It is a well known fact that large amounts of money often attract shady people who are looking to get their cut of the money by using illegal and scummy methods. Online poker is no different. Throughiyt the history of online poker several companies have disappeared with the players moneys and there has been bot, cheating and superuser scandal. However, interestingly enough the only type of scandal that is missing is the one that many poker players think would have been the most likely to happen. I’m obviously talking about finding proof that an online poker site is rigged. In this article we will look at the reasons why it would make sense to create a rigged online poker site and also in the reasons why we feel that at least none of the major online poker sites are rigged.

Rigged definition: The site has adjusted the card dealing software so that the deals are not random.

Reasons why online poker might be rigged:

The longer the person plays the more money the site makes.

Online poker sites get their revenue from the rake and poker tournament fees that all the real money players pay. The bad players tend to lose quite fast their moneys and thus the site gets much less rake from him than they get from the winning regulars who play day in an day out. To give you an extremely example: A player deposits $100 to his poker account, sits down to $0.5/$1 no limit with his whole deposit and goes allin before the flop the first hand. If he doesn’t get called he will win $1.5 and because the hand didn’t go pas preflop the site doesn’t get rake. If he gets called he will most likely lose his moneys.

The maximum rake that poker sites tend to take from that type of pots is $3. So if he is called by 1 player, loses the pot and the site takes $3 of the pot they only got $1.5 in rake income even though the person deposited $100. And because the payment processors take transfer fees from the poker site the poker site actually most likely lost money on this person who deposited $100 and lost it in the first hand. Thus it would make perfect sense for the site to alter the random number generator in a way that allows the players to first hit an unpswing and boost his bankroll so that he gets to pay more rake.

Now you might say the money he wins is away from other players, yes that is true, however if he gets the winnings from the regular players who have a $10,000 bankroll and play $0.5/$1 it doesn’t hurt the poker room’s income as the regular players will still keep playing $0.5/$1 no limit and paying rake if they lose some of their bankroll.

Other way to look at this is that if the player had deposited his $100 to a casino and lost it all in the first hand he played blackjack the casino would have gotten the whole $100 in profit (- transaction fees)

Getting new poker players addicted:

Consider a person that sees a poker site advert on TV and thinks that it would be cool to try luck in the trendy game. The player then proceeds to deposit $50 to the poker site. If he loses the moneys within 10 minutes it is quite likely that he will just think that poker is stupid and never play again. However if he goes on a heater and takes his $50 deposit to a bigger amount he is quite likely to get addicted and play lot more in the future.

This is even if he eventually loses the $50, if he for an example got that $50 first up to $200 and managed to play without going broke for a couple days he is much more likely to think that he is actually good in poker (which obviously is most likely not true) and think that he just got unlucky when he finally lost the initial deposit and make a new deposit.

THE Reason why the big poker sites most likely are not rigged:

They make loads of money even without being rigged. The big online poker sites (such as PokerStars, FullTiltPoker, PartyPoker, UltimateBet, EverestPoker) are worth hundreds of millions, maybe even billions, and generate extremely good steady revenue stream. If you don’t believe me simply check out GigaMedia from the stock exchange they operate the EverestPoker online poker room and currently valued at $250million in the stock market – and PokerStars is more than 10 times bigger than they are. The poker rooms obviously don’t want to do anything that might lead to losing this revenue stream. One thing that would surely lead to losing majority of it is that if their poker players suddenly became convinced that the online poker room in question is rigged.

Also all the big poker sites undergo frequent audits and inspections, if the auditors were to find something suspicious from the random number generator the poker sites could lose their poker license and thus would have to shut down their online poker room.

A total of three individuals were arrested for cheating in poker games by marking the decks of cards with invisible ink in a casino in Cannes. The three that were arrested include a Frenchman, a poker dealer, and another who is part of the staff of the casino. Not only were these three were arrested, but they were also accused of being long time organized criminals.

How They Were Caught

The three individuals were first suspected of cheating back in August when they cashed out with more than $60,000 in a single night. Of course, they were only suspected of cheating at that point as the casino staff members and officials could not get any confirmation of the scam during that point in time. In order to make sure, the casino officials have decided to set up a trap for the would-be cheaters if ever they try to come back and play unfairly in another time. Well, the cheaters really did come back in order to try their scam again, which they thought was successful, after winning a total of $41,000. The thing is that the security is well aware of their presence and has made the proper action, which is basically arresting them.

Organized Crime

Well, the individuals were caught and the method they used to cheat in the poker games was basically seeing through the cards of their opponents. They did this by marking the back of the cards with invisible ink and the cheater then wore a special set of glasses in order to tell what the cards of their opponents were. This basically gave them a huge advantage over their opponents, or pretty much like their opponents did not really have any chance of winning against them. After the arrest, things got even more interesting as the officials say that the trio were part of an organized crime group. French gaming officials even believe that there is a possibility that the trio have been doing it for quite some time now all over Europe.

The manner of cheating is already well known in US based casinos, and dealers or players caught cheating in the same manner will be put to prison for a pretty long time, and will be banned from entering any land based casinos. Then thing is, this is still pretty new in France, so officials have not yet decided on the fate of those who were caught cheating.

As the day 4 of the World Series of Poker has come to a conclusion, it was Elio Fox who took on the role to lead the remaining eight players on to the final table. There were 25 players who were present during the start of the day 4, but things went on and the eight players to take on each other at the final table has been decided.

Top Names Eliminated

Among the 25 players to start the day were Tony G, Erik Seidel, John Eames, and John Duthie, who all got eliminated earlier during the day. Tony G, having even bet on himself earlier this week to make the money during this year’s WSOPE Main Event, sits on the 24th spot which basically means that he wins the bet. The players were then divided into a couple of groups of players each. The players then battled it out with one another; but of course, as the day progressed, more players were eliminated including Michael Drummond, Amir Lehavot, Steven
Moreau, Andrew Moseley, and a few others.

Fox and Cody

Right before Fox was the chip leader, he was the second in command during the day. It was until one of the final hands of the day that he took down Arnaud Mattern and Alex Dovzhenko with his pocket 10’s against Mattern’s pocket A’s and Dovzhenko’s A – K. Elio Fox then took on the lead with a pretty huge gap between him and the second in place. Speaking of which, Jake Cody, who was pretty much playing as the short stack during the start of the day 4 managed to grab a few chunks of chips in order to climb on up the ranks up until he reached second in chip counting. The thing is that Elio Fox has a pretty good advantage over the rest of the players with his awesome 3.9 million chips for the final table. Jake Cody on the second place is more than 1 million chips apart with his 2.7 million chips.

The Final Table

Things are getting pretty exciting as the final table of 8 players is underway. The thing about it is that the final table is dominated by young poker players. Among the big stacks during the final table is Elio Fox with 3.9 million in chips, Jake Cody with a pretty solid 2.7 million chips, Chris Moorman with 2.2 million chips, and more.

As the day 3 of the WSOP Europe main event has come to a conclusion, only 25 players remain, which is 9 players off the expected survivors based on the plans. At the end of the day, it was Max Silver and Chris Moorman who took on the lead and the difference in chip count was a mere 11 chips.

On Max Silver

Max Silver is a pretty well known player in regards to the European poker setting as he has won the UKIPT in Dublin and has also won another side event at the EPT London. Silver was also able to finish 28th at the WPT Grand Prix de Paris, and also fourth at the UKIPT Dublin. Not long ago, Silver also finished fourth at the WSOP Europe’s event 4 as well.

About Chris Moorman

Chris Moorman, on the other hand is already established his profile in the poker world during his adventures in the world of online poker. Of course, Moorman is now out there to prove that he is not only good at online poker, he is also great in live tournaments as well. Moorman was able to finish seventh at the Aussie Millions main event, and shortly thereafter, was able to win a total of over $1 million at the World Series of Poker. Moorman has done well over the years and his latest achievement was when he cashed out in 2010. This year’s WSOPE is yet another achievement for Moorman.

Chip Leaders

Well, the thing about the two players is that they are both on the lead. Precisely, Max Silvers is on the lead with more than 1.7 million in chip counting. However, Chris Moorman is just right behind Silver as he is only 11 chips apart from him. Max Silver was able to start building up his stack when he eliminated Mathew Frankland with his superior flush. He was later on fire as he kept on taking chips from his opponents, eventually managing to get to the overall lead. Chris Moorman however, was on another table. Moorman was seated together with a couple of big stacks, namely Constant Rijkenberg and Melanie Weisner. Moorman was able to start building up his chip count when he went up against Rijkenberg, which eventually led to Rijkenber with a small stack at the end. Moorman was then moved to the feature table where he eliminated four other players, namely Melanie Weisner, Hoyt Corkins, Freddy Deeb, and Carbone Damiano.

