Re: Another donkey gets lucky (BAHH)

What I find humorous is that the response below was probably a form letter,
which means they are bombarded by "rigged" accusations via email all the
time. I think they should post the emails they receive on their site, as it
would probably be a pretty entertaining read.

"52 Factorial" <not@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:WtrEg.798$Tg1.88@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"skillsaw777" <luckysevenouts@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
"Pokerstars handicaps play between good and bad players so that more
money stays at the table and the rake potential is maximized."

In a fit of rage one evening, I sent an email to Stars accusing them of
having a rigged site. It was a fleeting moment of frustration, but they
responded with this. I've edited portions that were directly pointed at
me
or revealed the identity of a particular Stars' employee:

Hello Mr. X,

We can't win. 1/2 the players say that our site is "Fixed" and the other
half are telling us to "Fix this site".

All joking aside, how would you have us "fix" it? So that there
would never be bad beats again? If I may, please allow me to ask you a
question.... Do you consider yourself to be a good poker player? If you
do, the last thing you want us to do is fix it so that there would be no
more bad beats. If there were no more bad beats, people would stop chasing
bad draws. If that happens, then good players won't be able to win
anymore.

Bad beats are a big, and very necessary, part of the game. Also
understand, we don't need to "fix" anything in order for bad beats to
happen. By simply providing a random shuffle, we can rest assured that bad
players will do plenty of chasing and that bad beats will just inherently
happen.

Now, you say that you've suffered the bad beats at particular times that
seem completely unlucky - and I certainly understand this. But the harsh
reality of the matter is just this - our RNG is more than
adequate to produce 52! (52 factorial) shuffle effects to thoroughly
randomize a deck of cards for each and every game dealt on PokerStars. We
use entropy, thermal input, and user input to ensure that this is the
case. Our RNG has held up to several independent scrutiny reviews as well
as our own periodic internal checks on large sample sizes of hands. For
more information, please refer to the following page:

http://www.pokerstars.com/rng_audit.html

After the deck is shuffled and the first cards are dealt, the deck is
set -
we do not use a continual shuffle in our systems. This means that we
cannot determine how the flop, turn, river, or pocket cards are going to
fall and produce bad beats in any manner whatsoever. All of the action
will be directly influenced by the betting patterns of your opponents as
well as your own, which is definitely something we cannot predict.

We have dealt over two billion hands, and have freely given out real money
hand histories any time somebody has requested them. Not once has anybody
found any indication that our shuffle is not 100% random, and many who
have undertaken such studies have posted their findings to the Internet.
You may find just two of them here:

http://tinyurl.com/4lfeg
http://tinyurl.com/2nvav

We're more than willing to provide you with all the hands you've ever
played on our site (or a large sample, like 20,000 hands) to analyze using
a program like PokerStat or PokerTracker to prove that we're a
sufficiently random site.

Furthermore, I think that the following weblink would help you immensely
in your complaint about online poker being 'rigged' against players:


http://www.billrini.com/index.php/2005/09/25/why-online-poker-is-not-rigged

The writer points out several well-stated responses to the common myths
about online poker. Please give us the benefit of the doubt and at least
consider the thoughts presented within this posting.

Keeping a level head and control of oneself is the first rule to this
game. Let us know if we can do anything else for you. We're here
around the clock to serve you.

Regards,

Mr. Y
PokerStars Support Team




.

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