Random Thoughts

Online Poker is not rigged.

Contrary to what you hear from all the naysayers and whiners, I honestly and truly believe that there is no reason for the sites to tamper with their poker games. It just makes no sense. They get their rake no matter what happens, so why risk this almost non-stop money making machine and favor one individual over the other. The variance is enough to make donkeys win on their gutshot straight draws some of the time to hook them for life.

I do have one theory though. Feel free to comment if you think it's stupid.

All poker sites use a random card generator. And these card generators are from different software companies. So the randomness is actually not that random. Because different individuals use different algorithms to simulate the so called randomness.

Do I sound logical ?

So am I saying the game is rigged? No! It is not rigged. Because rigging assumes that you want to favor let's say a newbie over a pro. But since both of them are subjected to the same randomness when they play in the same site, then it is totally fair.

What I am saying is that the randomness of one site is different from another. Meaning the texture of the cards are different. An example is that you seem to see more pocker pairs preflop in one site over another. Or that high cards come out more often post-flop in a particular site.

Randomness implies a lack of bias. But I have observed that to be a winning player in some sites, I have to follow a certain style. In FTP SNGs for sample, I have to be really aggressive to win. On the other hand, I have observed that in Pokerroom, I have to be somewhat conservative to book the win. So its like the randomness of FTP favors aggressive more than passive play.

(Shrug) Heheh .... just stream of thought blogging. Don't even know if I'm making any sense.

Wow !

I just read from the other poker blogs that a Filipino just cashed in the WSOP Main Event. Cool!

Placing 222nd out of a field of more than 6000 degenerate gamblers is quite the feat. More than the money, this shows to all of us local grinders the possibility of what can be achieved.

This certainly deserves a big and hearty congratulations. =)

Hello Pokerstars ... good riddance Paradise

I've long ago wanted to open an account in Pokerstars. Primarily to get a chance to play in the biggest tourneys available around the net. But since they were not accepting Click2pay which is my primary payment processor and I was too lazy to try bank transfers and stuff. It was probably something that wasn't going to happen.

Heheh .. that was until Paradise Poker through sheer greediness made it work. I deposited a small amount in Paradise a few weeks ago to avail of a sign-up bonus. After depositing, I noticed that there was no pending bonus. So I emailed them and asked. I received a reply that since I registered the Paradise account a few months ago, I wasn't eligible for the bonus even though I made my first deposit just recently in line with their promotion. They said it was only available for new players who registered and made the first deposit at the same time.

I know ... utter stupidity. Whoever heard of such a moronic ruling. All other sites give you a bonus upon first deposit. Who gives a fcuk when you registered the account? Obviously this ticked me off and I wanted to get my money out of there as soon as possible. So I went to their withdraw page.

Huh ? Strange. There was no click2pay option to withdraw even though it was clearly stated in their own website that you can only withdraw thru the same way you deposited. So I emailed them again. Their answer was that even though click2pay was a deposit option, they are sorry but it was not part of their withdrawal methods.

What a crock! I got the sneaking suspicion it was just a delaying tactic so that you end up losing the deposit before you could get a chance to withdraw. Scumbags seems like too nice a word to describe the people behind paradise.

In any case, I took a look at what was available and I saw moneybookers. So with nothing to lose, I registered an account with moneybookers. And then I made the withdrawal thru them. I received another email from Paradise CS. This time they were again apologizing and said that they have been recently having problems with withdrawals thru moneybookers.

I was pretty much shaking my head in disbelief after reading this. I resigned myself to just playing in paradise even though they had crappy customer support. Then suddenly 2 days later, without any notice. I received an email from moneybookers stating that I had cash in my account. I immediately transferred this to pokerstars which accepted moneybookers.

Woohoo .... And that is how I finally got an account with real money in Pokerstars.

Fiasco Update

Well ... the good news is I got a refund of the buy-in. (see previous entry).

But I did not get any share of the pot. It seems that there is a policy to distribute winnings among all remaining players only after the tournament is shut down. So even though I finished in 8th, I was not entitled to anything. The irony was they shut down the tourney a few minutes after I bust out. Hahah !!

I know its a crappy rule, but what can you do ?

At least its a good lesson for anyone out there who may end up in the same situation. Just hang-on and don't go all-in. Hopefully the admins realize the error quickly and shut down a tourney while you are still in it. This way you get a share of the pot.

I'm not sure if any of you have been involved in someting similar. Do other sites follow the same rule ? It's probably something useful to know for next time.

Poker.com Tourney Fiasco

I was playing in the 2K GTD at Poker.com yesterday. Was playing OK, had about average stack, 50 players left. Suddenly, I noticed that we were playing shorthanded (6 people) which never happens at this stage of the tourney. Usually, somebody would transfer from another table to fill up or your table would be broken I checked the tourney details and saw that it was happening to the other tables as well.

Shit. Probably a computer error or something. No choice, just had to play through. My table went down to 4 handed. Then was suddenly transferred to another table. This one played down to 3. Then I was left all alone in one table for like 5 minutes. Didn't know what the heck was going on.

Finally busted out in 8th when I got moved to a table with 2 other players who had very big stacks so I was forced to move in. There was no final table, it was 2 tables with 5 and 3 players each.

The thing was I knew I busted out in 8th because I was checking out the tourney details every once in a while and the time I've spent playing. But the site said I busted out in 37th which is out of the money. WTF!!

I immediately contacted support but all i got was a generic message saying that they encountered a problem and that the buy-ins have been refunded and that winnings will be distributed according to their policy.

So now its a day after and my buy-in has not been refunded. My 8th place finish which is worth around 60 dollars if I'm not mistaken is also NADA. I have a sinking suspicion that I'm gonna get screwed on this one. I forgot to get a screenshot of the tables showing 8 players left when I bust out. So if their database reflects 37th, then I pretty much have no proof.

Oh well, another instance to show how unprotected our online money is. We pretty much go with whatever the site decides to do. I'll post an update later if I do get a refund. =(