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PokerStars ban SharkScope & Is My Home Poker Game’s RNG Rigged ?

November 12, 2007


PokerStars extend their list of prohibited software which cannot be used on their site.

As recently reported in PartTimePokerBlog the tournament and SNG results website Sharkscope had been added to the prohibited programs list at PokerStars.

There is no doubt that sites like SharkScope which aggregate all players results are proving to be a popular resource for many online poker tournament players … But are they providing an unfair advantage ?

PokerStars certainly seem to think so

To be honest I kind of agree with PokerStars on this one and dont get me wrong I love what SharkScope has done … But the information available as a result is just too powerful.

Because sites like this can provide information on players on all their games, even the ones you have never played in the advantage for users against non users is potentially huge - It’s like having players notes (which we all know are very valuable) on not just the players you have personally played against but player notes on everyone in every game.

This does put non users at a disadvantage who can only use information they have themselves built up on players in games they have personally played or observed.

For those of us who have made notes by hand - these are dwarfed by the information to hand at a stroke for those who have never bothered to make their own notes.

Clearly using SharkScope isnt cheating in comparision with collusion but it does give an advantage which in a sense the individual player hasnt “earnt” by making player notes from personal experience.

If use of software and databases like these hit a critical mass (some would argue it has already) then playing without is going to put previously successful players at a disadvantage and lumped in with the fish to get beaten by the new sharks.

After all poker is all about information - too much information, unearned is too much of an advantage.

Is My Home Poker Game Rigged ?

Definately if the piles of “xyz poker site is rigged” posts that get posted in online forums are any measure of how rigged our home poker game was.

My home poker game last Friday absolutely must have been rigged by the unscientific standards applied by bitter players at online poker sites … But clearly it wasn’t.

This underlines a clear misconception between games that are rigged and games that just have a near full table of maniacs, drunks, gamblers, thrill seekers and generally poor poker players …

Which is pretty much the make-up of most home poker games and alot of the online poker sites player base.

In our last home game (which I hasten add whilst unprofitable was most enjoyable) featured just about every concievable “bad beat”, crazy river, random call of big preflop bets with junk and its fair share of huge gambles which came off.

We had several made straights on the flop, flushes, trip 3’s against trip 7’s on the flop, top pocket pairs getting beaten by 34 off (due to lack of preflop aggression) etc etc

Does this mean someone was dealing off the bottom of the deck ?

Does this mean our “Random Number Generator” was somehow out ?

Does this mean I will never play a home game again because its favours lucky players ?

The short answer is NO

But all games of poker both on and offline have an element of luck - in the short term luck may win over skill but certainly not over the long game.

IMHO like our home game the vast majority of online poker sites run a straight game, their RNG’s are honest, random and certainly NOT rigged.

But many online poker sites are like our home game … There is easy money for the more skilled player, but the easiest money is to be made from the weakest, craziest gamblers and with that comes a certain amount of risk or luck over the short term -

You just have to ride it out if as you should you run with the weak easy money they will get lucky sometimes.

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