The
Bottom Line -As We See It
We take such whiners with a grain of salt, since we both
know people who win regularly online. Since it's to their
advantage to keep their success to themselves, they usually
don't get on a public forum like RGP to play devil's advocate.
However, we do hear from them occasionally, and their letters
confirm the presence of winning players online-just as there
are winning players offline. Some folks are collecting cash-out
checks from the online poker casinos or accumulating winnings
in FIRE-PAY.COM or NETELLER.COM accounts. We simply don't
hear much from them as often because they're happy campers.
We hear much more from the losers - the folks who need to
vent, look for answers. or in some cases, seek absolution
for playing leaks or lack of discipline. We've heard all
this stuff before - and long before Internet poker came
along.
So as far as we're
concerned, the high percentage of losers online simply mirrors
the high percentage of losers offline. When it comes to
the preponderance of poker losers over poker winners, there's
nothing new under the sun - or in cyberspace.
The truth of the matter
is that online poker casinos have a heavily vested interest
in maintaining games integrity, just as their brick and mortar
cousins do. Knowing clients would evaporate overnight if
colluders. hackers, and other cheaters spoiled the games,
online poker casino entrepreneurs are engaged in an ongoing
cyber-war against them - it's just smart business.
While nothing's perfect,
we believe the vast majority of online games provide an
astonishingly random shuffle, split-second synchronized
action with computer-perfect accounting of bets and pots,
and nothing more or less than the vicissitudes of normal
poker in a netherworld setting.
By normal poker,
we mean the frustrations of facing the usual brew of bad
beats, back-to-back rotten catches turning wonderful starting
hands into worthless rags, in-your-face gamblers making
one and two-outers, flop lag woes, promising draws leading
nowhere but the muck pile, and dreary rounds of awful hands
culminating in a snapped off set of aces. It's all part
of the games - both online and off. And in both places, discipline
and knowledge prevail over time.
Granted, you
don't hear from the winners as often as you do from the
gripers and whiners on RGP who aren't sharing the loot.
In fact, you don't hear from them much at all. But consider:
When you think of the solid players in your offline home
or casino games, do they gripe and make a lot of noise or
just smile and count their money? Do they walk around advertising
their wins or just keep silent? And what do the losers do?
They gripe a lot. Right?
OK, now mentally
transplant to the Internet that same parade of losing players
shadowed by a few quietly smiling winners and you'll get
the picture. It's far less sinister - and a lot more normal
poker - than a small but noisy coterie of whiners would
have you believe. That's our view. for what it's worth.
That said, let's
take a look at some of the state-of-the-art technology involved
in ensuring fair cyberspace games:
