Online Poker

[BrilloPad]

Seriously though, if you want to play poker do a course in probability.
The frequentist assumption only works in the very long run, losing/winning streaks can and do go on for surprising ages.

+1

I remember you referred me to a very good book Understanding Probability: Henk Tijms: 9781107658561: Amazon.com: Books . Very enjoyable read.

Personally I loved the proof that if you toss a coin 20 times there is a 25% probability of a run of 5 heads or tails. Very counter intuitive.

[pjclarke]

Went thru a phase of this, like yourself on hotel broadband, too many nights where I glanced at the clock to discover it was 3am and I was £50 down ....

You need a certain temperament to remain detached, otherwise the buzz of the big wins fool you into thinking you're doing better than you are. I starting using Pokertracker to keep a proper record and discovered I was making an average of £10/hour.

So I figured sleep was worth more and I quit. Good decision.

[TestMangler]

Similar thing happened to me - other players were suddenly getting royal flushes on the flop - it was ******* ridiculous.

Yup, thats the kind of crap I've been getting. Last thing I played last night, I've got A/A and some guy goes all in. I go with him (obviously, I'm leading at that point), he turns 8/10 off. Flop and river give him a crappy straight draw, which he hits on the river. Laptop nearly goes out of hotel room window. I generally play quite tight in the likes of $15 sit'n'go, especially at the start, to let the numptys knock each other out early, but since mid week last week, almost every hand I go on gets done by something that started much lower. Its a fkn conspiracy I tells ya !!!

[TestMangler]

You sure you haven't changed your play style due to being a bit over confident. I was in a similar position and could regularly finish in the money and quite markedly let my game go. Not concentrating, being brash with plays rather than thinking as long, playing loose where I wouldn't have before, rushing games etc.

Have you checked your ranking on Sharkscope or something similar. You might spot a trend where you suddenly dipped. Have a think what happened around that time? Rushed a few games, dented your confidence.

TBH when you are sub $20 you are in the lap of the gods. The poker down there is so tulip it doesn't matter how good you are some dick will hit something on the river when any decent player wouldn't have been in the hand. Once you start losing at that level your confidence and style take a nose dive.

Leave it alone for awhile, not even free play. Maybe think about plays, work on the theory a bit and then come back refreshed and ready IMO.

Fairly sure I've not changed my style of play. There's two of us playing the same table at any point. (One on hotel broadband, one on a mobile dongle. A bit naughty I know, but it works), so we're making mutual decisions on what we're doing and it's worked well for both of us for months now.

Even down at that level, the sites have their own players playing tourneys (I know one who does it as a job) but they're easy to spot, but to go from regular winner to regular loser in such a short time has disturbed me somewhat, especially going down the buy ins to find 'soft' games that I had moved up from a long time ago.

A few people at clientco play and some have a theory that if you stop depositing, you get crap cards. I've not deposited now for about a year. I always dismissed that theory as crap but I'm starting to wonder now :-)

[darmstadt]

Pah, virtual stuff. I only poker physically...

[TestMangler]

Pah, virtual stuff. I only poker physically...

Yeah me too mate, but Halifax ain't Vegas !!

There's a tourney in the Casino in Huddy but it starts at 6.30 PM or so, so can't make it very often. Also, it can go on until 2.30-3.00 AM, depending on entry numbers, so it's not a good midweek pastime for me. i like sleeping too much

[MarillionFan]

Cheaters never prosper

[TestMangler]

Cheaters never prosper

Ah, that'll be the problem then

[northernladuk]

Fairly sure I've not changed my style of play. There's two of us playing the same table at any point. (One on hotel broadband, one on a mobile dongle. A bit naughty I know, but it works), so we're making mutual decisions on what we're doing and it's worked well for both of us for months now.

Even down at that level, the sites have their own players playing tourneys (I know one who does it as a job) but they're easy to spot, but to go from regular winner to regular loser in such a short time has disturbed me somewhat, especially going down the buy ins to find 'soft' games that I had moved up from a long time ago.

A few people at clientco play and some have a theory that if you stop depositing, you get crap cards. I've not deposited now for about a year. I always dismissed that theory as crap but I'm starting to wonder now :-)

The muliple playes is rampant, I mean, who wouldn't if it gives you an advantage with no risk. I would be surprised if you could find a single table on any site that isn't being worked in the same way.

I wouldn't worry about the cards v deposits though. All the sites out there are branded engines from only a couple of back end suppliers. If there was even a hint this was true the entire online poker industry would die.

[original PM]

when playing online - how do you know it's not rigged?