WHAT I THINK! ABOUT ONLINE POKER..

Ok - OK - I'm going to get off this topic soon.. but I have to chat about it - KEEP players thinking about it... I'll also come back to the RNG topic as I think it is something that the ONLINE player should be WATCHING OUT FOR every darn day they play...

Back a few years (In another life)- I ran a poker room and it was a very popular game.... I had up to three tables going and when we started out - it was 2/4 limit to 5/10... I don't have to tell some of you how well I did running such games.. It was good stuff!

However - The MONEYMAKER years of poker changed all that... and fueled poker to an all NEW level of horsepower - ***ENTER the "POT and NO LIMIT years.."*** It was insane action and to tell you the truth as a man running the games - it made me nervous.. (It was too much ACTION for most of my players) I never wanted to SCALP a player - rather - loving the game - I ran it in order to.... "A. Have a game & B. Save us the 6 hour trip (back and fourth to Atlantic City every time we wanted action )- and C. to make some extra cash"- The Place was dubbed the TAJ "O TOM'S" Garage - and man was the set up nice! I wish every player could played in this place - NOT A ONE did not LOVE IT! The POTS got to $1500 on nutty nights and $500-$700 BECAME the NORMAL HIGH POTS of the evening in the end... THIS WAS A FAR CRY from JUST A FEW YEARS PRIOR.. when we played the much smaller LIMIT games...

I'll tell more stories of these years - because there are some real good ones to be told (with pictures) but thinking about all this GOT ME TO THINKING...

One thing that happened as we went from 2/4 and 3/6 limit TO NL and POT LIMIT was the players with SKILLS and MONEY (huge bankrolls, usually due to status in business, etc) - had an edge over the average working stiff... and if that stiff was a weak player - MAN oh man was it ever UGLY!!! I seen some weak players take some lickin's...

I remember saying to myself night after night... MAN! These FAT CAT friends of mine are KILLING my business (FAT CATS = DEEP POCKET PLAYERS, players with money)- Night after night - players with small rolls used to complain about the constant ALL IN moves from the moneybags in the game and in the end - the bigger players sorta shut the game down really - None of the regular 9-5 guys wanted to play them and with ME being a purest - I had to have the holdem games be REAL... Poker is a bitch and I can't lock a player out cuz he's aggressive OR rich.. - I would not be able to sleep at night. POKER IS THE DEVIL..

Point is - The smaller ROLL players were scared to play the BIG DEEP MONEY... and while they DID win bigger on the good nights.. (Over all they were just playing scared - and it grinded on their minds a tad too much) Some nights my low rollers were out of money by their 3rd hand of the night and lets face it - that's not fun at all... The BIG money took the FUN away for the SMALL money.. ALWAYS had the players on edge... And really - had an advantage...

SO!

This got me to thinking more!

If the people running online sites are in TUNE with what I learned from running games - WHAT IF they had their programmers design a program that COULD TELL that a player (a good player) was aggressive and basically shut that players style down by BEATING him or her by giving the weaker players cards on the turn and river... LONG SHOT CARDS! (A computer program can be PROGRAMMED to do ANYTHING right?)

What if they made the program to STOP players from playing this way... by constantly putting the aggressive players in HANDS with scary turns and rivers... THE PROGRAM would KEEP the AGGRESSIVE player on EDGE... and then - of course - CRUSH this type of player - when it hands the winning long shot over to the weak...

By doing this - they keep the weaker players IN THE ACTION LONGER and they keep the AGGRESSIVE players scratching their heads... (saying to them selves and to anyone that will listen.. I played that hand the best I could - right? No way they should have played back at me - and MAN! Did they get lucky there on the river catching that one outer) (HOW DID THEY CALL THAT BET??????) Lol - tell me you don't say that a few times a day online?????

Think about it!

Why do we think that the companies set up to say a site is playing fair - is even a legit company?

It could well be a company set up - TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE ITS FAIR - Some people will do anything for the right amount of money...


I have a plan for a site - where players could rest easy playing (at least as easy as possible) but my plan includes laws being passed to insure that things are on the up and up... I can have a site where you know you're playing a REAL person and maybe even people that you know... Wouldn't that be great... WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO SEE QUALITY FLOPS HOLD UP MORE... To actually see hands that were BOSS on the FLOP - "Stay the BOSS and win the hand on the river" (OK - splash some water on your face and wake up... I know many of you passed out just thinking this could happen online.....)

I'll give thoughts on this in the near future when it HITS me to write it all down... It's all in my head and it's been thunk and re-thunk for years now - at least since 2004.

Until then - KEEP fighting to get laws passed to allow us to play this game we love so much... legally.