Now that is funny!!!
Irregardless of whether or not Absolute Poker and its players got scammed, I have not noticed any of their commercials on TV in the past few days. Is there a connection? Just when I was gonna win that Dream Package too?!
I still have some faith that online poker is not rigged and players are not cheated any more than in a live game - even our little bar league has some fishy things that go on.
I can see where an unscrupoulous insider with some online room would be tempted, but these sites are making so, so, so much money, why would they risk it? Party Poker stock took a huge nose dive after that idiotic online gaming ban was passed and that hurt the stockholders tremendously. I just cannot see the financial incentive for a site to do it - maybe an individual, but not the site itself.
I see unreal things happen in live games all the time so it is difficult for me to blame a bad play or a bad beat on cheating. Maybe I am naive, as I would have never imagined there would be a RAT in our club nor would I ever imagine an APCer cheating at our tourneys, but both have seemed to have become reality in the past and current season, so I guess anything is possible.
However, by and large, I still have to believe it safe to play online. Unfortunately, now that I finally got my cash out of Netteller, I have not had to worry about getting money out of a site as all I seem to do is make deposits - not really, but I have not had any big wins online lately but I don't blame that on cheating, I am not playing as much, not at high stakes and have stuck to very micro limits just to practice.
I got an email from this site that is free but supposedly pays out cash - I won a freeroll and got some points, but have not tried to win or cash anything out.
If this cheating is widespread, however, this will be the end of online poker and that sucks big time. But for any poker player, one has to know that be cheated is part of this game - it has always happened and will always be a factor. I recommend keeping your deposits small, immediately cashing out any big wins and hoping it doesn't happen to you.
IF one is serious about online play, then invest in the technology to increase your chances at winning and decrease your chances at losing - whether thru cheating or bad luck, and even bad decisions.
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