PLAYING ONLINE - RANDOMNESS OF THE SHUFFLE
As with other forms of online gambling, many critics question whether the operators of such games - especially those located in jurisdictions separate from most of their players - might be engaging in fraud themselves.
Internet discussion forums are rife with allegations of non-random card dealing, possibly to favour house-employed players or "bots" (poker-playing software disguised as a human opponent), or to give multiple players good hands thus increasing the bets and the rake, or simply to prevent new players from losing so quickly that they become discouraged. However, there is no more than anecdotal evidence to support such claims, and others argue that the rake is sufficiently large that such abuses would be unnecessary and foolish. Many claim to see lots of "bad beats" with large hands pitted against others all too often at a rate that seems to be a lot more common than in live games. This might actually be caused by the fact that online cardrooms deal more hands per hour. Since online players get to see more hands, their likelihood of seeing more improbable bad beats or randomly large pots is also increased.
Many new players fail to understand that there is a great deal of variation in poker (like most card games) whether the game is played live or online. For every hour of play the standard deviation even for the best players can be fifty times the expected hourly profit or even more, meaning that even the best players will inevitably go on lengthy losing streaks. On the other hand, newcomers who experience a run of bad luck are more likely to suspect foul play when simple variance is the most likely cause.
Many online poker sites are certified by bodies such as the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and major auditing firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers to review the fairness of the random number generator, and payouts for some sites.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
THE BENEFITS
