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I have been playing PokerStars Play Money for a while now and I get the feeling that there are some patterns happening during games that make me lose trust on the level of randomness of the algorithm.

One pattern that I often see and I can't seem to get over it, is: when I'm not a big or small blind, I often get dealt suited cards on the hand, so I go for the flop as most seasoned players would do just in case you get 2 more of the kind on the flop or less probable but still possible the flash.

So I keep getting the filling that this is how the algorithm gets more players to buy into the flop instead of folding.

I would like to know if anyone else has noticed this or knows if this is common in online poker games, and also I would like to know which online poker site is the best based on algorithm performance/fairness to a true game.

Thanks!

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    You can see my answer here (poker.stackexchange.com/a/918/88) that PS uses an independent audit to verify its fairness. I believe this encompasses play money as well. Look up the term "rigged" in this site and you will find many answers all pointing toward fair play.
    – Toby Booth
    Apr 12, 2020 at 12:38
  • Thank you Toby :)
    – BobmasterStack
    Apr 12, 2020 at 13:14
  • I for one would LOVE to see the audit numbers and results. I have played poker for a while and have read more than a few books on how to play and I know the basic outs and odds. I have never kept records of the hands, but can tell you that some of the things that happen on the site can't be random IMHO. I believe, but can't prove, that they have rigged the site to ramp up pots to further the sales of play money chips. Again I would love to see the data and numbers associated with the audits. It is pretty easy to tell in the play money section when someone has sucked out on you because they ove
    – SteelersCA
    Feb 3, 2021 at 6:29
  • I agree. It's not random.
    – mikekehrli
    May 21, 2022 at 2:05

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There is no proof that Pokerstars algorythms are in any way "rigged". External auditory is performed on its dealing system.

Anyway you can ask for 15.000 extra chips every 4 hours so I don't think they're getting too much from players buying play money. The limit is probably set to prevent players from endlessly going all-in every hand

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    "External auditory" Do you mean auditing?
    – Acccumulation
    Nov 16, 2020 at 6:51
  • @Acccumulation probably. Don't know the correct English word for that. Feel free to edit
    – David
    Nov 16, 2020 at 7:44
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It is powered by RNG (random number generator) and there never been any statistical anomalies over a long period of time, so you can be confident that they are not doing anything sketchy with it.

It is quite easy to notice these things for outside auditors, and scandal like that would put a huge blow to the whole company including their real money site, so I am pretty sure there is no reason for them to take this risk.

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It is highly unlikely that such an algorithm would really return more benefit than the cost of the developement it would need.

In my opinion, you are just seeing a false pattern, which the human mind does all the time with too small sample sizes. It's not the dealer algorithm's fault, having a suited hand is very common, but they only complete into a flush post-flop in 5% of the times.

So calling or even raising only to chase a flush is the problem you are having.

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Yes it is rigged and following is the obvious proof: at least every 2nd hand (sometimes even every hand) is either flush draw or straight draw on the flop.

You go play poker on several different sites and you'll nowhere notice this pattern except on pokerstars.

If this is not proof hard enough then I don't know what is. Basically it's difficult to bet and raise when every flop works against the expected nature of RNG.

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    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.
    – Community Bot
    Dec 19, 2021 at 5:15
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    @Community I understand my answer is aggressive, but for others to confirm it only takes to play a few hands. I play poker on pokerstars for over 7 years so my observation is far from biased.
    – metablaster
    Dec 19, 2021 at 9:17
  • PLAY MONEY GAMES DO NOT HAVE A RAKE. WHICH MAKES THEM MUCH EASIER TO BEAT
    – Jon ♦
    Dec 30, 2021 at 20:03
  • I agree. Its rigged, even at play money, with bots to take chips so you'll buy more. However, I cant give stats to back this up. I've just played honest games and rigged ones. They are very different in the number of bad beats.
    – mikekehrli
    May 16, 2022 at 2:21

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