has the most player traffic of any poker site which accepts US players.

The Bovada-powered poker room includes several features that make it popular with players. Here’s a few of those features:

• Quick Seat: Choose a poker game like Texas Hold’em, Omaha, or Omaha Hi/Lo and the stakes and Quick Seat automatically puts you at a table.
• Anonymous Tables: Players can’t use Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) to track your hand history. Instead, you use your skills and perceptions to get a read on opponents the old-fashioned way.
• Zone Poker: A fast-fold feature where you’re assigned to a new table once you fold a hand. Players should fold most hands, so you don’t wait on bets and showdowns most of the day.
• In-Software Casino Games: If you prefer to sit through hands, you can play In-Software Casino Games like blackjack, roulette, video poker, or 3D slots.
• Mobile Poker: Play poker anytime, anywhere with the mobile poker apps for Android and iOS. Jackpot Sit-and-Go games cater to mobile poker players with possible 1000x winnings while you’re on the go.
• Softer Opponents: Ignition Poker has a huge community of recreational players. Unlike some sites, it allows expert poker players to play against casual players, so skilled players have high odds of facing lesser opponents.

Deft readers might notice that Ignition Poker is newer, so they might be thinking the site doesn’t meet the criterion of experience. Ignition’s owner has been in the online poker business since the 1990s, so the poker room has more experience than the other online poker rooms which accept US players from any state.

Free Poker Sites

Poker players can find all the information they need with free poker sites. To learn more about online poker, watch live streamed poker games on Twitch and YouTube. Both platforms have a seemingly endless amount of channels which provide all-day coverage of online and live poker events. One of the best is FuryTV.

FuryTV, a YouTube channel with the best compilations, highlights, and hands from poker events all around the world. Fury ETC Ltd is affiliated with the official Twitter page of partypoker, @partypoker, and the official home of partypoker live events, Part@partypokerlive. Watching a YouTube feed like FuryTV improves your knowledge and skills at poker.

Are Online Poker Sites Rigged

Keep reading USPokerSites for the latest advice and trends. Like our recommendations on Ignition Poker or FuryTV, we give honest opinions and detailed reasons to support those attitudes. When the latest trends and updates happen, we reasses the landscape and give our readers the best information available. Our goal is to provide reliable poker advice on the latest topics. You might not always agree with us, but like the opinions above on corrupt politicians and scamming affiliates, you’ll walk away with new ideas and information to consider. Keep studying online poker, and keep reading about the poker sites we recommend.