Full Tilt was running Ponzi Sceme? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Rathji · 09-20-2011, 07:47 PM

Haven't played online poker in quite a few years, but news of such a big site being into something shady is shocking.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...,6709907.story

Quote:

The gambling website of bilked players of at least $390 million, according to accusations added to a civil lawsuit. Since April 2007, the company allegedly distributed nearly $444 million to owners and directors, with much of it going into overseas accounts.

burn_this_city · 09-20-2011, 07:50 PM

Can't say I'm surprised, Absolute Poker had God mode accounts where one guy could see all the hole cards. I play Pokerstars sometimes but often I'm left wondering if its legit.

Rathji · 09-20-2011, 07:53 PM

I have posted this on these forums before, but I have a friend I went to school with who swore that he worked for a very small poker site that would use bots to beat all the players. His job was to chat with the players and make it seem like it was real. The sites would shut down frequently, reskin and open up a week later as another website.

I realize that it sounds crazy, but I have no reason to doubt him as he is a total straight shooter.

evman150 · 09-20-2011, 07:55 PM

I love games with bots in them. Easier to beat.

If you can't beat a run-of-the-mill poker bot, you have no business playing at all.

burn_this_city · 09-20-2011, 08:17 PM

Its not the prospect of bots that worried me, it was the number of times people would suck out on 5% or less odds. Or the flips hands where the mild favorite rarely seemed to win. I did a bunch of reading and one guy had a 1500 hand sample with flips where the favoured hand only won 30% of the time. With no oversight it wouldn't surprise me if the servers were trying to end tourneys faster once they had their rake already.

/tin foil hat

sclitheroe · 09-20-2011, 08:23 PM

I can't believe anyone would reasonably think that any online gambling site is legit. You can't audit the code running on their servers, so what incentive is there to keep it legit?

DownhillGoat · 09-20-2011, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

I realize that it sounds crazy, but I have no reason to doubt him as he is a total straight shooter.

Except for the part where he's a schill...

burn_this_city · 09-20-2011, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I can't believe anyone would reasonably think that any online gambling site is legit. You can't audit the code running on their servers, so what incentive is there to keep it legit?

So true, yet my co-workers who have pumped thousands into it swear its legit. After a few hundred bucks I went, this is bulllllshat.

Northendzone · 09-20-2011, 09:52 PM

I am not an online gambler, but this does not seem surprising.

As an aside, is it just me or is there a lot less poker on tv lately, even SN1 does not seem to show poker.

drewboy12 · 09-20-2011, 10:44 PM

I put $400 on fulltilt in my poker days. With in a few hours of play, I had 6 legit bad beats won against me... Casino bad beats.... Like a straight flush losing to a royal.... Never played online again after that.

JFK · 09-20-2011, 11:00 PM

Huge hands get dealt in online poker. It makes for a bigger pot, ultimately bigger money for the gaming site.

Play poker with a group in person and you won't see anything close to those kinds of hands.

It's bullplop.

Philly06Cup · 09-20-2011, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I can't believe anyone would reasonably think that any online gambling site is legit. You can't audit the code running on their servers, so what incentive is there to keep it legit?

Call me an anti-skeptic.

Poker sites stand to make millions of money by running a legit business. Take a rake, run everything else straight. It's a premade winning strategy.

The only reason they would try to rig their system is if they got greedy to steal from their customers.

CrusaderPi · 09-20-2011, 11:08 PM

Greed? Gambling? Nooooooooo.

Rathji · 09-20-2011, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JFK

Huge hands get dealt in online poker. It makes for a bigger pot, ultimately bigger money for the gaming site.

Play poker with a group in person and you won't see anything close to those kinds of hands.

It's bullplop.

To play devil's advocate, you see way more hands in an hour on a poker site than you would see all night at a B&M casino.

Swarly · 09-20-2011, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

To play devil's advocate, you see way more hands in an hour on a poker site than you would see all night at a B&M casino.

This. I've had the same bad beats playing live vs online. Online i've played 100's of thousands of hands. Live maybe 1000?

evman150 · 09-20-2011, 11:52 PM

Haha you guys have no clue.

These sites have a license for printing money and they're going to risk it all to give you NL25 donks some bad beats?

What's likelier, the poker sites are out to get you and pump up the rake (which maxes out in a $60 pot anyways) or you are a poor poker player?

But hey, like I say, if it's rigged, it's rigged in my favour!

Beerfest · 09-21-2011, 12:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JFK

Huge hands get dealt in online poker. It makes for a bigger pot, ultimately bigger money for the gaming site.

Play poker with a group in person and you won't see anything close to those kinds of hands.

It's bullplop.

Any stats to back that up?

VANFLAMESFAN · 09-21-2011, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evman150

Haha you guys have no clue.

These sites have a license for printing money and they're going to risk it all to give you NL25 donks some bad beats?

What's likelier, the poker sites are out to get you and pump up the rake (which maxes out in a $60 pot anyways) or you are a poor poker player?

But hey, like I say, if it's rigged, it's rigged in my favour!

I've taken some bad beats on Party Poker, but that's the game. It happens. I've also sucked out HARD and taken plenty of cash from Party Poker. The poster above who said he had 6 casino bad beats within a couple hours, I have a hard time believing that. Not saying you're lying, but that's pretty unbelievable if you saw a straight flush losing to a royal a couple times in a few hours. I haven't seen one casino bad beat in my time online or at an actual casino. Just my personal experience. I hear about it every now and then when I go to the casino.

Could the online sites be rigged? Sure. Do I believe that it is? Not really.

Weiser Wonder · 09-21-2011, 12:52 AM

I guess they are keeping my $350, but I'm glad I cashed out the majority of my winnings in time.

getbak · 09-21-2011, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JFK

Huge hands get dealt in online poker. It makes for a bigger pot, ultimately bigger money for the gaming site.

The problem with this theory is that casinos have a maximum rake. For them, once the pot size reaches that maximum, there's no benefit in a bigger pot. In fact, once the maximum has been reached, bigger pots are bad for the casino's take.

From the casino's perspective, it's better to have a full table of players just moving their money around the table, with medium sized pots that have just barely reached the max rake and no one really winning or losing big, than it is to have a couple of big hands where one player scoops a huge pot (which might be motivation for him to leave the game while he's ahead), and a few other people go broke (and go home - or log off).