03- 2-05, LearnTexasHoldem:

Online Poker Room Probabilities

Question: Hi

I must tell you that your site is "Terrific."

I have read each article over and over and have studied them meticulously highlighting each specific points that you make. They bring a much clearer picture of what Texas Holdem is all about and they make reading the speciality books that much easier because your articles break down the plays into a simple readable plan that one can study and test.

Top 3 Beginner Rooms

I started playing Holdem about 4 months ago at the PokerStars' site. I started on the play tables to learn the game and did okay but was constantly being beaten on a regular bases. I know that play on play money tables is erratic because its quite easy to bet when it has no value loss attached to it, but still it was a start. Then I discovered your site and after reading some of your articles my play actually improved quite a bit. So much so that I was amazed at the possibilities. I don't mean to emphasize that it was that easy, there was a lot of reading to do, lots of testing and patience involved, but overall your articles did make the difference for me and for that I thank you for this great site.

I am now testing the real money site and believe you me I am getting the crap beaten out of me. I have been mostly on no-limit games in the low games and have ventured into the $5/$10 games as well. Every now and then I do well only to lose it a few days later because of some bad play on my part or bad luck. Perservence is the name of the game really in learning all of this and getting the experience. Far from being discouraged I am actually up in trying to get as much learning as possible.

Since I live in Montreal Canada the casino here has no Holdem games at all and so I play online. My question has to do with the hand probabilities. Do the same probabilities apply in playing online through a computer program which deals the cards as playing live at a casino where the cards are dealt manually. I would think so but sometimes I am not so sure. Of course since an online program can deal much faster than someone shuffling and then dealing, it may seem that the probabilities get wacked out a bit but I think overall mathematically they should be the same. Any opinions?

I did write you a while back asking this type of question and I realize that you must get a lot of question requests. So if you don't get around to answering this then its obvious you must be swamped with more and more questions. But I did want to thank you for articles and tell you that I have appreciated them very much.

Thank You

Albert

Answer: Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad that you are getting some help from the info here.

As for your question regarding online poker probabilities, I think that all legitimate sites strive for as close to true randomness as possible. Obviously if the site is intentionally trying to screw you, they aren't shooting for randomness in the cards but I don't think that is an issue you'll run into. There is no reason for a poker site to screw you since they do so well without having to cheat. They make much more money keeping everyone happy than to try to win your money from you.

I'm not a mathematician but I am a programmer. The best advice I can give is that most likely the online cardrooms random number generators aren't exactly random, but for all intents and purposes they are. You shouldn't see a discernable difference between playing online and playing offline. And to be totally fair to the online cardrooms, it may be the case that the way a dealer in a live cardroom deals doesn't always come out exactly random everytime either. I think that online cardrooms, if the software is written correctly, provide a fair playing ground.

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