As the final table of the European Poker Tour has come to a close, the final 8 rankings has been decided and on eighth spot is Kevin MacPhee with a pretty good €63,694. Then thing is that MacPhee seemed a bit disappointed with the results and blamed it on Barny Boatman, his opponent who was responsible with his elimination.

So Close to the Double Title

Kevin MacPhee is no stranger to the world of Poker and has even acquired more than $2 million in live tournament winnings over the course of his career of four years. This year’s EPT San Remo saw him finish on eighth place which is even a major achievement, but the thing about it is that was so close to be the first ever EPT double title holder as he won last year’s EPT Berlin for more than $1.4 million. MacPhee later on vented his anger over at twitter aimed towards the player who was responsible for eliminating him in eighth place during the EPT San Remo, Barny Boatman.

Emotional Rampage on Twitter

Of course, you really can understand why the usually laid back MacPhee was as frustrated as he is with the turn of events as he was so close to earning something worth bragging about. MacPhee just couldn’t contain all the frustration and tweeted “I fold 30 hands straight down to 530k then shove 9 bbs in the sb and barnyboatman calls off with Q7s?!? Is this guy f***ing retarded?” MacPhee was just so emotional that he even involved this year’s winner of the EPT San Remo, Andrey Pateychuk, calling him a retard as well. Of course, he later on came to his senses and took back what he said about Pateychuk. Later on, Boatman heard of the tweet and came along to sort things out with MacPhee and said: “Hi KevinMacPhee. You gave me a strong tell that you were weak, though i may have called anyway. Retarded? If you say so. But no hard feelings eh?” surely, most of us will definitely calm down when the response is somewhere along those lines.

MacPhee later on apologized for his emotional outburst on twitter and said “Sorry for my outburst earlier… was steaming super hard ? Apologies to BArnyBoatman too… sorry mate!” Boatman then replied assuring that everything’s in the past and even empathised with MacPhee. In the end, the issue is resolved, and things will move on just fine.

Day 2 of the PokerStars.com European Poker tour Loutraki Main Event has been concluded and it saw a total of 336 players at the start, and right at the very end of it, only 232 players will be returning for day 3 and it was Team PokerStars Pro member Tony Judet who took the lead with his 288,200 stack of chips.

Toni Judet, Passing Through with Ease

At the start of the day, Toni Judet was already in second place with his 143,500 chips. As the day progressed, Judet played skilfully and cruised through the day, eventually ending up with 288,200 on first place.

Notables Along the Way

There were also a number of skilled players around, but one particular table had a number of them. At table 19, Kenny Hallaert, McLean Karr, Jude Ainsworth, Heinz Kamutzki, Salman Behbehani, and Rupert Elder were all battling it out with each other as things went by. Unfortunately for Kamutzki, Hallaert and Behbehani, they will not be returning on the next day. Karr and Ainsworth were then able to build up sizeable chip stacks and later on moved to another table.

At the new table, they found Roberto Romanello, Jan Bendick, and Tom Marchese’s plastic bag, since Marchese was not able to attend the event he has won a seat for. Right after some intense action, Karr was reduced to 33,400, Ainsworth ended up with 117,200, Romanello with 112,500 and Rupert Elder ended up with 118,300, and they all will be returning on day 3. Other notable players spotted during the day were Jason Wheeler, Kevin MacPhee, David Peters, Ana Marquez, David Vamplew, Johnny Lodden, and more.

Chip Rankings on to the Next Day

Right at the very end of the day, it was Tony Judet who managed to maintain his sizeable chip stack and eventually ended up as the next day’s chip leader with 288,200. Of course, right behind him, not far away is Zimnan Ziyard, with a total of 238,900 stack of chips to be used for the next day. Sitting right on third in terms of chip holdings is Fahredin Mustafov, with a total of 225,200 chips. On fourth place, having a stack of chips that total to 221,900 is Robert Cezarescu, and of course, on fifth chip ranking at the end of the day is Jacques Torbey with a total of 219,600.

