Just happened again. Was winning the hand until some idiot hit a 4 on the turn and another on the river. I emailed party poker and this is what they had to say last night. I also had pocket K's in this tourn that was beaten on the flop by a straight. I think i'll take your advice chip and move sites.



Thank you for contacting the Customer Care Team.

We appreciate the fact that you have advised us of several instances of bad beats you have faced .And, we admit that some of the hands in which you were beaten were extra-ordinary!!

Read: - tough titties, we have your money.

Very happy i never gave 'em any $$$$

Not trying to insult you guys, but you don't have a good understanding of the variance involved in poker. This is what I do for a living (HU at stars, and omaha 8 and NLHE sngs at party). Some days are crazy. 2 hands in a row yesterday I lost AQs to AQ and AK to A6, both all-in preflop (sng). ********** happens. 2 days ago should have been an amazing day if the probabilities went the way they should, but I just suffered outdraw after outdraw. This is very normal. It just seems bad because you seem to experience them so reguarly. Remember you play alot more hands per hr online than in a live game.

People cry rigged on party every few minutes, yet there are plenty of pro's there who have played hundreds of thousands of hands who would disagree. You guys are just being silly.

Can't agree more with you Mr J.

I remember in a game of live poker years ago - Sevens Up - having a straight flush beaten by someone who drew three cards to what I assumed was a pair. He got an ace high straight flush.

It was pot limit. So I can tell you I was in an ugly mood after that hand!

Yeah - see what you're saying Mr J.

Was up half the night last night playing No Limit Texas, some very unusual final pot splits - nothing untoward. I thought i had won with a king high flush and indeed i had however when it came to the division of the winnings other players received portions in varying unequal amounts to mine. The only thing i can think happened is that i had checked so as not to scare them into folding after the flop and they raised/bet etc. These rounds of betting were all seperated into stacks which were then divided. I think since i did not contribute during these rounds therefore i was not entitled to receive these pots even though my hand was superior. Does this sound right? No i suppose not, to remain in the hand i would have had to call at the very least however I noticed this happening on multiple occasions.

It's a bit the same as online BJ (yeah there is rigged software, but I'm talking the big groups like microgaming, crypto etc). You play 450 hands an hr so you see some crazy things. The sort of variance I never saw at a casino simply because you play SO many hands.

Doesn't mean you shouldn't be p!ssed off about it. After a series of outdraws I usually let out a few, but it beats keeping the rage in and letting it out on your cpu later

I play sngs (single table tournies) and just to give you an idea of the variance (and sngs have less variance than ring (cash) games):
-I've personally experienced 500 sngs breakeven. This is like playing 4hrs a day (8tabling) of ring and being even after 2 weeks (say 30k hands).
-One guy I know has had 700+ (think it ended up being 1100) breakeven run of sngs. This is like 3 weeks of ring, 4hrs a day (8tabling).
-Someone I know who is playing the WSOP circut this year (VERY good) has dropped around 50 buyins at one stage (this is the equiv of losing say a 400bb roll at limit holdem).
-I can name a few others who have had 40+ buyin drops, and these guys are very good, longterm players.
-I experienced a 90bb drop at omaha 8, which has MUCH lower variance tha limit holdem. About 75 of this was bad luck, and the rest from some poor play.

If it can happen, it WILL happen eventually. Bad beats suck but unfortunately thanks to maths they exist. Only thing we can do is be happy we got our money in there as a big fave.

Party doesn't really need to rig it's software. Last I heard they were raking in 1mil+ a day. They are also listing the company on the (london??) exchange.

ahhh I hate variance.

The last few postings have hit the nail on the head. The big poker rooms are not rigged, but because of the huge number of hands per hour you will inevitably get heaps of bad beats.

What you have to realise is that all of us tend to remember our bad beats more than our lucky wins.

Also, it stands to reason that the stronger the player, the higher the proportion of bad beats to lucky wins because the stronger player gets their money in the pot when in front more than the bad player. To have lots of lucky wins you need to be a bad player who is coming from behind a lot.

Those of us who try to play well win a lot of hands just by playing the cards... we raise after the flop with top pair etc and maybe some fish limps along with a flush draw despite not getting pot odds. We win the hand and forget about it because it all went 'normally'. Maybe the fish is thinking, 'How come I never seem to make my flushes?' or 'How unlucky, beaten by one lousy pair when last hand my two pair got killed.'

One of the biggest amounts I ever lost online was due to paranoia about collusion. I was caught between two players who were raising and reraising after the flop and I was pretty sure my two pair was in front as there was no indication of a pocket pair pre-flop, just two late position limpers. I smelt a rat and kept calling, thinking they were trying to scare me out. I thought it highly unlikely from the board that either player could be sure enough of being in front to keep reraising a raiser, so it smacked of collusion.

As it turned out, one was slow playing pocket Aces (slow pre-flop at least) because there was no strength indicated (hoping someone paired up) and the other had an inside straight flush draw after the flop, so they were simply playing their cards. The guy with the pair of aces pulled a third on the turn and won the pot over the unlucky straight flush guy, who showed his 10d 9d, leaving me wondering how I could have been such a first class imbecile.

I've never made a mistake like that again!

Guy,
Managing Director,
OZmium Pty. Ltd.

I agree with everybody else, poker is completely random and with as many hands that are being dealt at Party, bad beats are going to happen. Party hasn't become the largest online poker site by being fraudalent to its players. They are as fair and honest as the Pope.

JMM

There is a Party Poker promotion on this site.
Moderator.

I've only watched poker on telly or played with friends so excuse my ignorance but what sort of percentage or cut do the poker sites take? I looked around the party poker website but couldn't work it out.

The "rake" as they call it, i am told that at party it operates on a sliding scale, a percentage of the total pot or of the winning hand. This system tends to take a higher percentage from the lower limit tables (5%) and less from the larger (1 or 2%) to keep the "rake" at anywhere between 50 cents to $5 per hand. In some circumstances the max rake will be capped depending on the number of players and pot limits.

You should give it a try, play with fake or play money as they call it - but a warning it can be addictive!