The famous "is online poker rigged?" debate used to be a very heated one, with both sides having a long list of arguments; some rational and some not so much. In reality, it is quite easy to prove that online poker sites don't rig their games (at least the major online poker sites).
In fact, the stories of online poker cardrooms cheating their customers have similar sources to other conspiracy theories. In this exact case that would be a lack of understanding of the poker industry and cognitive biases that we all suffer from.
There is, however, another side of online poker games' integrity - cheating by players.
Unfortunately, cheating in online poker got easier over time
The fast development of poker tools and poker software helped people to get way better at the game. It's easy to observe in both online games and live poker - the average poker player today plays significantly smarter than 10 or so years ago. However, as helpful as they are, almost all of the modern tools are prohibited while playing and using them during sessions is considered cheating.
Of course, the regulations themselves are not enough to prevent poker cheating, and there are players who are willing to unfairly swing the odds of winning in their favour. How do they do so? Recently, the most common occurrence of getting an unfair advantage is using premade solutions while playing the actual hands, usually by following the guidelines of the library apps.
Library apps are poker software which provides premade solutions to hundreds of situations in real-time. All you have to do is follow the decision trees. These tools are helpful for studying but are rightfully so banned while playing.
What are the main differences between solvers and library apps? Find out at our blog.
Luckily online poker rooms are aware of the problem
The major poker sites have combated cheating in online play since the beginning of the problem. What's even more important, it's a very big deal for them. The reason is quite simple: in the poker world trust is essential. When people decide to deposit money in a poker room they want to be sure that their funds are safe and the games are as fair as they can possibly be.
Fortunately, every online poker site has an extensive amount of data regarding all the hands played on their platform. Whether we talk about cash games, MTT's or any other format, every decision you've made while playing online poker has been recorded and stored for at least some time.
Such data makes detecting poker cheating possible. With the help of powerful algorithms, it's feasible to detect any suspicious behaviour and conducts beyond the usual patterns for a certain player or group of players.
It's also worth noting that playing perfect, Game Theory Optimal poker, is impossible for any human being. While we all strive to do so, we'll never get there. That's another reason why detecting poker players who smash the optimal decisions one after another is possible.
Read more about Game Theory Optimal and why it is so important in current poker strategies.
The poker community also have their fair share of success in exposing cheaters
Many both good and bad things can be said about the poker community, but one thing is for sure. It can be very devoted to the cause. And exposing cheaters, both online and in live poker, is a very engaging cause. Over the years the members of the community were a great help to the poker sites, quite often providing proof of atypical behaviours.
Usually the community investigations work similarly to the research conducted by online poker rooms themselves. Big samples of hand histories from the poker tracking software allow poker players to take a closer look at certain games, and quite often further inspection helps detect suspicious plays.
Deepsolver also helps the online poker community to keep the games fair
We've developed a poker solver that is one of the fastest, if not the fastest, poker software out there. That being said, there is a small delay between the info input by the user and the results calculated by Deepsolver. That delay, while perfectly fine while studying, makes cheating with the use of our tool way more complicated.
That's not all, though.
We've also created an option called Deepsolver Fair Play Check. It allows us to check in our database whether a particular board was solved using our solver and if it did, at what time.
Cheating can be a tempting shortcut, but it's the hard study that will win you more money
Unless you're an extremely talented individual who came up with an idea of how to fool the security teams of the biggest poker rooms, cheating in poker will get you nowhere. Sure, it might make you some quick bucks in the short run, but most likely, sooner or later, you will be caught and banned.
We strongly believe that the proper way to make solid money out of poker is still the valid one - grinding it out. We've designed Deepsolver to enforce studying in the most efficient way possible. With our app, you'll be able to solve both the most common and most complex spots in the game and more importantly, you'll be able to understand why you should play in a certain way in particular situations.
What's even better, with Deepsolver you can practice spots you've solved or even a totally random one.
We admit, that learning the proper way to play poker is not easy or quick, but it also has never been easier or faster. Test it out for yourself with our 7 days free trial.