Things are heating up at Prague as the 2011 PokerStars European Poker Tour has just kicked in, with the 2011 World Poker Tour just around the corner. At the European Poker Tour, day 1 saw a total of 234 players, but right at the end of the day, only 140 players will be moving on forward on to the next day. On the lead in terms of chip holdings is Vedzizhev Beslan, with a total of 132,200 chips overall.

Famous Faces

There were a number of prominent faces that participated at the tables during day 1 of the 2011 European Poker Tour at Prague. Among these were Team PokerStars Pro Toni Judet, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Rino Mathis, Pat Pezzin, Theo Jorgensen, Richard Toth, Marcin Horecki, Martin Staszko, and Michael Keiner. Things are looking good for Team PokerStars Pro as only a couple of them did not make it past day 1a, Judet and Horecki. Other notables who took part in day 1a were Gus Hansen, Steve O’Dwyer, James Akenhead, Mike Watson, Chris Moorman, Eoghan O’Dea, and Muchael Benvenuti, who all did pretty well and survived day 1 of the event.

O’Dea’s Bumpy Ride

At one point, O’Dea had a bit of trouble when he went against Raggaele Gerbi. Although O’Dea had a pretty strong straight with him, his opponent, Gerbi, managed to get a full house once the river hit, which severely crippled O’Dea’s chip count. Later on, O’Dea managed to double up however. It was when O’Dea went all out against Christopher Brammer. Brammer was already holding a pretty nice K-J, both being clubs. One the other hand, O’Dea had A-Q, both diamonds. The flop read Q, 9 and 2, which gave O’Dea a pair, Brammer with nothing. The turn and river proved to be of help to neither player as they were 9 and 7 respectively. O’Dea then ended up with just a little over 50k.

The Return of Gus Hansen

There is no doubt that Gus Hansen was among the players the spotlight focused on during day 1. After a long time of absence on the poker radar, Gus Hansen has finally made a comeback. While Hansen is pretty known for playing loosely in a number of tournaments and some cash games, Hansen on day 1 of the European Poker Tour playing it tight and even managed to end up with a pretty nice 52,600 chips right at the end of the day.

Eight players returned for the final table of the 2011 PokerStars European Poker tour Prague this Saturday, and sitting right at the top of the rankings is German player Martin Finger.
The Final Table

The first player to be eliminated was Mads Wissing. It was mainly because he had a pretty small stack to begin with. Wissing was sent to the rail when he made a late position all in with his 4-7. The problem was, his opponent, Guillem Usero, had pocket 8’s, which was superior to Wissing’s hand as the board did not really give either hands any improvements at all. The next player to be eliminated was Andreas Wiese. Wiese went against fellow German player, Martin Finger with his pocket 5’s. While Finger had A-3, both being clubs, the board gave him another ace. The board read A, 2, 2, 9 and 4, which gave both players a couple of pairs. Finger’s two pairs however, were superior, and it took down Wiese to seventh place.

Later on the day, the next elimination came around. Ari Engel, was in a bit of trouble as he was having problems building up his stack. Although Engel managed to double down later on, he was then eliminated by Martin Finger on sixth place. Engel had a good A-6 with him, both being spades. Finger on the other hand had A-J. The board read 9, 9, 7, 10 and 2, which did not really improve the two hands and Finger takes the stage on this one again. The next to be eliminated was Denys Drobyna. Drobyna was eliminated by David Boyaciyan, with A-K. Drobyna, holding A-7, was taken down to fifth place, as the board ran K, 9, 5, J, and 8.

Later on the day, Finger yet again managed to take down another player, Guillem Usero. Usero had an A-8 with him, but Finger already got pocket K’s with him. Things would seem well for Usero as the board gave him a flush, but the fact that the turn and the river cards improved Finger’s hand was pretty unfortunate for Usero. Usero was then eliminated to fourth place. Finger once again managed to eliminate yet another player during the day when Nicolas Levi shoved his 8-6 against Finger’s A-J. The board had four clubs and Finger’s Ace was also a clubs, giving him a neat flush, eliminating Levi on third.

The Heads Up Play

Now that everyone’s out of the way, it was time for Finger and David Boyaciyan to see who was going to take home the top prize, the bracelet and the EPT trophy home. It was not at all an easy win for Finger, as Boyaciyan proved to be a very formidable opponent. Boyaciyan kept on chipping Finger’s stack, and Finger had a pretty tough time recovering. Eventually, an opportunity came around for Finger to force Boyaciyan into folding, which ultimately gave Finger the lead. Things then came into the final hand, with Boyaciyan holding a pair of 10’s, and Finger having an A-K. The board then gave Finger a couple of K’s which shot him right up to the top spot while Boyaciyan settles in for the runner up spot.

As the 2011 PokerStars EPT day 2 has ended, right on top of the rest in regards to chip count is Patrick Renkers, who was able to score a pretty huge chip stack totalling to 2,423,000 chips, with his closest competitor, Marting Finger, having a stack of 1,289,000, almost only just half of his stack.

Day 3 saw the 137 players who survived the previous day take their seats at the table. Of course, only 104 players were to be paid out, and the unlucky player who got eliminated just one spot to a payout was Mads Amot, who was eliminated on 105th. The rest of the 104 poker players got some profit from the game. From there, the eliminations were pretty harsh, up until the remaining players to progress on to the next day were only a total of 31.

Renkers’ Awesome Day

Of course, the spotlight was focused on Patrick Renkers, who, although had a bit of trouble during the earlier parts of the day, was able to come up with more than 2.3 million chips right at the end. One of his notable moves when he was able to let his stack grow to more than 600k when his flush won against Danny Richa’s. Renkers was not done at all, as just a few moments later, he was yet again able to build up his stack, this time, going past the one million mark when his pocket A’s won against Torsten Otte’s pocket K’s. Renkers was also responsible for eliminating Joe Serock and later on the day, Renkers saw himself going against Dennis Behedal, who also had a pretty strong stack of chips and eventually gave Renkers a huge boost in chip count at the end.

Chip Counts on to the Next Day

Right on the number one spot with a staggering lead over the others is Patrick Renkers, with a total of 2.423 million chips. Right on second is Martin Finger, with a total of 1.289 million in total. On third is Denys Drobyna, holding with him a total of 1.218 million chips. Vojtech Ruzicka, having hoarded 1.128 million sits on fourth, followed by Mads Wissing, with a pretty strong 1.059 million on fifth. Right on the sixth spot is Ari Engel, with a total of 1.053 million for the next day followed by Nicolas Levi on seventh with 948k chips. Right on the eighth spot is Jude Ainsworth, with 929k followed by Ramil Boyazitov and Yann Brosolo on ninth and tenth place respectively with 892k and 828k.

When day 1b of the 2011 PokerStars EPT Prague has come around, a total of 488 players came in and joined the action. Combined with day 1a’s 234 players who registered, the number of participants totalled to 722, which is makes the event by far the largest tournament to be ever hosted in the Czech Republic, which even surpasses last year’s attendance of 563, and the record of 584 players during season VI.

Of the 722 players who took part in the tables in both days, only 407 players will be moving on to day 2, and the day saw Andrey Saenko take the lead right at the very end of it with his stack of 200,800, overtaking the day’s starting chip leader, Vedzizhev Beslan.

Team PokerStars Pro in Trouble

Of course, during day 1a of the event, Team PokerStars Pro members were doing well, but as day 1b progressed, quite a number of them were eliminated, including World Series of Poker Main Event Winner Pius Heinz. Things were not at all a walk in the park for Heinz as he was struggling to keep his stack alive during the harsh eliminations of the day and eventually, he was later on taken down by Dominik Nitsche with a pair of Jacks. It would seem that Team PokerStars Pro members were not able perform too well as Heinz was followed out the door by fellow Team PokerStars Pro members Salvatore Bonavena, Arnaud Mattern, Sandra Naujoks, Ivan Demidov, Dario Minieri, Sebastian Ruthenberg, and Johannes Strassmann.

Notables with Big Stacks

There were a ton of notables who took part in the day includes Ramez Haddad, Max Greenwood, Anton Wigg, and Max Silver, all of which did pretty well during the day and were able to bag up a pretty sizeable chip count at the end of it. Other notables who made it past the 100k mark were Mads Wissing, with 178,300, Jude Ainsworth, with 151,700, William Thorson with 133,400, Melanie Weisner, with 123,600, Ville Wahmbeck, with 121,500, and Liv Boeree, with a still pretty nice 108,700.
In total, there were 274 players who registered on day 1b who will be moving on to the next day, and add the number up to the survivors of day 1a, a total of 407 players will be moving on forward on to day 2 of the 2011 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague.