Since 2001, PokerStars has been among the most prominent online poker brands. The company was one of the driving factors in the meteoric success of its young industry, and always offered strong security measures and customer support.

PokerStars had a strong reputation ten years ago, but that all began to change in late 2006 when the U.S. passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. This act made it illegal for PokerStars to accept US players and illegal for US banks to process payments related to online poker.

The biggest online poker site in the world at the time, PartyPoker, immediately accepted and followed this new US law, and left the USA market. PokerStars, however, disregarded the US government and continued to operate in the US. We feel this choice started PokerStars down a road of shadiness which leads us to our opinion today – that PokerStars is a scam.

PokerStars realized it was breaking US law by continuing to accept US players and eventually abandoned the US market. The company lost a lot of money and a significant portion of its customer base.

About PokerStars

PokerStars has been in business for over 15 years. Although the company started as a play-money service only, the focus has been on real-money poker for more than a decade. After neglecting the USA UIEGEA law of 2006, the company reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2012. This settlement allowed PokerStars to return to the U.S. – in Nevada and New Jersey – which had legalized online gambling.

On April 15, 2011, the Department of Justice seized the pokerstars.com domain name, along with fulltiltpoker.com and several others. On April 20, the pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com domain names were returned for the purpose of helping to facilitate the withdrawal of US players’ funds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Scheinberg

PokerStars was forced to leave the US market at this time.

Prior to the seizure, PokerStars could not legally provide service to U.S. residents, but they continued to for a time because it was profitable and because that law was difficult to enforce with them operating entirely outside the United States. The company is located in the Isle of Man and acquired a European Union gambling license through Malta.

Is PokerStars Rigged?

The most concerning question about PokerStars is whether the service is rigged. Admittedly, there is some compelling video evidence on YouTube of sponsored PokerStars players beating the odds on multiple occasions during a number of big events. PokerStars spends a lot of money on its sponsorships, and it behooves the brand to have these professional players be successful. The nature of online play, however, is that it is more difficult for a pro player to be consistently successful. Therefore, PokerStars has motivation, and the company has chosen to ignore rather than dispute the video evidence.

Keep in mind that PokerStars has no incentive to rig poker games outside of sponsored play. The revenues that PokerStars earns is based on the total pot no matter who wins it. In addition, VIP rewards are earned based on the amount staked not the amount won or lost. For that reason, it is very difficult to believe that PokerStars would rig games on a regular basis, and there is no concrete proof to suggest that PokerStars has done so.

In the end, there are a lot of conspiracy theories surrounding rigged games and rigged decks, but overall it’s difficult to believe that PokerStars would actually fix the deck or the dealing of cards… but you never know.

Data Analysis and Breach of Privacy

It is worth noting that there were at least two independent analyses of the PokerStars dealer mechanism that presented data outside the norm. For some, this data was evidence that PokerStars was rigging standard games or at least that the dealer mechanism was not random.

PokerStars did react to this story by providing these studies with more comprehensive data sets to work with. In doing so, PokerStars breached the privacy contract with its players. Although user names were stripped, hand logs are publicly available, and it is possible to associate individual players with the released data.

Does PokerStars Cheat Players?

A much bigger concern of whether PokerStars games are rigged is whether the company is actually cheating players out of winnings. A quick search online will reveal a sharp increase in the last several years of players making complaints about having their accounts seized, bankrolls reduced when making a withdrawal, withdrawals refused, bonuses voided for no reason and so forth.

PokerStars turns a profit on every real-money player no matter how much he or she wins. Nevertheless, there is incentive to be even more profitable in a highly competitive market, and PokerStars would not be the first online gambling service to increase profits by exploiting consumers.

PokerStars does not want money leaving the system, so players that earn profits and routinely withdraw cash from the site are not good for the site.

In fact, PokerStars purchased Full Tilt Poker and continues to manage and operate this brand – a brand that is synonymous with the term ponzi scheme. Full Tilt Poker had rampant cheating going – and this is a fact. Directors of the company took money directly from players’ accounts and purchased homes, cars, jewelry, and more.

To this day, countless players and business partners are owed money from Full Tilt. PokerStars did not fully satisfy these commitments even though they now own and are responsible for the Full Tilt brand.

Better Business Bureau

Another point of concern for poker players considering PokerStars is that the company has never received accreditation from the Better Business Bureau. This was true prior to the UIGEA, and it is true even now in the states where the brand has a legal presence.

The BBB does track international companies, however, and although it has not accredited or rated PokerStars, it does have a file for the company in nearly every state. There are a significant number of complaints on file, and we urge everyone to check with their local BBB to consider local experiences with the PokerStars brand.

Is PokerStars Trustworthy?

The most egregious act destroying any remaining goodwill PokerStars may have had came very recently. On May 1, 2015, PokerStars sent an email to its online marketing partners drastically changing the terms of their agreements, causing significant damage to all of their Internet partners for their own benefit.

Marketing partners of PokerStars had an agreement – that they would receive a certain percentage of the revenues that PokerStars earned off players referred by that partner. And that revenue share plan would persist for the life of the player.

On May 1, 2015, PokerStars unilaterally changed the terms to only compensate their marketing partners for only two years.

AND POKERSTARS MADE THIS RULING RETROACTIVE.

What this means is that marketing partners that have been supporting and promoting PokerStars for years and years will lose all revenues from those players. They will only get compensated for players from the past 2 years. For partners that have been sending PokerStars traffic for over a decade, built up a sizable database of players, and developed those players, will lose 90-95% of their marketing revenues.

Basically, this is a breach of contract and PokerStars is more than willing to completely screw their partners.

You can read the full email below:

Email from PokerStars

pokerstars-email

If PokerStars is willing to do this to their business partners, then what are they willing to do to their players?

If you win a big tournament, what prevents PokerStars from immediately changing their terms to not pay you out?! NOTHING.

We believe that all of these poor decisions stemmed from the fact that PokerStars decided to break US law by continuing to offer their services to Americans.

Because PokerStars broke US law, they had to pay huge fines to the US Department of Justice. PokerStars paid $731 million to the US government to settle the charges of bank fraud and evading US restrictions on online poker.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2012/07/31/pokerstars-will-pay-547-million-to-settle-u-s-government-charges-and-buy-full-tilt-poker/

PokerStars was guilty – and when online poker became legalized in New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware, with the potential of California coming next, some laws had a bad actor clause – which disallowed PokerStars from entering the market since they were illegally operating in the US previously.

Amaya Only Cares About Its Bottom Line

Associating with the owners – the Scheinbergs – prevented PokerStars from entering US markets, which eventually led to the sale of PokerStars to Amaya. And this new change of ownership has led to the issues we see today. Amaya does not care about the players or the business partners of PokerStars.

Amaya added a 2.5% foreign currency transaction fee when depositing or withdrawing funds into PokerStars. And it did this WITHOUT NOTIFYING ANY OF ITS PLAYERS. This was just an added tax to increase Amaya’s bottom line.

Amaya increased the rake at PokerStars in late 2014! Rakes were increased on cash games, mtt’s, sit-n-go’s… basically everywhere. Again, this is another tax added to increase Amaya’s bottom line at the expense of the customer base.

And the final straw is Amaya’s destruction of it’s partnership agreements – changing their compensation from the life of the player to two years is utterly devastating to their list of long-established and trusted marketing partners.

If you do business on the Internet or play online poker, you simply can’t trust Amaya. Sorry, but we have to call it. PokerStars is a scam.

 

 

Leave Us Your Opinion

How were your experiences with PokerStars? Let us know.

 

Submit your review
1
2
3
4
5
Submit
     
Cancel

Create your own review

PokerStars Review
Average rating:  
 224 reviews
 by Sean
Corrupt

Pokerstars is indeed the most corrupt poker site out there! Sky are partners in the UK.

The hands are ridiculous, the about of bad beats, OK you can write some of them off as occasionally it does happen in the real world but no where near as much as (Jokerstars/riverstars)Pokerstars. They use the excuse that you play more hands as it's faster. OK, but the percentages should be the same & they're nowhere near.

Add to that most of the players at a table are probably Pokerstars own bots then the odds are heavily stacked against you.

There site should be investigated by the FBI on a regular basis. Why isn't it??????????

I flopped quad queens earlier. With a 3 on the flop, I checked, player shoves with KK. What's the turn and river, you guessed it KK. The odds of that are just slim to none! Someone somewhere needs to get a full investigation on them. There was an investigation into Full Tilt years ago which put them out of business. The exact same would happen to these!

They need taking down and made to pay all players real money back.

 by Jack Johnson
It's Rigged

I've played almost hands in about years. This game is a scam. Do NOT download it. There are better online poker sites to use. I noticed patterns that were so consistent that it seems rigged. First, the game seems to like to pit players against flushes and straights. I've NEVER and I mean NEVER seen so many consistent flops with straight options only to be beaten with a flush. Also, if you have a pocket pair, except that a straight will beat you even if you get trips. It's seriously weird. Second, there are some favorite hands and pocket pairs I have never won. For example, Q- suited. This is daniel Negreanu's favorite off-pocket pair. Three, frequently, and I mean creepy frequently, when I have suited cards, the flop with be suited in a different suite. This has happened sooooo many times, I'm almost gun shy about playing suited pocket cards. Last, this may sound weird but I'm not joking. It's like the board chooses who will win. I'm not kidding here. I've seen it happen so much I can almost call who will win the table. I call this person "the chosen one." It'ss seriously weird to watch. They will raise and re-raise with 8-5 suited and will win against KK and AA and trips. Last, the program knows what you like to play. It will send you these cards more frequently than any other cards. If you like to play suited, you'll see more suited cards come to you than you've ever seen. If you like to play connecting cards, you'll see those about 30-50% of the time and loose! The purpose is to get you to play and loose. PokerStars is a scam and rigged. It's fake. It's unrealistic in normal tournament play. This game translates nothing into the real poker world. Don't waste your time playing this inferior, rigged, fake game. Spend your time doing somewhere else at a more honest, reputable and fair poker site.

 by Some Guy
PokerStars is a scam

Hi,

I'm a good poker player. I'm also wealthy so I don't care about losing money. I'm also a good maths/statistics guy.

PokerStars is rigged. Full stop.

They have scripted hands that are frequently inserted where players are given crazy flops so as to maximise the probability people go all in on the flop. This is true in the Hold Em games and especially true in the PLO games.

The standard refrain you will see online is "PokerStars has no incentive to rig things." This is not true. By inserting scripted hands, they get more bust-outs, which means more rebuys, which means more profit. It also maximises gambling addiction, because people see hands where they think "Oh! I just got so unlucky!", especially given it shows your percentages of winning.

What appears to be particularly disturbing is that there are players on the site who appear to have foreknowledge of these rigged/scripted hands. The hands are assigned randomly, which makes it fair (and possibly even legal if it ever came to that), but, I think certain bad actors have leaked the scripted hands to people so that they can profit. I have just noticed too many unusual betting patterns, and particularly unusual long pauses and then unusual calls on the flop leading to big victories on the runout. Again, this especially happens in the PLO cash games.

No, I'm not schizophrenic or bitter about losing money. I'm just trying to warn people.

Thanks and good luck.

 by OkleyDokley
OnlineVR Poker Scam

Your observations are notable and sound familiar. One question to ask everyone who's experiencing this is whether you've actually purchased chips (verses relied solely on re-upping with free chips). I submit that there are two groups of players who play conservatively, by the rules but with no intent on actually purchasing chips with real cash: Those who can be frustrated into actually using cash and those who will be eventually driven away by the same frustration, and the algorithm is built to identify and motivate both.



The only use that the latter group of die-hards have are to keep the others playing. someone has to lose, and it's especially effective if they play believing they have a chance to eventually win. They are useful idiots.



Algorithms are built to influence behavior and generate money. If you're not giving them money, you're being used to ensure others do. Perhaps this is why kids, complete idiots and people who are totally clueless playing fast and loose always seem to catch cards and, more often than not, put you in a position to either leave or buy chips. It's business, not entertainment.

 by NLM
So incredible

I've been playing online poker for two decades and the badbeats, river-suckouts and overall scamming tactics of stars now makes it utterly NO place to deposit and play.

The RNG is a joke !

I've taken down the UK Freeroll several times and made thousands after depositing but something happened around 2019ish and all I can say is DO NOT GO NEAR THE UTTER PILE OF &^%$ !!

STAY AWAY.

IT IS A SCAM.

JOKERSTARS indeed.

 by Mischa Mueller
Pokerstars is ridiculous rigged and a scam

I never saw something more criminal in online poker. Pokerstars has too much power and they get protected by the authorities. I'm sure there is a lot of corruption exist too. Some players especially affiliates say Pokerstars would lose too much if they cheat and rig the game. This is wrong: Pokerstars would lose a lot of money if they would not rig the game and they can do what they want with the protected background of the authorities. Pokerstars should be shut down and the bosses should get prosecuted and in to the jail for many years. Pokerstars professional players get support by Pokerstars to win tournaments because of they are as advertisers very important for Jokerstars. Most are even terrbible poker players. over 95% allways the high stack win the hands. It doesn't matter what card they have. The software is build in that way how much the chip stack of every player is. It's a mathematic calculation on every hand the software already has choosen who has the best hand, second best hand, third best hand.....and it's depend on the chip stack.

I hope there will be a possibility in any time to prosecute this company. It's a shame that 888 Poker which is less rigged doesn't have so many nice tournaments around the whole day. I mean they should have 24 hours especially more micro and mini tournament with 1000 US$ until 4000 US$ price pool.

On 888 Poker you can study the algorithm much better and I could win some tournaments which on Pokerstars is only luck same you play a Casino slot machine.

I wrote this message to you because of I play since around 30 years poker and online poker and I just got very nuts about some tournaments I plaid on Pokerstars. You get a full house which you never would fold. The high stack got a better full house. AA you will lose against a shit hand against the high stack most on the river. Today I got kicked out against quads 6. I had a full house AAA66. Only a sample of so many strange knock outs.

 by Motaka
Western Europeans beware

Do not play on PS if you're from western Europe. You are only there to feed peopl from third world countries, namely Brazil, Belarus and Russia.



Just finished a session where I was 1-2 outed 7 times in 4 hours. Can quite happily provide hand history.





This site needs to lose it UK license.

 by Jacob
You tell me

I had just recently sat at the table didnt really have a read on anyone. Immediately after the hand, Blazzenem disappears from the table. Thought it was super strange that he didnt type sorry or any explanation etc. and just bounced. Seemed very weird in real time hard to explain objectively and impossible to prove anything. I imagine this is the perfect time to cheat if you are seeing runouts bc you can always say you misread yiur hand thought you had then flush. Usually if something like that happens at table there is some type of text exchanged not instant ghost....





Requested Hand History

S

support@starsaccount.com

to me

10 hours agoDetails

Hello Jacob,



Thank you very much for getting in contact with us.



Please note that we do not tolerate profanity in emails. We are people just trying to do our best to assist you. Please refrain from profane language in future contacts with us. The requested Hand History is below:



PokerStars Hand #229014923175: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2021/08/21 23:55:00 ET

Table 'Lyra' 9-max Seat #5 is the button

Seat 1: GoLions44 ($27.23 in chips)

Seat 2: smoker364 ($46.32 in chips)

Seat 3: MattRat193 ($29.89 in chips)

Seat 4: Ty El Tomador ($73.82 in chips)

Seat 5: the11wizard11 ($48.75 in chips)

Seat 6: WHEELS1799 ($64.39 in chips)

Seat 7: Blazzenem ($56.71 in chips)

Seat 8: MonkEC_MonkEdoo ($98.25 in chips)

WHEELS1799: posts small blind $0.25

Blazzenem: posts big blind $0.50

catflinn224: sits out

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to the11wizard11 [Qc Qh]

MonkEC_MonkEdoo: folds

GoLions44: folds

smoker364: raises $1.50 to $2

MattRat193: folds

Ty El Tomador: calls $2

the11wizard11: raises $5 to $7

WHEELS1799: folds

Blazzenem: calls $6.50

smoker364: calls $5

Ty El Tomador: calls $5

*** FLOP *** [3h 5h Jh]

Blazzenem: bets $26.84

smoker364: folds

Ty El Tomador: folds

the11wizard11: raises $14.91 to $41.75 and is all-in

Blazzenem: calls $14.91

*** TURN *** [3h 5h Jh] [As]

*** RIVER *** [3h 5h Jh As] [2s]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Blazzenem: shows [4d 8d] (a straight, Ace to Five)

the11wizard11: shows [Qc Qh] (a pair of Queens)

Blazzenem collected $109.25 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $111.75 | Rake $2.50

Board [3h 5h Jh As 2s]

Seat 1: GoLions44 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 2: smoker364 folded on the Flop

Seat 3: MattRat193 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 4: Ty El Tomador folded on the Flop

Seat 5: the11wizard11 (button) showed [Qc Qh] and lost with a pair of Queens

Seat 6: WHEELS1799 (small blind) folded before Flop

Seat 7: Blazzenem (big blind) showed [4d 8d] and won ($109.25) with a straight, Ace to Five

Seat 8: MonkEC_MonkEdoo folded before Flop (didn't bet)

 by totalhaunted
cutomer since 2004

I was playing on this site since 2004 if not longer. If you would have asked me a few months ago what i thought of the site i would have told you it is great, i enjoyed playing on it and i would have gave it 4 or 5 stars. They said i was cheating (colluding) with another player which is absolutely ridiculous.All of a sudden after 17 years i decided to cheat???? I don't think so. Give your head a shake.They came to this conclusion over 2 hands. If im in a tourny and i have to get up to go to the washroom and my hand folds kk because the timer runs out i guess that's cheating or colluding as they called it. This is the email they sent me..."An extensive review of your play, with all cards exposed, ultimately led to the conclusion that you were in contravention and material breach of our Terms of Service.



We don't take this action lightly. Any such decision is reviewed by multiple members of the Game Integrity team, who agreed that such action was necessary and appropriate after looking at the evidence.



Our site's integrity is our primary concern, and, regrettably, such action is necessary. We take security very seriously and will do everything we can to protect the integrity of our games.



The Terms of Service which you agreed to abide by when you opened your Stars Account, in particular under 'PROHIBITED USES', state that:



"COLLUSION. Collusion between Users by sharing poker hole cards or by any other methods is strictly forbidden. The Stars Group reserves the right, in addition to other measures, to restrict seating and/or to prohibit Users from playing at a particular poker table or in a tournament, including restricting two or more Users from playing together at the same table or in the same tournament. In addition, The Stars Group reserves the right to consider any collusion or attempt at collusion between players (including Users) as a material breach of this Agreement and accordingly The Stars Group shall have the right to terminate a User's account if a User engages or attempts to engage in any such activity, regardless of the outcome of such attempt."





They also seized my funds and my stars that i accumulated of course. As i have been checking online i see this has happened to other players as well. so ultimately something is going on within the company and mistakes are being made. With that being said putting money on pokerstars is a gamble in itself and I now would seriously avoid putting any funds on their unless you dont care about losing money.

 by Ted
Theft

I am a recreational "free chip" player and purchased play chips in July for $19.99. But, I was charged three times. I asked for two of the charges to be refunded and have been told the following:



1. They don't research play money accounts and I may have been hacked.

2. They will return the money in around 6 days.

3. They need proof of payment, including banking information.

4. I need to specify which two of the charges were unauthorized.



This closely resembles Full Tilt and is likely a scam that regulators have seen many, many times. They steal small sums from thousands of people, then make it so difficult to get a refund that the people give up. Nothing new here. I will pursue this until justice has prevailed.

 by RSB
There is definitely something fishy with Pokerstars

I started playing on Pokerstars since 2010, i dont really play anymore and if i do i play just because i want to play some poker but not even thinking about winning anymore. My first 2 years i won alot of money , around 20.000€ and i was new to poker. The years after i learnt alot about poker and played some live tournaments and cash games in the casino in my city. But it doesnt matter on Pokerstars i was not able to win any big hands anymore while i was leading 9/10 times . People with the most strange and uncommon hands manage to beat me. Like this for an example: i played the sunday million ( 215-$ ) in 2018, i was just in the money and got dealt AA in the big blind. Someone in mid position made a min raise, and the small blind went allin with 150 big blinds , ofcourse i call. This guy had A3 off suit. The flop was A 3 3, the turn J and the river 3 . These things happen way to often, even online poker is so much faster this should not happen very often but on this site you can see this almost every tournament happening. Also when i watch poker streams played by pokerstars pro’s like Lex Veldhuis , this doesnt seem to happen that often, and if it does happen it is in their favor. It seems on this site how worse you play how more likely you are to win unless youre a Pro. It does makes sense after all, there are more fishes then good players. And the good players will most likely keep playing as they see even though they bust you had the best hand and you think you was just unfortunate. But after this long , it has nothing to do with luck anymore. ( also its reqlly obvious that big stacks in tournaments most likely (9/10 times )will win the hands they play just for the schedule of their tournaments.

 by Darren
Scammed after playing for over 17 years

Played on this site for over 17 years. One day i went to log in and i couldnt. I checked my email and they said i was cheating. They showed 2 hands that i folded. (I most likely was in a tourny and got up to use the washroom and it folded my hand) i had emailed them back and explained they had no explanation other than copy and pasting the same thing they had emailed the first time. I had asked thwm to show me more hands of me supposedly cheating which they did not. They banned me kept my money and and my built up star points. Unbelivable after 17 years im all of a sudden cheating. Seriously. Then why do i deposite every few months and never withdraw. I must be a crappy cheater. And just all of sudden after 17 years i decide im going to cheat. Nice try. You just couldnt handle me stock pilling my stars. What a joke. Im still in shock. And after reserching a little im not the only 1 it has happened to. Some one in their department is shady no doubt.

 by Jenga
Jokerstars

Thi siste is not bold on poker. It’s a scam that make the money float around. Good player or bad does not mather.. when Amaya took over, what was the first thing they did?

They removed HU tables because there the good player will win over the bad ones in the long run.



I played spin n goes, I had registered for 54.350$ and my pay back was 54.708$

BUT the rake was 3400$

When I quit and closed my account permanently, and start playing other places I won 1000-1500$ every day for a period of several weeks. Bad beats can come but pokerstars is using this for the full. If you get 100 bad beats in a row something that is like 1-1.000.000 pokerstars will say to you” this is poker and in poker bad beats can happend”

STOP PLAYING AT POkERSTRS!!!

 by Lindsay Perham
scam

i have played for 15 years at 1 tourney per day. in all that time ive won 1 tournament and made the final table 3 times. with a live dealer i have won multiple tournaments and made the final table many times. this site is a scam and should be shut down i would not even give them 1 star

 by Peter
Rigged

If I could give this site zero stars I would. If anyone can tell me they cashed out on this site I would still call BS. This site is organized thievery on a grand scale. Don't waste your money. Full Tilt, same owners, was shut down for the same reasons.

 by Penispeter
pretty sure its rigged

I played like over 25000 hands at pokerstars cash games only ( i know its not much but still ) and some days i get constant bad beats. For example 1 day i had things happening like this ->



Raised pot Preflop enemy fish calls ( he has A8 )

i flop two pair and bet high while he hit nothing.

Turn comes an Ace, Player goes all in ( one pair of ace with 8 kicekr vs my two pair ). What happens on River ?

another ACE to beat my two pair.



Same day other hand:

All in on flop flush nut draw

Enemey fish calls with 7H and some other card

i dont remember. 346H flop. Guess what he hit ?

exactly, straight draw.



If i had some good winnings, i often got constant bad

beats like that, sometimes 6-7-8 times in a row.



One day for example i lost 3 times AA in a row all in vs 1 player only. As well as a JJ ( well this is fairly beatable but still ).



i had so many ridicilous bad beats like making full houses with turn + river and stuff like that its a joke.



If you start winning to much, i feel like pokerstars

intentionally makes you lose.



It also makes total sense. Fishes play more all ins ->

bigger pots, more rake and they are probly more likely to play again if they have some good winnings sometimes.

 by Travis
Collusion

I have been a member for over 10 years, i play a couple hours in the day and a couple of hours at night with a buddy in another town. My account was at 45$ a few months ago, and it was 9 something a few days ago. My buddy and i play 50 cent 9 man tournaments and we play 2-5 cent cash games.

Pokerstars sent us an email that we have been colluding together. They gave specific hands and two of the four hands my friend had AA and pushed all in. I happen to be in big blind and folded. His other hands were AQ and AJ and he raised. They said we colluded together. I have lost $$$ and my friend won about 15$ in the last year.

There is no way we were colluding, we were just playing poker. They took our money and closed our accounts.

Unfortunately they are wrong and we never colluded, but what can u do? Nothing? Thank gosh i only had 9$

 by Jayson M
Free $50 My A$$

I'd give 0 stars if I could. With online gambling legal in Michigan now, I created an account. First I was told they couldn't verify my address because I live on "Third St" but their system has it as "3rd St" so I had to submit a Bank statement/power bill and my ID. It takes 5 business days to verify my stupid road name. No big deal, so I make a deposit of $50, they have a promo going for new members, wager $1 and receive a FREE $50 Credit! I see 20 commercials a day for this, so I make my deposit and wager $1... No $50 Credit. So I try a couple different machines and even blackjack. I get down to $27 and still no $50 credit, so I send an email. No response after 2 days, so I call them, a customer service rep says for some reason I wasn't given the credit and should have been...

So now I have this free $50 credit. Over the next 3 days I sparingly use it and build it up to $86 (Separate from the other $27 I still have on there) then on Day 4 I log on and there's only my $27?! Where's the rest? I again send an email, but this time I get a response in less than an hour saying the $50 credits EXPIRE in 6 days. What the hell does that mean it expires?? So it's NOT a free $50 credit or what? I asked multiple questions including why is it gone on the 4th day? What about the extra I won with it? etc and I get another response repeating the player has 6 days to use it before it expires... WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??? So I call again and I'm told I had 6 days from the first qualifying $1 bet (even though I didn't even get the credit for 3 days). "Sorry sir, we can't reissue the credit." What about the $36 I won using it, did I just win an extra 72% for the house? "The player has 6 days before it expires." By now I'm just pissed, I tell him exactly what I think of the garbage company and hang up.

Can someone please explain to my how a FREE $50 CREDIT expires???

 by MJ
Absolute Scam

Pokerstars is an absolute scam. The only value of the site is lite entertainment. Under no circumstances should you risk real money on this site!!! The runouts are all rigged to create the most buy backs...that's how they monetize the shabby site.

 by G Any.
Rigged

I'm a mathematician, I got books on the statistical mathematics of poker. I've played on pokerstars for 2 years, and have 912,000+ hands. The game is rigged 100%, there is no way mathematically that how I would lose consistency was variance.



For example,I noticed immediately and mathematically clear and distinct patterns whether i lost a previous hand, tournament or game. Likewise clear and evidential hands after a win. You will notice how many rivers, and insane bad beats against new players or people who are weak players. I'm not hyperbole.



It's not a fair system, and honestly pisses me off because ut is clearly not legitimate.

 by Peter
Complete cheat site

I would rate this lower if there was an option. Everything stated on this site true

The algorithm is set to squeeze every last dime out of players pockets and to line the pockets of the executives. Take a look at how low the traffic is. Atleast most people are catching on to this completely rigged site

 by Anne Mayback
Got my account back

I travelled to Berlin last two months and After i tried to login to my Pokerstar account which i've been using for years. I realized that i got signed out immediately. It was so frustrating. I could gain access to my account with a thousand stars and about 13000EUR in it. I sent series of messages to the support but no reply. Last week i came across a review of a certain tech expert , webghost33 on telegram who came to my rescue with a few recovery hacks using SQL injections.I was able to retrieve it in 24hours. It was really worth it and i'm prepared against any keyloggers or account issues in the future. I'm confident i won't have any issues with it again.

 by Ales
SCAM 100%

I highly recomend to everyone to stay away from this pure shit scam. Or do you want to win forexample 10k usd in some tournament ? First you need to spend 10k for buy ins then then swich button at your profile and you will have chance to win. Otherwise you gonna only loose, i can post million of the same ridicilous hands here but its just big wate of time. I blocked my acc. for 2 months (because last time i did it i won 5 tournaments in a row after unblocking :D:D:DD::D )in rage month ago and directly after blocking i have recieved email that my acc. is under investigation regarding cooperation with other player :)))) I lost my patience, sent them email with my oppinion, no answer and i believe my acc. will stay blocked forewer because i was writing this stuff into chats etc. and they dont need ppl who are talking about their pure SCAM algorytm so they monitoring and pushing such ppl out of game. Im living in country when only PS, Partypoker and shit local poker sites are available and i list absolute motivation to play online poker after years experience with PS scammers. Please think twice before you loose all your money for this bitches. peace

 by rigged
Rigged is a loaded term here

The term rigged implies that the rigger will directly win more than it should. The reality is the rigging is in the very obvious , material and statistically significant excessive occurrence of multiple good hands in a given pot and underdogs getting things like 3 of a kind on a flop where another guy might have a pair or ace . You said it yourself but for some reason didn't acknowledge that that is rigging if the goal is to get the pot as big as possible because I your words it only cares about pot size not who wins. I agree. Bit a deck of cards poker stars is not

 by Fer S
RAT NEST

This place is a rat nest, I assure its 100% fixed I really hope they put all these people in jail.

 by tom
Pokerstars Scam

If you google if pokerstars is rigged, first response is from shill, making the "factual" claim, that it just feels rigged because the hands are dealt quicker. Ridiculous anecdote, not based on fact. Human brain can easily process and account for dealer speed. Why does a list of anecdotes pop up at the top of the search. TI suspect they use bots, sell your data and continuously bust the all in odds to get losers to buy more chips. That is why they are making money.

 by Bert
Flip a coin

I came back to poker stars after many years away. Worse than ever. Why play the game when you may as well just flip a coin for your money!! So many set up hands and ridiculous bad beats especially on all ins. Just not believeable. A total ripoff site. I'm done for good this time.

 by Craig
Blacjack: total sacam

I don´t use to play much poker online, but as an experienced blackjack casino player I can almost assure 100% that the blackjack is fully rigged. In fact, when you play some thousands of hands, you clearly realize that the algorithm grossly repeats some patterns (f.e., the bank getting an Ace when its first card is 7 or 8, you getting an Ace when you double with 11, you getting a 10 85-90% of the hands when hitting with 12, etc).

it´s pretty obvious that it is rigged if you are used to analyze

Blackjack hands. It has NOTHING to do with reality, and I´m talking about a number of hands big enough to dismiss ocassional bad beats.

Statistics are totally unconsistent.

Don´t waist your money and your time with this scam that should be forbidden and closed.

 by marko
scum

I just wont to share my stats on poker stars cash games.

According to pocker tracker I played 625256 hands (for now)

My avg. all in equit is 57.17

My net won in My currency adjusted by all in equity is -8170.25$

I lost over 6000$

People dont spend your time and money playing at poker stars like I did.

 by Kourosh
POKERSTARS= THIEVES

Absolutely Scam, if you win or withdraw your money they block your accountant that's the time you have to say goodbye to your money because theres is no where you can go to get your money. they won't answer your emails.

take a look at daily recent reviews here as well:

https://ca.trustpilot.com/review/www.pokerstars.com?stars=1

 by keyany
fixed

this game is fixed or should I say BS algorisms IMPOSSIBLE WINS 65% on no chance river, the should change the name to "The lucky River Game" My cat payed and won! I think they follow me just because I say its fixed on chat box all the time No Way to beat some hands so much so I cam guess the river 75% of the time why? because the only card to beat me is the one I say

 by KAREN

I HAVE BEEN WAITING 2 MONTHS FOR 500.00 BUCKS BECAUSE MY HUSBAND PASSED AWAY. I HAVE SENT THEM SO MANY DOCUMENTS AND THEY WOULD NOT EXCET HIS DEATH CERTICATE SO I PAID 22.00 FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO SEND ME A COPY. JUST HATE HOW THEY HAVE TREATED ME WITH MY LOSS.

 by Doug
Incentivised

PokerStars is rigged to incentivise first, then shake you down. Member since 2009, I've actually seen this change happen over time. To me, with such a long online playing history, it seems so blatantly obvious. Way back when, the site played like real poker. One could say that if you see the pattern, you should be able to beat it. But it's all about retaining new gamblers while shaking trillions of pennies loose. Brilliant really but unfair to bias games and stakes to benefit new players.

 by john chen
Worst poker platform

Made an account with PokerStars Asia and deposited a small amount to play low stakes. In less than 24 hours they froze my account and that was that, no response to my verification request.



And now i heard they quit for china market,I can’t get back my account money. Seeing as they've taken it and froze my account and won't respond to me, I'd that amounts to theft right now.

 by beavisbg
Once again - scam

Hour and a half in a tournament, get 2 Jacks in hand and 1 on the flop. Go all in and the one infront of me shows Jack and King. What are the two next cards? Two Kings. Nice, 0,3% chance of that happening.

 by Charles
PokerStars are hasty and irresponsible!!!

Ive been playing PokerStars Asia for 1 years when 6UP become the only partner of PokerStars Asia. I still remember how convenient it was for china players,we could register,deposit and withdrawal directly through 6UP website.



Sep 2020, without notice to anyone PokerStars pulling out of the three regions in Asian.The way of dealing with customers is more rude and impersonal. Ridiculous in every possible way.

 by joe
scam

i know for sure they have employees working for them online. Way to many bas beats, many will say the reason for the bad beats is because its fast, i call bull s. H. I. T. I have lost thousands of dollars on there because someone would catch on river. For example i had pocket Aa preflop. I pre bet $25. Everyone folds except for this one player who i see all the time on there playing multiple tables at one time and always has a bunch of money on all tables. So he re-raises ne $85. So i go all in with $411 he calls and all he has is a 5 hearts, 7 hearts. And catches a flush on the river.. no one will call a $400 bet with a 5, 7. So its almost like he knew he was winning. This happened to me with about 6 players all the time, all 6 of these players are on there all the time on multiple tables and all have trippled there money. So in my opinion they all work for pokerstars, and pokerstars is giving them cards so they constantly win.. it has happened to me alot.. and when i call them out they leave the table.. i have never been able to cash any money out. I always loose all my money with really bad beats that are un heard of. No one is that lucky to call a $400 bet preflop with a 5, 7.. i dont care what people say pokerstars is rigged. They will not get anymore of my money because if i play i fo to casino for now on. I always leave tye casino with a poket full if cash when i play texas holdem. But on pokerstars i end up re-dipositing more money only to get bad beat after bad beat.

 by juan
SCAM, lets sue them

the platform is amazing but when you start playing things start getting bizarre. No chance their algorythm isnt bias, just so many flushes, straights, three card games, so no, just imposible. it applies to all so no harm yet, you can just adjust the math and even the odds again. Yet, river and turn cards are way out any stats, flip coin, I would say. Just pray and wait what happens but its really frustrating to lose repeatedly vs cowboys and bad players who are clueless about poker dynamics or statistics- Defintiviely avoid it if you like a serious poker game, down to sue them anytime (tons of data to prove how bias game algorythm is)

 by Harry Potter
Morally Justified (Scam)

Forget about me, or my playing style, knowledge or experience. It does not matter. Actually "Nothing else matters".



Whatever the review, people are going to throng pokerstars, and that may include me too.



No one will ever know the truth. Just like what happened in 9/11, or COVID was really man made. But whatever is happening, is morally justfied. 9/11, COVID, JFKs assasination. etc etc.



Ok, cut the crap. This is my review of Pokerstars. There is something going on in Pokerstars, that I say for sure, and I say they have a "moral justification" (though the intention is to profit). It is the same like that Baghdadi guy promising 73 virgins and righteousness in heaven to all the foot soldiers. Only, th efoot soldiers in pokerstars are the "programmers".



Guess what the owners would have told them and convinced them? "We have to make the playground level" , yes, you are right, the same Socialistic Democratic Crap (profit veiled as righteousness).



I mean, it could be two things,1. Intentionally ignoring errors, omissions in bias.2. specifically programming to overcome new player handicaps 

You are right, it is the same as the government interference with the economy by installing minimum wages, tax breaks, incentives etc.



Who is the loser? actually all the players. How and why?- The Weak lose by reinvesting and believeing that they can win- The strong lose because they believe in themselves but only to be beaten by weak players.



In the End, money keeps coming into pokerstars but will never leave. Just like the Eagles song.Welcome to Hotel Pokerstars. You can checkout anytime, but you can never leave!(Review From Canada, Hey, from Alberta)

 by Donkerator
A Total SCAM

Anyone with a slight resemblance of a working brain can figure out the site is a scam. Just run some simple tests...I have lost there with dozens of bad beats in a row...constant flushes and straights, full houses...seems they will run you dry just so you will buy chips....SCAM!

 by Abhishek Yadav
Males you loose

Hi, I have been using Pokerstars for the past few months. The most I won playing 2 days was 5 times the amount. It only happened when I first made my account. I was flying high but was cautious. Playing for the next 2 days brought my account to half of what I started with.

Pokerstar will let you win when you are new, then slowly take away everything.

Then I decided to put only a certain amount, play, winn ittle and cash it back into my bank account. This is where the real scam starts.

Once you withdraw money, Pokerstar will make sure that you loose rest of the amount as soon as possible. For example, lost my 33355 full house to 33366. This is just one example. Lost my KKK to AAA with both two aces opening on turn and river. The guy I lost to had nothing but Ace high in a round with two K on flop and me going all in as I had triplet. Hw TF that guy knew to go all in and getting 2 Aces in the end. This is not just one case. I have played real live poker alot in my life and I know that no sane player will go all in like that.



I believe Pokestars have sponsored players playing along with you who know what cards are gonna open up. Also, I have seen single player dominating the whole table with getting Aces, straights & full houses in literally every round. They will keep on bidding higher for flops. It will happen continuously for many rounds and you will be folding continuously saving money. Then in one round you will get Ace and king, the same guy will raise again, you will counter, you will get two pair of A & K, the 3rd card in flop would be something like 5 or 4 you will go all in, he will call, turn & river will bring out one more 5 or 4. Now you can eat shit because the other guy's cards will open up and you get to know that MF was coming all in against Aces & kings with 5 & 2 in his hand scoring a triplet of 5 against your 2 pairs of A & K. How TF a sane [person goes all in against A & K with just a pair of 5 in his hand.

I have not spent a lot of money, but I have understood that Pokerstar is rigged.

I am not writing this because I have lost few of my money on it but I want to put it out in the open, please dont use pokerstar, they are cheat & they just want you to be hooked and keep spending money because once they made you win alot.

 by ShuffleUp
Ridiculous Tourney Play

We were just playing a $22 cash tourney on the Home Game side of PokerStars and I went up against the same opponent late in the tourney at the final table where he beat me 3 straight hands in a row getting the CASE CARD to win on the river ... the odds of this happening in a real life casino are so astronomical that this software just must be reviewed and changed. I have deleted my account with PokerStars in frustration and encouraging my friends to play on a different site. Ridiculous in every possible way.

 by Allen
One thing you can prove about Poker Stars

I am going to keep this short. A lot of players who complain about Poker Stars being rigged are fish. And that is a problem because it discredits good players who also point out that there are major issues with Poker Stars. I do think their tournaments play the way they should. I made a lot of final tables and the bad beats seem normal in tournaments.

I am NOT at all complaining about bad beats in cash games because that is almost impossible to prove or disprove easily and so many bad players who would be losing no matter what complain about bad beats.

Here is the issue however. I am a good player and I have lost relatively little money minus the rake at poker Stars Cash games.

But I find it impossible to win even though there are plenty of bad players. But here is what exposes Poker Stars for the frauds that they are. In their cash games I played over 500,000 hand without one serious upswing. I play 6 to 8 tables and about 5000 hands a day. Did this for 4 straight months and did NOT once get a 100bb stack over 200bb. This lack of upswing variance over this sample size is clearly not a natural phenomena. That has to be man made. I can prove this too. They have the records and I also have many records. I do see new players and fish who make many buy ins getting big stacks and that is what kept me optimistic for so long. Also I am a very aggressive player, I am not afraid to jam J J if someone has a weak 3 betting range and 4 bet calling or jamming range. Unlike %99.5 of the claims here, this cheating claim can actually be easily proved. I am considering a law suit. Not to make money for myself but to demand fair playing cash games for strong players. Their software apparently protects the fish from the sharks, or as one of their CEOs said, they protect the vulnerable. That could be taken several ways, but I am not the only one who noticed that even strong players are not winning much if at all in their cash games and even when there are plenty of weak players in the game. The whole 50NL Zoom in Europe is said to be so strong that players there make bets on who can break even. Well that is not the case here in the USA, we have plenty of big fish playing, and we do not have Zoom.

Here is what I can prove in court, I played over 500,000 cash game hands with out a single big upswing and could not even get 50 stack over 100 dollars in the 50 NL cash games.

The 30 NL cash games I could get some bigger stacks but that was mostly do to inducing people into making huge bluffs and not because there were two strong hands against each other.

Recently I had A 10 off and there was a huge crazy bluffer in the 50NL. I he 3 bet and I 4 bet to Isolate him while he was out of position. Flop came A 10 6 rainbow. Nice right, well I c bet he called, turn came a 10. I checked he checked. River came a brick I bet very small 1 4th pot cause I figured he would jam, this guy was a massive fish. The small bet made him Jam. Guess what he had 2 5 suited. He had NOTHING whatsoever, and that is the problem. I started to realize that the vast majority of my big wins were bluffs, and typically when I made a big hand my opponent had nothing. Stars can put out the right hand distributions over time, but what they do not look at is who gets what and win.

I got a USCF Expert rating at chess. I was a Lehigh U physics math major. I am NOT some fish complaining about bad beats. This is about getting nothing over a huge sample size.

 by Allen
USCF Chess Expert's thoughts on Poker Stars

I study poker 3 hours a day on average. I have a USCF Expert rating at chess. Over 2100. Forgive any typos I just woke up and did not get a lot of sleep, though why I am saying is very important as what I am saying is actually provable.

I am making NO complaints about bad beats here. The problem I have is that over 500,000 hands played at Poker Stars Cash games, I did NOT once have a single big upswing. There was an initial period where I had a few good days with upswings, but then it literally stopped for over 500,000 hands.

I was playing 30NL, 50NL and 100NL games, I can not speak for the higher stake games. I am an aggressive player, but the point here is that it does not matter if I am a great player or a fish.

There is no way I should have over a half million hands with NO heaters, NOT once did I get a 100BB stack over 200BBs.

I am a good hand reader and avoid a lot of coolers, that being

said I 3 bet light, I check raise bluff flops, with my draws, that hit my range hard. I isolation raise and am not afraid to jam when the math is right.

I am not talking about winning money or losing money here, I am talking about going over a half million hands with not one single upswing. I have read that Poker Stars tries to protect the fish from the sharks. Main reason is they do no not want the good players to win all the money and drive away the bad players who keep buying in new all the time. One of the reasons I gave the site so much of a chance is because I would see new players and fish make big stacks, 400 to 700 bbs and that made me happy because I thought it must be legit. Only problem is no matter how hard I tried I could not get a single stack over 200bbs. I play 6 to 8 tables on average and about 5000 hands per day. Over 40 months this comes to approx. 600,000 hands. I can only conclude that something is very wrong as this simply would not happen without some human intervention. I play very well, Poker Snowie ranks me between World Class and Extraterrestrial on big sample sizes. But this does not matter because both the worst and best players in the world would have some big stacks over a half million hand sample size. In fact they should have some big hands over a much smaller sample size. Poker Stars cash games play like a somewhat improved version of 3 6 limit. Improved because fish and maniacs will all in bluff sometimes.

That was another issue. I was making some money during the first 2 months of the pandemic shutdown. Though I realized it was not because of my hand vs my opponents hand very often but mostly when I induced people to make huge bluffs. Usually bet betting real small and pretending to be weak. The lack of strong hand vs strong hand was disconcerting. All too often it was a very strong hand vs a very weak hand.

Poker Stars Tournaments seem to play fine though. I made a lot of final tables and hit the bubble often. There are bad beats but they seem to work in an even way that is fair over time for the tournaments.

I am not complaining about bad beats. I am complaining about playing over 500,000 hands and not get one single heater or big upswing. Do to good hand reading skills I did not lose very much, but they made it so that I could not win much and would untimely lose slowly cause of rake. Against all very strong players that would not be unreasonable to expect, but here in the USA a lot of the players are bad. At least 15 percent to 30 percent.

Another issue I had was the casino free play. I played black jack with the free money they give you, and found that black jack was so easy to win with the free money, in fact I had to try to lose cause it was so boring. Of course when I switched to real money all a sudden winning at blackjack seemed impossible. Well it should be online and I expect to lose with black jack. That is why I do NOT play black jack normally.

But Poker Stars gave me this free play money, that you can not cash, you have to score points, anyway this happened on 3 occasions and each time it was clear that black jack was a give away with the free money and something really bad with real money. I did not lose much as I am not a gambler. I play plus EV plays. I gave poker stars a chance but with over 500,000 hands played at their cash games, while playing 6 to 8 tables, and not getting one 100 BB stack over 200BBs over 500,000 hands, there is something clearly wrong and that is also very easy proof that poker stars is doing something that can only be called cheating.

You will have a hell of a time proving rigged coolers and frankly a lot of people who complain about poker being rigged are in fact fish, but not everyone. Many good players notice something is off too, however the point here is that I went over 500,000 hands without even one big upswing. That can not happen random, that is human intervention for certain.

I was a math physics major, I have a USCF official Expert rating over 2100 so you are not talking to the average game player. I believe we should sue poker stars and they have no right to manipulate the cash games. Keep in mind that I do NOT believe that they are cheating at tournaments. The tournaments seem to play fair to me, but the cash games are playing similar to a slot machine but with no big jackpots.

Poker is poker and they think they are cleaver, however there is no answer whatsoever that can justify OVER 500,000 hands with NO big upswings at all. I am very angry about this.

 by Tye
Garbage Support Team

Im not impressed with pokerstars. Although the site is beautiful. Customer service/support is brutal! I emailed them 6 times and still no response! I never recieved the proper bonus i was expecting! When I finally did speak with someone about it, they did absolutely nothing for me! They get one star for a nice looking site! Other than that I was not impressed!

 by Wisconsin Poker Guy
Is PokerStars Rigged? 100%

Anyone who has played on this site for more then a few days will absolutely recognize this scenario:



You flop 2-pair on a uncoordinated board. You bet and maybe one other player raises. Maybe you end up re-raising and the other player goes all-in. Of course you call. When the cards are shown, the other player has 5/2 off-suit with no pair.... no draw... no nothing. What happens next? The turn and the river comes 5 and 5 and you lose to trip 5's.



I realize that their are stupid poker players out there in the real world, but NO PLAYER in their right mind would make that call. ZERO! It's almost as if they knew the turn & river would give them trips, right? Sarcasm definately intended.



I can't tell you how many times I've seen hands like this play out. The article above mentioned that "what PokerStars earns is based on the total pot no matter who wins it". THAT IS THE ABSOLUTE POINT. PokerStars is 100% absolutely using "bot" players to push the rake.



I also has issues getting money out of the site. Like many poker sites, getting money in is easy. Getting it out can be next to impossible. I'm done and I won't be going back. EVER!



Just as a final note, my friends and I labeled PokerStars "the place where two-pair go to die". It's funny because it's true.

 by Dan MacLeod
Disgusting

I am a retired poker dealer of many years and I refuse to accept their opinion of how the cards are dealt with an algorythm that is supposedly random. There is no way in hell that the flops of 2 and 1 come up that many times in a real game and the bad beats...just don't ask. This is a very disgusting site and the customer service...well in plain terms...really sucks big time. I honestly believe that they have so called "BOTS" being fictional players, just to line their own pockets. There is just no way that you can lose so many pots to random cards like that. I sure hope that the proper people do see this and take some kind of action, just to see for themselves...Too bad that we don't know who is the real culprit behind the doors of this scamming site...bastards...I won't be back...EVER!!!

 by Justin Tempore
Legitorscam is a Scam

PokerStars has significant problems with Customer Service and isn't doing the best job with this and deserves criticism. They also deserve criticism for how they handled dismantling their SuperNova scheme. However much of the above is fact-less garbage that ought to be ignored.



"Admittedly, there is some compelling video evidence on YouTube of sponsored PokerStars players beating the odds on multiple occasions" - This is written by someone who doesn't understand data. EVERY player "beats the odds" on multiple occasions. They aren't really "beating the odds" just experiencing standard statistical variation. PS' RNG (random number generator) is independently verified so perhaps check your facts before making silly assertions like this. Every poker site has lots of people complaining about bad beats as though the universe circles around them. It doesn't - every player gets them - you aren't special.



As someone who nearly lost a chunk of my bankroll when fulltilt went under, I was very glad that PokerStars paid me this when they bought the company. Ditto with PKR. That was around $7k that I would have lost to companies going bankrupt that PokerStars got back for me.



They are far from perfect and need to raise their game with CS but scam? Obviously not. PokerStars are now active in the US btw. PA, NJ and likely more states opening up soon as well.



So out of date - often inaccurate, poorly researched article above. Ignore and do your own research.

 by Kae-West
Contacted chat support

Absolutely terrible, no customer service, they wont even try to help with the smallest issue.. I am amazed that they are operating at all, and have learned to do more research before helping a company profit.

 by Peregrin Took
COVID Poker

I do not believe the site is rigged in regards to cheating because it makes no sense as previously stated by others. I do feel the "random card generator" algorithm is not what it should be and does not deliver cards with the percentages over the long hall of a dealer with a shuffle machine. Way too many bad beats regardless of which side of it you're on. Pocket Aces or Kings for example should win 80% & 70% of the time respectively when heads up. I could be wrong, but it sure doesn't seem as it plays out that way. Anyway, to me a mediocre poker experience, but no scam.

 by Azzuri2006
Scam

Same m.o. every time. I put money in and easily run it up to 3or 4 times my investment. Then it happens. You start to lose consistently. And not due to bad decisions , I’m talking horrific and absolutely blatant b.s losses. I love the believers who drank the cool aid , who try and spew the same crap. It’s not logical to assume that what all of us are experiencing is basic mathematics. After watching my account depleted repeatedly, I started to document my play. The one statistic , which is so glaring is this one. Over hundreds of hand i had AK hole cards 32 times. I have won 1 of those. 1 out of 32. And the losses are so laughable and obvious. Pocket deuces. Runner runner everything. River cards that have become predictable. Simply put if I can predict all my losses I should not be playing in this medium. It’s easy to say “ It only feels like the bad beats are more frequent because the automatic deal is so fast” or” we only remember the bad losses. “ that’s total b. s. If the percentage of winning certain hands is not the same on ps then it must be rigged. I am not a mathematician but you can’t fool everyone all the time and not be exposed.

 by Lenny

Last night i went on pokerstars and was pleased to find a $5 casino bonus and $5 in a chest that they gave for some error that had happened that week. I played for a while on a Caribbean poker table and got my balance up to $40 and at that point i left the site for the night. When I logged back in i had $5.41 and my casino "bonus" was back of course i sent in a complaint but im sure I probably wont hear anything for about a month like last time i had a complaint. Its bad enought that its possible to predict that its likely when playing to know almost every time what card will arrive to beat you so they can finish their dodgy tournaments quicker but now money is disappearing from my account its a complete scam .

 by JackSparrow
PS - and all other online poker clients

Rigged or not? Favor a player to win – or themselves to get rich?



All this talking about rigged poker clients. How, and if, a client is favoring players? Or give Aces or Kings way to often to whatever player, or never? I do not believe any clients to be rigged – like that. It would have been way to obvious. They wouldn’t last for a day out there. Thou, what I have been noticing; happening to myself, but also every other player at whatever table I’m at, in whatever client. Getting low in stack. Happens to everyone from time to time.



So, when you, or any other player, finding their self in early or middle position, action on that player, getting a “okay to show” hand (somewhere like a pocket par or any other combination giving a 50%+ chance of winning), and do so, there is almost always someone later at the table with a monster hand calling, and; also a bigger stack. Or the other way around; short stack player is getting a monster hand, only to find the dealer position, SB or BB having a hand like a low pair+, or any other hand giving them a okay pot-odds to call with. In both alternatives, the big stack seems to be the winner most of the times, no matter what two cards the players have. So goodbye to that torment for the low-stack player, and $$$ for the poker client in rake because the same player makes a buy-in in another tour, or a rebuy in the same.



So, I guess the real question to ask when considering if, and how, online poker clients are rigging their platforms, and how to do the correct analyze of all billion hands (and maybe getting on step closer be able to?), to disclose their scam, has to be;



*How often are short stack player placed in an early position with a “okay to show”-hand, only to find a player with bigger stack in later position calling with a monster. And is the outcome of this events, isolated, close to what is expected to be normal regularity?



*How often are short stack players given monster hands which is an obvious show, only to find a player in position; Button, Sb or Bb to have a hand giving them a good-pot odds, to call with. And is the outcome of this events, isolated, close to what is expected to normal regularity?



To make this a complete and fully good analyze, will be extremely complicated. I think first you have to see how often all combinations are given out. There I guess you’ll find it to be what is expected to normal regularity. Then all these hands must be looked at isolated for short stack VS big stack (or D, Sb, or BB) play. And on we go. All combinations can be given out “all over” to look normal. Thou, the majority of all these setups might be abnormal if you choose to look at them isolated on short stack play. We have all been short stack from time to time, and we have all experienced what I describe above, from both sides.



So, can it be that in total the dealing system is doing what everyone will expect from it, due to regularity and other statistics. All possible combinations are given as many times as expected. But if you choose to look at the players stack size and table position, and who they end up playing against that one “Double or nothing” hand, you might find irregularities.



All over a pocket pair will be given 1/217 hands. And for any pair combination to appear five times 1085 hands need to be given. Here, if you can find pocket pairs these to appear 3 out of 5 times to short stack players there might just be a reason to question this. Because there is a lot more players playing average stack, then there are players playing short stack. Put a small pair to short stack, and a big pair to monster stack, and the client have just given out two pocket pairs. Then, they only need to NOT give any pocket pair for the next 432 hands. If they do this all over, in more than a billion hands, no one will ever notice the scam, because the statistic shows the system have been dealing out two pocket pair over 434 hands. Which is just what to expect.



And from here you can begin doing all the highly advance mathematical calculations to look at all given hands, and expected outcomes, including consider stack sizes and table positions. Thou, it isn’t for me to do; I just don’t have the computer capacity required for such a big task. So, I find it easier to just avoid playing AQ from UTG+ when I’m short stack.

And;



This is not a conspiracy, it’s just me thinking out loud. Why? In the end, the only concern all online poker clients have, like all other gambling sites, are making big money. And yes, they will sure make a lot of cash with truly random card generation system, but; a hidden system made for speeding up all torments, and getting short stack players out ASAP will make them a lot more money through all the fee’s we give them when we buy our self a place in the next tournament; the one where we just hope we might be the lucky one who’s dodging the killing bullet from the “random” card generator.



Good luck out there! 🙂

 by Alex
Tutto truccato. Non giocate a soldi.

Quello che mi da tanto fastidio che come fanno le persone andare all in con 34 off suited contro otto persone e consapevole di vincere comunque. In realtà nessun farebbe una cosa del genere contro 8 persone a tavola. Perché l’inizio è stato così. Si ho scritto vincere comunque. Perché è proprio così. Il bello che ho fatto screenshot e ho le prove. Peccato che non si possono allegare le immagini. Il bello arriva dopo. La stessa persona di all in 34 off suited che si fa chiamare matte629 il suo nickname giocava e le vinceva tutte. Andando spesso all in addirittura contro due persone. Non mi sono accorto solo io se ne accorto anche un’altra persona che ha scritto nella chat di questa cosa “ogni puntata risulta vincente “. Giocava (spesso andando all in) e la vinceva tutte. Per fortuna ho messo pochi spiccioli per questo gioco. Un altra cosa scandalosa ho fatto caso che i chip leader sono favoriti nelle vittorie. Appare sempre magicamente la loro carta vincente al river. Che probabilità c’è che al flop escono due volte in modo consecutivo le stesse due carte e dello stesso seme? Si escono le stesse due carte e dello stesso seme al flop due volte consecutivamente.

 by Blake Dauber
Blake

I had a very interesting run with Pokerstars PA. I have been playing live poker for 30+ years. I am definitely not the best player in the world but I can certainly hold me own. I primarily play cash games at several local casinos about once every month. While stuck inside with this virus nonsense I decided to sign up for some online poker through the pokerstars Pennsylvania site.

I put somewhere around a couple hundred dollars into my account and started playing some small stakes cash games. Over the course of a couple weeks, I did ok but mostly just broke even to a little down. Noticed some bad beats but didn't think much of it since bad beats are a regular part of the game.. You get some and you give some.



My strange experience all started when I began playing the tournaments. I played in 5 or so tourney's and didn't do terrible but never really placed either. These tourney's ranged from 350-750 players with $3-$5 buy ins. Then, all of the sudden I started getting crazy cards.. I was hitting flops like crazy and when I wasn't the best hand, I would make some crazy pulls on turn and river, sometimes both... If I had an AKO, I pulled an A or K nonstop.. If I had a J3O, I would play it and pull J33 on flop. Crazy....

Since I have been playing cards for a long time, if I get cards I can easily win cash games and tourney's all day long... During a span of about 10 days ending on Thursday April 23, I ran a ~$100 account to $1166 playing $3, $5, and $10 tourney's only. I won 2 $5 tourneys with between 445-670 players and came in the top 10 of 3 others. Won a $3 bounty tourney and came in second i n another. Came in second and fifth in 2 $10 tourneys with one having over 700 players.



Well as you can imagine, I was flying high!!!! Everything was falling for me and I felt like I was the best player in the room during every single tourney I entered.



Fast forward to 3 days later on Sunday April 27 (tonight)... I have played in dozens of tourneys in the past few days with buy ins between $3 and $30. The best I have been able to finish in any of the last 3 days of tourneys is break even (depending on the size of tourney, that means finishing anywhere from 70-130...

I have been so cold that I have been playing super tight to try to turn things around. So far, that is not working either since I am literally blinding out to the point where I have to shoot the moon only to get beaten by any number of hands. I have had more bad (and I mean some terrible) beats in the last 3 days than I can remember in the last 15 years.

My account is now down to just under $700 and I just withdrew $600 and left some playing money in the account for shits and giggles.



I have one last interesting tidbit. After getting torn up in many tourney's this weekend, I decided to play a small cash game. The first hand I was dealt when I entered the cash game was 3-5 suited on the button. I checked and the flop was 333.. Total BS... I have been playing for 3 decades and never have seen anything like that before. To top it off, the player to the left of me has second nuts and lost the maximum. Happy I won but c'mon, that is fishy to say the least.

Pokerstars feels more like an online casino than a legit poker room with above the board poker odds.



They are definitely using some crazy algorithms to goose the pots.



DO NOT PUT SERIOUS MONEY INTO THIS SITE. PLAY LIVE POKER AND STAY AWAY!!

 by Jason

Why do bad players always insist a Poker client is rigged?



I've played 100's of thousands if not a million+ hands on pokerstars.



It's not rigged, it makes no sense that it'd be rigged, Pokerstars would have nothing to gain and everything to lose.



Just accept that you're bad at poker if you can't win, or that you don't understand variance.



I've lost 4 higher pair vs lower pair hands (all in preflop)in a row, and still continued to have a winning session.



There's thousands of pros with hand histories in the 100 thousands and million who can confirm that 'what happens in reality' is very close to expected returns with their fancy graphs.



I got pocket 3's two hands in a row. That only happens 1 in 49284 times!! RIGGED!!



Morons.

 by Mike
Poker Star è una truffa

Se vuoi farti truffare i tuoi soldi gioca in Poker Stars. Il gioco è chiaramente preordinato a favore di alcuni giocatori quasi sempre canadesi e di random non c'è niente. È una truffa organizzata. Speriano che li arrestino

 by Paul
SCAM

Pokerstars is rigged and pokerstars vr is even worse !!



HAND ONE - AA lose to runner runner straight

HAND TWO - J10 flop J4J lose to river fullhouse

HAND THREE - A4 flop AAK lose to runner runnner flush



This is complete junk !!



Pokerstars creates "Action Hands" where they make everyone think they have the nuts so everyone will bet,raise and call to make the pot bigger and bigger resulting in a larger rake, this is the ONLY reason why pokerstars rigs games....to make the pot as big as possible so they can take more rake.



If this wasnt rigged and normal play then the rake would be "Standard" on every hand (Say the rake would be $1 on all hands for 50 hands then that would be $50, but if they "rig" the game to make the pot massive say the rake would then be $20 so over 50 hands the rake is $1000 !

 by JM
Jokerstars

I played on FT Poker back before it was banned on Black Friday 2011. I turned 0 dollars to 1200 playing mostly 9 person S&G, 2 dollar games. The math ran within 1% of all situations on a huge database of hands I had amassed. It took me 4 years to get my money, but I finally did. I can only play FT poker now for play chips. I no longer have access to HH's, and the "hands" feature which shows all your played hands no longer works either. I've sent many e-mails but only get a "were getting to many e-mails to answer yours" reply every time. The math doesn't run right at all anymore. I don't believe the old owners of FT poker were crooked, because the site had a true random RNG. Why would a crook run a fair random deal? I believe Jokerstars set up FT Poker to go down. Because back then, all your top name players were on FT Poker, not Jokerstars. The biggest top name pro they ever had, Daniel N., has even quit the site.

 by david
casino scam

As we all know pokerstars poker hands are seriously rigged. But there casino is worse. I spent over $5000 playing their kong megaways machine and didn't get the free spins bonus once. It has to be illegal,, but what can I do. I have played hundreds of other casinos online, and I am not saying that you win every time.. but you certainly get a bonus once in a while. I kept playing day after day.. I would say no less than 100,000 spins (playing $1 a go)and not 1 bonus. This company should be banned.

 by Pokerdude
Casino Royale

The gameplay is not a good representation of real poker. It rewards poor decision making by making every turn and river card a runner-runner shitshow. Bots galore and predetermined winners

 by brian
this is basically theft.

Beware of going anywhere near this often highly lauded site.they advertise a 1 million tournament to get you interested .They have no interest in you whatsoever once you sign up.They let you deposit and then freeze your account.Then they ignore you for as long as they can.The next delay tactic is to ask you to verify you are who you say you are for security/money laundering etc.Their next move is you can only send the aforementioned documentation passport id,utility bill etc through to them by going to a page on your account but the thing is you cant log in because your account is frozen for security reasons.Hence they keep your funds hoping you get so frustrated that you just go away.I must say that in all my years i have never experienced such bad customer service.And finally it is very hard to get any of the governing bodies to listen to you as their legal team have the company set up in away that there are layers and layers of protection for them.AVOID UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOSE YOUR FUNDS THAT'S IF YOU GET TO USE THEM. i joined on 17/3/20 and got to play for 10 mins then my account was frozen they owe me £120.00 which i will get back but when ,your guess is as good as mine.DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THESE FRAUDSTERS.

 by Juice
Listen to everyone here. This is rigged!

I started playing online poker since the Coronavirus started just to pass time and instantly became addicted. I was winning crazy hands (For example, going all-in on the flop, having only a 5% chance to win on the turn but end up winning on the river anyway.) Needless to say, I thought I had this whole poker thing down. Eventually, as time passed I became the player at the end of a lot of bad beats and terrible hands. Every time I would lose my money, I would redeposit thinking I'm a smarter and more strategic player.



Nooooope. Lol there's no amount of understanding for the game of poker that can prepare you for players who goes all-in with a 76 different suits to your pocket jacks....and then that player getting a straight on the river.



After having played on PokerStars for about 2 weeks now its blatantly obvious that this site profits off giving players crazy wins on the river to feed their rush and excitement for the game.

This quote taken from another review perfectly illustrates why they rig hands.



"Poker Stars, along with their flops that suck 3+ players into the mix on the flop only to create improbable and unexpected results by the river is a study in abusing algorithms to take advantage of human greed and impulsiveness. Poker is tapping into our dopamine receptors in the first place and the 5 card set ups are just elevating that scenario to the next level."



To Summarize,



-They let newcomers win crazy and big hands to get them hooked.

-After they realize you're a big depositor they make it extremely difficult for you to win big hands.

-They rig hands to make the river card a huge deciding factor.

-You're probably playing against bots.

-A lot of other reviews point out the really suspicious card dealing so give those a read as well.



Please stay away from online poker. From one degenerate to another.

 by Sharon
you can't get ahead

They gave me a surprise of 3 billion chips about a year ago but no matter how careful I played I kept going down. I now play 500k games and it is rare for a spin and go to pay out even money for the 3 players in the game, frequently it is 750k pay out and it is extremely rare to get even 1.5 million let alone anything more than that. Players ARE BUYING chips at an outrageous price with a certain guaranty they will lose it all no matter how good a player they are. I would say that 90% of the time you will be rivered if you have the best hand going in. I don't play anything that is time consuming so my opinion is based on SPIN AND GO.

 by Freddiefish
SCAM!

Ive done analytics on stars for 5+ years and its a total scam, rigged with bots and insane odds and %. All other sites ive played seems more legit, but its impossible to prove this. I would say, online poker is great! Just play somewhere else than Pokerstars

 by Roos
Expose Pokerstars

Hi Steve (and of course anyone who reads this),



Thank you for your reply 😊

From the second until the 16th of februari 2020 so the past 2 weeks, Pokerstars presented the Bounty Builder Series. Of course I've played and more than usual, mostly in win a ticket tourneys because who doesn't want to win huge prizes that often were above €10k up to even €180k (in the last Bounty Builder Series tourney that was playing last night because it was a 2day event, entry costed €530,00 and 2 re entries available) I know I do.



Although I was playing all the time I was awake, I just won 12 tickets and overal won peanuts (so those 2 weeks cost me a lot of money). What occurred to me, is that I did win a nice amount of money at the start in a 2days event too, looking back on it, I clearly see the manipulation of it, just like in the win a ticket scam, one of the times I've tried 3 times to win a ticket through a shootout where 16 players start with 500chips and each time I ended up closer to the ticket. Usually I was just a sponsor in rebuy tourneys (a player said that when he thought I was gone after being kicked out without a ticket ofcourse), from the 12 tickets I did win, a few were paid already through the many rebuys and some at least half of the entry prize, I felt cheated many times, especially because every entrance with a ticket, I was out really soon (within two to twenty pots, most other ticketplayers finished before reaching the money too), but never got a real chance to build a big stack because of mostly shithands and no match with any playable hand. Did see best match with donkhands like 2 and 8o that I folded though, happened often, that's why I played those too when my stack could afford it but as usual no match of course (only when I folded them). Same counts for gambling for a straight/flush, opponent got them all the time which made me lose big time (broke my stack) or kicked me out of the tourney, if I tried the same, 9 out of 10 times no straight/flush and same counts for getting best match on turn or river, opponents get it all the time, I usually get shit.



Could be that I am bad at playing poker, pokerstars made me feel like I truly am a bad pokerplayer many times, almost brainwashed me with their mindfuck, but then I wouldn't be able to win any tourney, would I? Well, once in awhile I do, at least did, but always cheap tourneys, the 6+ for instance where first prize is around $20,00 and several tickets (2 days in a row ended up first place so not let's say 50 tickets all 50 players first place, I was really flabbergasted because usually when I won peanuts in any other tourney, I wouldn't get itm anymore for quite awhile. Once (a few months ago) I also ended up third place in the $7,50 tourney (that daily starts around 23.15cet), don't ask me how because my way of play is solid, whenever I win, I just get best match after best match, it takes no effort at all.



Another thing that stroke me (eversince I started to find out what I am doing wrong or should change in my way of play), is that players from the same countries usually win the big(ger) tourneys, Brazil and Russia mostly, several people replied that it's because those are the biggest countries so most players at pokerstars, that they play the most hands (I do too so can't be a reason), after I said that in chat, suddenly other countries ended up first place, several times even dutch players (I often missed them at ft so I started marking them with a colour), it might be coincidence but I know that pokerstars do follow chats, as a coworker said himself last night at ft when a player asked him if he follows his great play at his table, he most probably was just joking but I'm sure the co worker was not. Their own pokerstarspro L. Veldhuis won (during the Bounty Builder Series) peanuts too btw while another (Dutch) player won in one night (in 6 tourneys) around $30k, cashed one time big by winning a tourney but won money in all 6 tourneys he was playing in (even if it was just bounty money), I saw him cashing a lot, winning tickets too, before that day and after too. I have played multiple tourneys too at the same time but never ever cashed in several of them and how the heck is it possible that even a (their own) pokerpro loses so many times, is pokerstars trying to prove that their system is honest, that dealed hands are random, because his play is as bad 😉 as mine, how the heck is it possible that I am not a pokerpro (because I would love to play poker (in big tourneys) all day!



1 time saw a poor player winning a (big event) tourney that was (according to someone that watched him play) life changing for him, first prize was around $100k, that person told me that the winners biggest win ever before, was $130,00, it gave me hope but eversince, (I check it and) it looks like only wealthy players end up at ft and/or win big tourneys, the way they chat on ft, tells me that it's nice to win such tourneys but just more as in just for fun than lifechanging and that a player with an average income, rarely can even enter a $215,00, $530,00 or even $2.100,00 tourney (2 or 3 times). I know that they all are not billionares (because such people usually are too busy counting their money so don't play poker) but they do have a real nice amount of money in their bankaccount, otherwise they would be too excited too just chitchat as if ending up 9, 8 or 7th place would make no real difference, of course they want to end up first place, but has more to do with their ego, wanting to be (seen as) the best instead of being able to realize things that one never thought would be able too.



Playing poker is easy, especially because as a kid I've played yahtzee really a lot, when flop hits the board, I don't have to think or look what (chance) I have that is written on the screen, I immediately know what I need and about how many outs I have, when I need runner runner, I usually fold whenever an opponent bets/raises too much, I hardly ever put my stack at stake, only when I've been fighting against all odds for too long already so when it's clear that I would bleed to death if I don't play at all because of getting too many shithands and everytime I'm out immediately which doesn't surprise me at all because obviously it was meant that way. After the first 10 hands in any tourney, I know if I stand a chance to reach at least itm. Bluffing does work and can make a (big) change but never ever is enough to reach itm or even win a tourney (especially because of so many donkplayers in any tournament, even in the expensive ones and especially during events), only enough best matches can make it possible.

At pokerstars it's not about being lucky because the system deals randomly (as if owners of pokerstars don't have any influence), at pokerstars it's all about being 'lucky' that a player is not put on a loserlist, that's the only reason of not being allowed to change pokername (or just once when using a real name), players change tables often or when for awhile on the same table, other players come and go all the time, so pokerstars reason to forbid changing pokernames because it wouldn't be honest considering that players start knowing eachothers way of play, is bs too because players hardly get a chance to really know the way their opponents play, too many players, too often changing tables/seats. Only thing that players do recognize, is playersnames when they play/win often but nobody knows how they do it, they're just lucky they say. Whenever I started chatting with another player about pokerstars being rigged, suddenly tables change or other player gets moved too btw, also I saw the opponent that agrees with me, suddenly start having bad luck while before he was doing alright or even already builded a quite big stack, always felt sorry for the player/even regretted that I started talking about it, but that's prove too (at least for me because it happened almost everytime so is too often to be a coincidence).



I could add more but think it's a lot already (for now) so I won't but I do add my emailadres because I think it's easier to reply to than at this website (which I think is a wonderful one because it gives anyone a chance to say what they think about pokerstars). If it's not allowed to share emailadresses, I think it's a shame and weird, but in that case, take it out and post the story as told without emailadress, thank you!



durftedromen@live.nl

 by Steve
Big Pots

Don't know if rigged is correct. With no concrete proof, only observation, it seems to me Poker Starts is definitely invested in putting a lot of big hands together so as to increase pot size. I also see what looks like an over abundance of big hands(4 of a kind, etc.). See a lot of players sticking and hitting the river but could be attributed to PS is free, doesn't actually cost anything to go all in,



Just perspective.

 by Roos
Expose Pokerstars

I am playing for about 1,5 year at pokerstars now andI think they've put me on a black list or so because (in chat I say that pokerstars is rigged as hell, that they are thieves and even told them that they must be criminal through mail so) lately I even can't win a ticket anymore because I mostly get just shit(matches) and bad beats. AA,KK,QQ,JJ,AK,AQ and smaller pairs, 9 out of 10 times, get beaten by shithands (usually played by russian or brazillian players). At the same time I see same players win tickets and real nice prizes at tourneys while if I get itm, again and again I win just peanuts (considering amount of money that I've already spend there), from the once in awhile's that I get itm, I usually am kicked out before the next stage of winning a few dollars more.



I keep playing there only to add prove to already thousands of screenshots I already have and emails too because I think that we should really expose that huge criminal organisation! Are there more people that want to do what's right? Somebody got to expose them and the more people (with or without prove), the easier it will be to prove that Pokerstars is a huge scam!!



People that want to help (with ideas and/or prove) to expose Pokerstars, are very welcome to react to this post. Thank you!

 by Pokernico
Legalized thiefs

There´s a big mistake in this article, this one:



"The revenues that PokerStars earns is based on the total pot no matter who wins it"



That's not true, pokerstars earns money from every buy-in through a fee.



So, the main interest for pokerstars is:



1)to have as much people as posible playing on the platform

2)to speed up games



To have as much people as possible, pokerstars needs to balance wins/losses between players, this means that even donks have to win because if they never win they will leave the platform.



So, instead of having 1 good player winning 1000usd and a donk losing 1000usd, they prefer to have 2 players in the same situation.



To increase earnings, they also need to speed up the game, because if you play 2 sit&go in 1 hour instead of 1 sit&go, they will make the doublé of money through your fee.



That's why, for example, 6 people tables sit&go always last about 1 hour, so strange that the game never allow it to last 2 or 3 hours right?



PS also use the "maximum bet opportunity" strategy, it's very easy to give hands that will end in all-in and fast eliminations of players.



The supposed random is a contradiction itself, as result of a mathematial process, it will never be a real random, and, most important, is very easy (for them) to control it.



So, for all the people who says "there's no reason for PS to rig the game" well, they have a lot of reasons to do that, but mainly is just one: money



PS is clearly rigged and there's no doubt about it.

 by Lachaz
I agree

Im on a two day run of about 25 bad beats in a row. Im talking AA or KK beat by 33, J3 suited etc. Runner runner constantly. I understand bad beats happen, but this site is 100% fraudulent. Ive been playing online poker for 13 years, and ive never seen a site where bad beats are beyond common. Constant 4 card flush and 4 card straight boards. Fish constantly rewarded, worst hand wins about 85% of the time. You see 4 all ins AA, KK, AK and Q7 and the Q7 wins about 9 out of 10. This site is a joke.

 by Disappointed bigtime
Three years of losing -play money! is enough

I once made the mistake of e-mailing PS to question their claim of random dealing. They wrote back and said I must never contact them again about this. (Sounded like they are well aware of their evil methods.) Ever since then I easily determined that I was placed on a 'guaranteed loser' computer list. No matter what my cards are, or what style I play, I lose 95% of the hands & games. The board cards are so unrandom as to be ridiculous. Four and five card straights & flushes, sets & quads. Of course nothing in my hand is helped by the board. I just gave up, watching my opponents (mostly the Russians) hit every hand. You can't beat a game when the dealer has their thumb on the scale.

(One example - I am dealt 7-2 offsuit as many as 5 times in a single game, and no less than twice in every game I've ever played. Mostly in the big blind. I kept track of this for a while but stopped when it was obvious.)

 by ruby
scam

total scam site , and anyone that thinks they do not benefit from shafting players is wrong , simply put , more games per day equals more rake earned by the company also they use bots to increase their revenue , even Daniel negranue left the site , try and you'll see .. river river river , absolute joke site , save your money and time ..

 by Helen
Coincidence

Is it coincide that two of the people who were involved with Poker stars as directors/advisors are now on the board of directors at LottoGo,based in the isle of man under Annexio. Another site that is heavily critized.

 by Empty pockets
Dont deposit any money on this site

Yes yes yes .... its rigged!! all electronic gambling using rng or algorithms to achieve an outcome is rigged in the programming/ coding gambling is about luck and skill unfortunately both can be programmed against people needbto realise computers programmes can only do what people programme them what to do so if they want to select lucky or bad players they can easily mark accounts simple token process , you can put in programs to help new/fish/bad players , you can write programs to fix cards -action flops etc , you can write a program to ensure profit in a set time for the house basically you can do anything within the boundaries of coding any fail safe you like .... seriously no one is governing this factor its classed about the randomness but how random is it ?? Only as random as the programmer wrote the code meaning it could be random but only within a range and certain factors could change the outcome ie to make it random- but really in the inner workings of the rng its not so stay away from any electronic gambling us its for fun and dont expect to make money they are rigged they are there to make money and only have to make basic requirements for local gambling laws ie why most are off shore



In short the house always wins overall mainly because people cnt stop and they want to win money and I don't blame them we live in a materialistic world and most gambling involves someone,something else or luck really to win (football,horse,dogs,roulette etc) but poker is about skill as well as luck but when your dealing with a computer programme to basically deliver you a fair outcome you dont have a chance and im sure ive read before pokerstar programme doesn't even have the full amount of possible outcomes in the coding



And finally pokerstars needs money,it needs players adding real cash (it not about rakes -thats just its running money) it need outside cash coming in all the time so really it wants losers and not winners

So losing steaks can be programmed almost everything you do can be tracked and manipulated by computer programs on pokerstars so seeing all these actually poker players complain and seeing it myself (and i played real poker for 25+ year , 8 yrs online on n off for fun - due to it being rigged) it just confirms more and more that its a con and new players are set to win some ,feel the buzz then lose and deposit but there winning comes at a cost to regular players and they are forced to deposit

If the newbies got smash straight away they wouldn't come back or make more deposits thats a fact



We have two side it can and look like this site is rigged



1. The actual games and outcomes are rigged in a way to class as random and in such a way it passes as legitimate gameplay (god knows where)



2. Players accounts are manipulated by skill level ,behaviours,bankroll,playing time



All can have computer programmes deciding predictions and outcomes in favour or against (again if you didnt understand anything can be programmed the code just doesn't make itself someone has to sit there and type it in ,they can add anything even make it undetectable)



Im not an upset player from bad beats yeh ive had them but im good player i lost more on the casino than the poker table i usually make final tables



Just stay away from adding any big money and play for fun



Ive lost money the hard way dont do the same!!



Electronic gambling is a complete fraud



Oh and i have a degree in computing and can write code and know whats possible and you speak of Russians yeh they probably know the computer programming coding and id say pokerstars has bots anyway playing to boost player numbers (and i guess as long as they dont win money they probably legal - i dont know about really that just wouldn't put it past them its possible)



Just dont deposit if you can and play for fun its not a legitimate site and thats the truth

 by Anonymous
Introduction to Rape City

What to expect on PS one might wonder ? You see all these pros endorsing their business and you think it's the perfect place to make millions online. So you join their site, thinking that is legit and truly, but truly random, after all, this must be a legit business, one may think.



For starters, there are two types of players : The fish and the shark. As it's a zero-sum game, there are no in-betweens, one gains what others loose. By fish we define a player who plays chaotic in various situations, mostly showing with less than 40% chances of winning the hand at showdown. By shark we define a player who simply has the fold button in right situations and is not afraid to push his equity all in with small pairs, or make great calls at times (with middle/bottom pair).

NOTE: All sharks do fishy plays from time to time ! Especially online . Since it's 2019 already, it's about 'balancing' your fishing range in position and whatnot. *enough high-end disclosures for now*



So one deposits 10 or 20 or 50 or whatever amount of money they afford to invest at that time. (If you were to run PS and have 100 users joining today, which side of variance would you send them to ?)



Depending on your initial investment, you'll see your bankroll growing quickly during your first sessions.Let's say you double your roll in a matter of days. It gets to the point you start to feel confident about yourself so you decide to play more.But then, all of a sudden, you lose your initial deposit and think it must be the fact that you're still..inexperienced at the game itself. So you deposit again,...and again,...and again to a point where you stop your losses and you become a somewhat more advanced player( simply by playing more and accumulating experience)



This is what happens to every single amateur playing online at Pokerstars. And there's Luck. One gambler can say his gambling career was a success if good luck overpasses bad luck in the long run of his life.



Then we have the sharks, people that know what they're doing in general and have specific tactics for multiple situations.



So we have the fishes and the sharks all set-up in a gambling online environment. In an online business environment. The word business is key here because businesses tend to maximize profits while diminishing costs.



The word business is described as a settle between two or more parts, in which everyone takes a fair share. So for pokerstars to be a successful company, it needs their clients to make money.



Poker is a niche area, in which 80-90% of players are losing and only the few remaining are winning. And that's why is the perfect scene for online businesses to try and maximize their profits.



Let's take cash games out of the question, since the reason why one would rig/manipulate it is easy to spot. (MORE RAKE IS ACTUALLY BETTER IN 2019, so they say)



Let's only speak about MTTs. It's curios how low-stakes tourneys take so little time to get to the last 50 people out of 4/6/8 Thousands!. One may think it's natural but if one could see all the busting hands from a single tournament, then it will become obvious to see the shady patterns going on.



We all know the probability of a fish beating the shark but what happens when the shark meets another shark ?? This is where things get interesting, because we're talking about 2 solid players going after each other. You might not even be a shark yourself, just playing tight for a couple of orbits, then you see all these high pairs being dealt. At the exact same time.

You're sitting with red Queens,a Q and a Q, one shoves in front of you with Jacks, which causes excitement as you see an opportunity and the big blind wakes up behind with pocket Kings.



You as a shark feel excited at first, then completely disgusted to see the scenario for your Queens.



It really doesn't matter what the flop may come, it's absurd and utterly ridiculous to bait players out like this. It can happen from time to time, sure, but on pokerstars it happens way too often. Even if your red Queens do get there vs JJ and KK, you feel miserable for being in a bad spot in the first place !

But don't worry, you won't get the opportunity to feel "miserable" on sucking out some random dude because you won't get there.





In 2019, people on pokerstars are playing the software, not their cards nor the player. You often see rags at showdown shoving from UTG and guess what, the timing was right ! their 83 held against your AK! their J9o cracked your pair of tens ! Sure, the best hand doesn't win all the time, but this happens hours in after the tourney started. We have players that are playing the software somehow knowing what kind of cards are coming .



You all may be familiarized with the concept of so called Random Neuropshycotic Generator. No program which is made by man and uses algorhythms to create randomness can be truly random.



On pokerstars, sth + sth creates randomness. That 2nd something is called user input. Pokerstars officials state that these inputs CAN and WILL change the turn and river cards.



Let me translate this for your: It's like you make a bad play shoving Ace Six from Utg BUUUUT if you press your mousewheel SKILLFUL enough, you will beat the Kings that called you. I mean cmon this is outrageous.



Let's play live poker and whoever snorts the most cocaine after the flop is dealt, will get access to turn and river magic cards. Back when i learned the basics of poker, i didn't know there is a trick i could to with my mouse to improve my statistical chances of winning a hand.



So what may one understand after reading a long and unbiased review?



Well you could definitely understand that it is rigged against you. Either you're a shark or a complete amateur. It's rigged to create the illusion that you can win, at first, then it bounces right back to reality, only to care about your depositing profile. If the sharks won most of the money, then the money would be drawn from the site, which would cause a decrease in rake-generating process across site.



It is designed to reward bad plays and bad players. That's why consistent winning players struggle to get to a single final table in MTTs.



I like to think at it as a psychological warfare. The software is designed to encourage bad plays and if you miss your spot with a marginal hand, you're pretty much fucked the rest of the tourney. Software detects you are not being aggro enough and adapts to your playstyle. Couple of hands later you are dealt red Queens as in the situation described before. And yet, is the human greed which brings us back to their tables, thinking something has dramatically changed and good decision will pay in the long run.



Well some things did change and apparently, in 2019, MORE RAKE IS BETTER. Yeah i get it, but better for who ? Better for the players that are still loosers but have a somewhat smaller loss, better for the players who were struggling to get out of break-even runbad or for that one almight who has already crushed the games and now is crushing even harder ?



Be smart, don't try to be greedier than pokerstars, cause if you do so, they'll outsmart you in the end with their so called Random Carrots Shoving Up your Ass.



Don't waste your life chasing 1-2-3k a month on this greasy algorhythm, it will get you in the end.



Unless you like being bend-over, stay away ! Show this message to others and let them know what to expect !

Peace out

 by Anonymous
Many doubts

1-I've read about a reccurent fact: new players (who put their money for the first time on the site) would win their first tournament, or players who make a long pause (several months) would win a tournament when they come back. I confirm that point, that's what has happened to me, first time and everytime I came back to the site.

2-Other thing: I played blackjack on their casino. What happened to me was possible, just as possible as me winning the lottery (that's why I do have doubts). I played with the following strategy: 1€ each bet. If I win I bet 1€, if I lose I bet 2€, if I lose again, I bet the double again: 4€, etc. That strategy makes you win 1€ each time (when you win and when you win after X losses): +1€ or -1+2 or -1-2+4 etc. You play like this in a casino, you´re forbidden for life. So it worked after hundred of hands, even thousands. However, at no point, would I have more than 4 wins in a row. But 20 losses in a row, yes, and that happened 3 times. It's mathematiclly possible, however extremely rare. My opinion was ok, they have a formula on this to make the player lose. I got back to my poker, and from that very date I keep losing, lower hands keep beating me. Possible colors against me always (100%) get the color at the river. Straight the same. The other player makes a stupid call on the flop, he gets his cards on the turn+river. If I win a difficult hand, the very next one (AA vs 82)will kill me. I cannot win a hand like I used to for more than 15 years! I used to have a slow increasing winning curve, but since the blackjack thing, forget it. I guess the site has an interest on this: 100% profit on the casino vs 6% on the poker. As soon as they see you losing some money on the casino, they make you lose the poker everyday thinking the guy is going to go back right away on the casino to lose more.

3-I keep seeing the following: SB (chip leader or almost) BB (very few chips left), only those two are going, well, no matter what the BB does: just call, raise, all in, he gets top pair on the flop and loses vs double pair on the flop.

 by Ronnie Allen
play money games are rigged

I can't speak for the real money part of the Poker Stars but I can on the play money part. I have been playing here for over two years now and I have kept logs. Going for over 372 blinds without a pair doesn't even happen in live poker. I have had this happen several times over the two years with the longest streak at just over 387 hands and the average at over 200 plus. Also getting beat on the river over one to two dozen times in a row on several occasions and three times by the same player. This mainly happens on Zoom poker but has also happened on KO tournaments and in regular tournaments. I know this is a play money site but the odds of these things happening this many times in a row has to be astronomical. When you have pocket aces and are all in and someone calls with J 8 off suit and hits a full house on the river on you its a bad beat. If the same player does this to you on several hands in an hour then I say that the player in question has to be a bot or part of the Poker Stars site. Would like to know if others have dealt with the same issues.

 by Anomous
missing chips

I have four people in my family right here in my home that play on pokerstars. I had almost three million in chips and my husband had almost six million is his and my daughters has far less but my husband I both buy ships. We were logging in each day and topping of our chips and each time we did we checked to see how much we had in play chips. Then one day we logged as usual and all four of us had way less then we had the day before. I only had a million and something left and my husband had around three hundred thousand left it all and each of my daughters had a lot less as well. When we wrote them about it they said the chips were put in our accounts by mistake which is a lie. We use to like playing poker there but not anymore. Now they will not answer at all when we email them. What can we do?

 by Jay
100% theifs and scammers...day light robbery

100% theifs and scammers...everyone knows and see’s all the scammingg poker stars does over and over



1) favours chip leaders

2) favours sponsered pros

3) sets up big hands against big hands

4) bad beats and sickest beats which you never see on other sites or pive

5) ignores emails

6) no phone number

7) usa frauds and full tilt theft

8) steals money from accounts and uses for own personal benefits

9) once you withdraw gives you more sicm beats after sicks beats

10) having there licenses of shore



Sooo much more...this site is day light robberry us fools keep giving them money for free and they have got us right where they want us...they know we all want to win money...win big...have emotions and tilt ...one day they will be caught and i really cant wait!!!



Why is the goverment not doing anything? Why are they getting away with such oubvious fraud



How are they fooling soooo many millions of people

 by hooray m
scam, bad faith!

Yes, pokerstars is a scam!

Now they also display games in the wrong area, to trick you to spend more $ than you want. I selected I only want to play free or micro buy-in games, an they display expensive games mixed in there, with the same name as free games, written in the area of the free games, with the same color, same font, same size. You'd never know it's not free!! They charged me a fortune for a stupid game I thought was free 'cause I selected I wanted to play ONLY free and micro buy-in games!!! That's bad faith! That's a scam!

 by Jank Sinatra
paired boards and flops

I've noticed within the passed, 2 months, a dramatic change in flop/board variance in general.



I realized that I had just witnessed the 4th flop in a row where all three community cards were the same suit. I thought to myself...how the fu.....?



I play live NLHE twice a week as I have for nearly a decade. It is very rare that you see 3 of the same suit come down on the flop. Does it happen? Sure. But 4x in tournament, no, let alone 4x in a row?



Then I noticed another strange occurrence. It seemed like I saw a paired board on every other hand. Again not an impossible thing to see but not a regular occurrence either, by any stretch.



Then I kept noticing those two variances were happening constantly, during every tournament I was playing. It got so bad that I started logging how often I saw the, "flush flop", (as I've been calling them), and the "paired board" as well. Over the course of a 66 hand MTT 43 of those hands were either a "flush flop" (flop consisting of 3 cards all of the same suit) or a "paired board" (a pair of any of the cards occurs through either the flop, turn or river). That's almost exactly two thirds of the hands dealt. 25 of those hands were "paired boards" and 18 were "flush flops".



If you've noticed similar activity. You're not crazy. PS is engineering hands for action.

 by phil
deposit scam

I recently join pokerstars made a deposit and suddenly after about a hour they suspended my account for banking detail problems, they said it would be very quick maybe only minutes. But it has now been 8 days they do not answer any emails and I can not withdraw my funds. I think this is a new scam from them, what can you do if no one answers emails? So BEWARE it seems they are scamming you as soon as you join. If I knew it was this bad I would have stayed far away from Pokerstars

 by allan love
Just a scam

To Pokerstars:

Again we send you our details regarding the transfer of $200 (see below) these are the correct details that we sent to you on our withdrawal request, if there has been a mess up, it has not been from our side and the deduction of Eu 29.47 is a disgrace. We would request that you immediately refund the initial $200 and honor your online commitments. If not we will have no recourse but to initiate a complaints with the governing body (The International Federation of Match Poker) that handles online poker.

Allan Love

They refused to comply with my request. Disgusting company.

 by JJJackx
Complete Garbage

If I could give zero stars I would. Avoid this site at all costs. Relentless bad beats, runner runner constantly.

 by Lamma Bing
100% scam

As a mathematician and a poker player, I can confirm without question that most, if not all, online poker games are rigged, in a similar fashion to slot machines. This includes all the poker games on the Android Play and Windows10 app store.



The whole 'Random Number Generator' certification thing is a scam of itself. Google and Microsoft are well aware of this, but they seem the least bit concerned. In truth, it's quite easy to do random generations, just ask any programmer.

 by Chris
Rigged in simple way

Software is rigged and deals cards based on your hand-history and position on table. It deals winning cards to small or big blind, so when player from the button or before position shoves or raises, SB or BB will win the hand. I saw that all my AA, KK, QQ etc. hands was busted when i played against SB or BB. Best position to call shoves is on the small blind. If you are holding for example 10 6 suited, you have big chance to win the hand, even against AK or AQ that opponents have, because they are blocking each other's cards. Just play basic poker, follow rule that avoid all play against SB and BB and you will be fine. Relax, wait for your spot and pick up players with small stack of chips.

 by Graeme watts
Stole my money

Bought a top up at my local shop 15 digit voucher thing anyway didnt work got in touch with live chat they try and fob me off before blocking and freezing my account no swearing no argument just blocked me for asking where my money was wont be back

 by ed
Riiged

Guys I would suggest to chip in and sue these fuckers 🙂 it is clear as a day that they changed algorithms since FullTilt came back. Other fact I'd like to mention is this video - https://www.pokerstars.uk/en/tv/channels/2014/10/inside-pokerstars---episode-3.shtml



PokerStars suggest that their "Random Number Generator" as its sounds is totally random. This is what they have written on their website -- Glossary

Random Number Generator (RNG): a system, device or module that creates a sequence of apparently unrelated numbers. --



Now when you check the video "Lee Jones" clearly states that there are 2 parts of shuffling the deck. The "Beam" which I think is pretty cool but the other part that he says in the video is that algorithm is constantly tracking our mouse movement, reaction, speed between we / bet / fold etc and I believe etc etc.



So my question is - how in the hellava world can you claim something being totally random when its a obvious lie and not true? He explains that software tracks us every second, learns our movements and only then as a 2nd part of shuffle deals the cards..Come on? Fuck off...Been on PokerStars for 10+ years and I can say they fucking ruined it irrecoverably. Its amazing how you can win by working out odds at live tables and be a wining player but here at JokerStars you lose literally everything you can throw at them. Scammers and should be gone, government should be all over them. Its an obvious win.



Besides all of that - how can we forget a fact that ShitStars have already broken laws in USA and got fucked the out ere'.



email me ed@dolphincs.org - its not that hard to sign a petition, we have a mountain of interesting insides and probably even some facts.



Let's boycott them together, bit by bit they will start feeling pain. Or maybe an end?



Piece!

 by chad
stole play chip

Wish I could give them a zero rating. Tried to tell me they had given me play chips and had to take them back. They never gave me anything, I won those at the table. Now that they charge for play chips, they are taking them from accounts so you have to pay to play. I have asked for a complete accounting since I open my account with them. Watch out people, they will steal from you.

 by Jeff
taking chips

I had 113 million chips had just placed in a tourney that paid 30 million (play money). Then on 4-15-19 I logged in & only had 24 million chips. They wont talk to me just saying that they had over credited my account. They would not tell me why or even why they left me with less chips then I had just won. This is poor business. I have no use for them anymore.

 by Steve rachal
Crooked AF

I’m no disgruntled poker loser. I’ve played dozens of online poker apps. PokerStars isn’t even original. I’ve never seen so many River Straights turned Flushes! I played 5 hands on break and EACH HAND was a Full house!!! The odds on that are insane! It’s like they don’t even try to hide the BS. I know some will read this and be like, “yeah but I just wanna play some poker blah blah blah.” Then be a tool and play it. BUT DO NOT PUT MONEY IN THIS CROOKED APP!!!! It is designed to bilk you dry!!!

You have been warned.

 by Sam

I'm pretty sure the random number generator they use bases it's decision on the cards pre-flop.

So for example If its AK vs JJ the software decides there and then who's going to win by the end and then generates cards based on that, giving the game more action and excitement.

Personally I don't mind.

I'd say if you're a cash player then stay clear!

If you're a tournament player then yeah it's a lot of fun x

 by Ultra Disappointed
Ultra Let Down

I used to play on Ultimate Bet, got some firsts there, won some money, this would be back in 2009 or so.



Now I try out pokerstars, reviews say it is the hardest poker site to win on but is the most popular by far. My plan is to get bankrolled and move upwards.



At first all I can do is win! My bankroll increases, I notice some phony bad beats that go in my favor, I choose to learn from them. I make note of the patterns involved.



A week down the road I begin losing, the bad beats begin to be on me, I learn harder. I learn people use HUDs to detect leaks in game play and to tighten up strategies and that the majority of fish are not aware of this technology. I decide to evolve my game play to become unpredictable so that HUDs can not nail me down. This involves folding certain valued hands when I feel something isn't right, raising with garbage, flat calling with the nuts. I begin to hit final tables using no HUD software.



However, after a month of switching up my routines my non-routines become a routine and I begin losing. I get a HUD. This makes me a clone and a terrible player because I do what everyone else does now and become highly predictable.



Poker Stars, along with their flops that suck 3+ players into the mix on the flop only to create improbable and unexpected results by the river is a study in abusing algorithms to take advantage of human greed and impulsiveness. Poker is tapping into our dopamine receptors in the first place and the 5 card set ups are just elevating that scenario to the next level.



It is actually terrifying to watch how easily a little bit of coding can manipulate human thought and action.



Anyway, having realized there are these algorithms, I tried to learn how the card patterns work. Mostly it comes down to: if you flopped the nuts, you must find a way to shake everyone else off before the end of the turn or you will lose. And good luck with that, there are all-in addicts and calling stations out there at every level of the game.



Which is why I quit playing on this site. There is no predicting outcomes properly and as has been reported over and over people will shove all in with pretty well everything. I have video of AA (best starting hand) being destroyed by 72(worst starting hand) so there you go, structure of hold em out the window and no longer viable.



I gave the rating 1 star. Having said that:

-when gambling situations are manufactured by algorithm

-when there is not a natural and real chance to win tournaments

-when you play vs the software and coding



then you deserve ZERO stars.

 by Wendy
CORRUPT CHEATERS

This is the third time my account has been frozen. The last two times resulted in my account being emptied of the funds. I didn’t realize Full Tilt Poker was PokerStars or I would never have opened an account nevertheless deposited money. All the complaints you read are true about stealing money, rigged games and being asked for verification over and over while the account remains frozen and they hold your funds for days on end. The only way to reach them is through email which they just ignore and only reply to ask for further verification which you provide and still no action on their part. Stay away these reviews are not exaggerations or isolated incidents!!!

 by FPS
Big Stack Favouritism

Among many other obvious manipulations within their system the most glaringly obvious one is what I call "big stack favouritism". How this is not noticed by every single player who uses this site I do not know. If you get your chips in against someone with more chips, it doesn't matter how far ahead of you are you will be knocked out by them 90% of the time and I would say that genuniely isn't an exaggerated figure.



If you somehow haven't noticed this go and play a re-buy tournament or a make progress in a satellite tournament, see what happens when it gets closer to the end, if you're short-stacked you're f**ked, flopped set of aces still won't stand a chance against any two cards in the deck if there is one more outs and the villain holds more chips than you. It's a disgrace.



The idiots who defend these corrupt w@**ers always use variance as the answer, simply put, no, variance does not hold enough weight in explaining what happens on Pokerstars. They also berate any haters of Stars for a lack of evidence. So, on that note, while the sample size might not be huge the study is in depth, sound and thorough so take a look and see if there might not be at least something legitimate to bring up about that horrible joke of a site.



 by Rowan
Bots on the table?

I've played many times on Pokerstars and I've noticed many strange things that just don't seem to add up and appear unusual compared to traditional poker room play.



Just yesterday, for example, I was playing in a pokerstars tournament and I had an unusual all-in call from the player (bot?) to my immediate left. This player was the table chip leader but was playing very conservatively before that hand. 2 players with short stacks (under 2k) moved all-in before it was my turn. I had AK and saw this as good opportunity to knock out these two players out without too much loss if it did not work out (I was second in chips at my table with about 10k).



The tight player to my left (table chip leader at about 15k) called my all-in. When that happened I assumed that he must have had a premium hand (KK, AA?). But he did not. He had 86 off suit. This call based on his previous play made no sense. I wasn't playing wildly and there was no way I saw this coming.



What was devastating is that I hit an ace on the flop but my opponent knocked me out by rivering a third 8. Pretty screwed up don't you think. I've noticed stuff like this many times on Pokerstars and seriously doubt things are fair for regular players there.

 by Level_9
marginal hands

If you have AA, QQ or KK, you will get beat 8/10 times. If you pick up a set on the flop, you will get beat 5/10 times. However, PS is fun and full of action, but it is NOT normal variance. IF you are a winning pokerplayer, dont bother to play at PS, because no strategy will be even 60% bulletproof

 by coyote
scam

Believe this or not; Playing heads up....remember...heads up. I have QJo. Flop comes K Q and 10 (all hearts). I bet and he calls. I figure he has a heart flush draw. On fourth st, another Q. Looks good. I bet and he calls. Still looking for his flush. River comes with J heart. He filled his flush, but I have a full house (QQQJJ). All in. He calls. He filled his flush alright, a ROYAL FLUSH. Can anyone give me the odds of a royal flush and a full house in heads up on the same deal.

 by coyote
heads up

Playing heads up....remember Heads Up. The other player lands a heart ROYAL FLUSH on the river.....But the best part...……..I land a full house on the river (QQQJJ). What the fck are the odds of that????

 by Donald Robinson
Total Scam

I have been trying for 3 weeks to withdraw my money to no avail. Even though they used my MasterCard to deposit my funds and their written policy is that they will use the same method when you withdraw funds, they won't. Instead they said I had to go through a MuchBetter account. Then they said to use Netteller. In both cases they said they would send a verification code. Neither did. I'm just glad the the amount was not significant. Better to lose $120 than lose thousands. Beware of these scam artists.

 by Nick
bad beat city!!

Thought I'd contribute the bad beat that made me drop PS once and for all. After having most of the experiences that many mentioned before, this one really did me in.

On the final table bubble of a $100 buy in, so significant money at stake, a big pool of players, probably 8 hours into play.



10 players left, final table bubble, I have one of the smaller stacks, at risk of getting knocked out, but just barely over other stacks, the bubble had been lasting a bit too long so:



Me: AA

Opponent: AK



Flop: QQ6



At this point I am over 98% chance to win, sitting pretty you'd think.



Turn: J



River: 10



It was clear the algo needed to get the players to the final table and this was the first at risk hands in almost an hour. . . the algo needed to take the opportunity.



It was really a sad moment. runner runner to create a winning hand out of something like 1.5% potability. . .

I too have a screenshot backlog of bad beats, but this was just really felt the worst.

 by Terry Apogee
Pokerstars tourneys do seem very rigged.

I played a Bounty Builder tournament last night and was going pretty well. After a break I was moved to a new table and there was a player pushing the worst hands and winning. I noticed that every time a player with a smaller stack pushed all in he would call with anything, like 23o, and would knock out the smaller stack. So I try it, I bet and a smaller stack pushes, I call and guess what? I lose and am wounded. I build up my stack again and end up in a round with this player I'm telllimg you about (let's call him Wiseguy). . I have 55 in the hole. I'm in SB and I call two raises, one to them is Wiseguy. It's a risky move I know but im trying to change it up a bit. The flop comes 444???. I figure im up against two players both with high cards so I push all in with my petite fulll house. Wiseguys is holding AQs. Now I don't know about you but I would not call an all in on a 444 flop with a couple of high cards. It's just too risky and I think the odds of hitting those cards is just shy of 5-1. The third player has a pair of tens so he's in much better shape than either of us. The flop brings a 5! Brilliant, I can't believe my luck, now im going to be heading into the final third of the tourney in first place, but wait! What does the river bring? A ten, queen or ace and I'm dead. The river card rolls over and its a........4!!! BOOM!! Wiseguys wins the pot with his ace kicker and knocks me and the other guy out. Now make of that what you will but just don't say to me 'random card generator'! For feck sake, Pokerstars.....Jeeeesssusss!!

 by Alex
Glad there is no PokerStars in US

If you want to play poker, go to a casino, do not play online. I have been playing on pokerstars for years, it seems they have an algorithm analogous to quantum mathematics but with a twist: they seem to be using statistical probability in favor of certain pre-arranged outcomes rather than true randomness. Fortunately the human brain pretty soon can catch up with such math: too many bad beats giving fish an unequal opportunity at winning and poker experts at losing where on average they shouldn't be following such a trend. I do not have hard proof of what I am saying but only anecdotal evidence except there are so many other experienced players who agree with me. If you like poker play at a casino where you can see the dealer dealing the cards (avoid shuffling machines which unfortunately can also be tweaked with although by far less likely than online play). Read the book "52 Ways to Cheat at Poker" available on Amazon.com so you can get an idea historically of the extent to which scammers are willing to go to cheat in live poker let alone online where there are by far fewer controls or "watching eyes" to make sure that there is no cheating going on. I will never play online again unless the online software is being monitored 24/7 by a cross section of incorruptible statisticians (something that will never happen). To add insult to injury, bad beats on pokerstars are in your face, at predictable times or in predictable places as if to make a mockery of true randomness. Stay away from online poker unless you are playing at 02-04 cents so you learn how to play butt trust me you will not learn true play because based on my own experience (which after all could be mistaken, but that's what I think) the software algorithm is not really randomized but pre-arranged to favor certain winning and losing patterns particularly by the time the river card hits, your AA and on up notwithstanding. Save your hard earned money for the kind of poker play where losing is based on true randomness or poor play rather than "unbeatable" odds. I am glad that online poker is illegal in US.

 by bill
BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT DEPOSITING MONEY!

WARNING: BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT DEPOSITING MONEY ONTO THIS SITE IF YOU DON'T WANT IT TO BE STOLEN!



I bought a prepaid Mastercard to load funds onto the site as some credit cards issued by Canadian banks won't be accepted. I used the exact prepaid card they recommended on their website (Vanilla).



As soon as my initial deposit went through, they locked my account, citing the requirement to submit multiple forms of personal identification.



If you're not comfortable sending them various personal documents (passport/bank statements etc.), then DON'T DEPOSIT MONEY.



Anyway, the identification requirement isn't the main issue. I understand there may be legal requirements to collect such information.



My problem, however, is that they're now demanding that I scan them a copy of the RECEIPT for the prepaid Mastercard I used.



It's ridiculous! Who keeps every single one of their receipts? I don't.



It appears now that they're now just going to keep my money as they're ignoring my requests for a refund.



The support is also terrible. You'll wait 2 days to get a response from them, and when you do, it'll be some pre-written, canned nonsense that barely even addresses your issue.



I don't understand how such an unethical company is still in business.

 by Mitch
Screen Shots

I have a library of bad beat screen shots. It would be easy to prove the implausible odds of me losing as many times has I have. The odds of me losing being ahead 90% of the time going into the flop and losing 80% of the time. It’s 100% laughable. I’d love to share my screenshot bad beats with the world. Poker name: Mitchybango

 by BF
Ripped off

For the fifth time in a row on PokerStars cash & tournament games I have sunk $100 US currency into their site. All three times in a row I have lost 100% of called hands which were good hands

To a higher kicker and or higher hand repeatedly.

I have been on poker stars for years and used to win regularly and every time I load money to this site I lose 100% of deposits in the first few hours.

This site has changed big time.

And when you play the deal jackpot which strips you of poker stars, the points you earn in game it always takes the cards you choose and makes them the losing ones you need

I have played that many times and also 100% of time you lose the cards you need.

I am as of today done with this rigged site after over 14 years of regular play.

 by Mikk

Pokerstars wants new players to be hooked. New accounts have incredible luck on pokerstars.

Incredible luck. You cant miss that.

Im sure that this detail is one thing that ps think will bring success - it will be the opposite.

It will ruin them cus regs are tired of it.

How stupid/blind do ps think ppl are?

 by Me
Is Stars rigged? Yes.

It is so blatantly rigged I find it strange that some people look down on people who think this way.



It only takes a few decent sessions to pick out the very obvious patterns:



- It's nicknamed "Riverstars" for a reason. The amount of river suck outs is way way way too high.

- Big stack favouritism. Rich player vs the little guy, 90% of the time the big stack is coming out on top as long as he has outs.

- Want to slow play someone? That's risky unless they have no outs. Be prepared for that worst possible card to hit the river or turn. Flopped a set? Wait for the turn or river to open up the flush and/or straight. Flopped a flush or a straight? Wait for that board to pair! Got your flush with poor kickers? Wait for that board to put the fourth spade down to sh!t all over your 67 of spades.

- Depleting stack? Increasing blinds? Bubble approaching? Sorry buddy, there's a target on your head. Time for 72, 64, 95, 73, 54, 103, J2......AK??? Where did you come from!? You beauty! All-in, sorry mate, no chance. Their pocket 3s held up on this one. Same scenario, different tourney. Oh look pocket 7s, nice, all-in, nope, not this time, that simply cannot hold up against the likes of Chips McMassive stack over here with his Q9.



The only thing I will say for them is they definitely aren't the only ones.

 by PSisrigged
PS is rigged

I think PS runs an algorithm that determines if the player has never played poker before or is possibly retarded, they will hit their card(s) on the river and turn if need be for a complete BS straight or flush etc.

Either that or it is rigged

 by vj
Mad at myself

Feeling really ripped off and angry at myself for being so naive. I've been playing for 10 years. For the first 6 I was actually up (not much, but enough to keep my entertainment budget in life quite low). Anyway I find the following recently:

1) IF you don't play for a while (months) the next time you deposit you will be "set to win". I'm talking it doesn't matter almost what is flopped your A2 offsuit is gonna win against AA somehow.

2) As soon as I withdraw, I'm "set to lose".

3) When I play multiple tables, I often see the SAME cards. I like to play 3 at once (otherwise I get bored) and often I will have a variation of 7 2 on all three tables.

4) I recently won up to 900.00, then plummetted down to 0 in no time. I kept playing the tourneys (loved the 18 player super turbos) as I thought I was just on a super losing streak... nope I was "set to lose". What I think is they motivate you with making you think you are this amazing player (I know I am though, lol) and then rip it from under you to ensure you keep depositing.

5) Players don't seem like real people or have cheating software (maybe can see future cards? I'm not sure how this would work, but something is definently so off). How else can I have AA and someone PUSHES me all in after the turn with 3 high??!!?? Low and behold, what are the last two cards you ask? 33 of course. No normal person would do this. Eithe these are robotic players or someone has developped cheating software. Too many time to count! I am so made at myself right now for constantly putting in $50 here and there. I tallied up my history and it is gross. I'm DONE BSstars. You suck. Shame on you.

 by jon Hanson
Ummm huh

How can you sit there and say they are not rigging the games? I have over 50 hours of games i have played and i will show you to a tee how they rig. the game . The so called random generator is utter bullshit. The cards are based of the hole card to get more action out of players. Bad beats are poker it happens but their site it every single hand . I can show with the clips i collected the number of river suck out to the point i can call it before it happens. You stated you dont see why they would rig it? um let try 4 billion dollar they spent to buy the site. They cant recoup that being legit. They need to be shut down and exposed as the frauds they are

 by Anton
Pokerstars STINKS

You can create an account, no documents are being asked for.

You can spent thousends of euro's, dollars,you name it.... No questions asked. You can play for years and like 90% of all gamblers you will get addicted to it. You see strange things happen on Pokerstars, 100% scam but you carry on, knowing better. And then when you want to withdraw a small ammount, they strike. They use their rules to blackmail you. They freeze your account. I had to send them a copy of my passport. Pokerstars stinks sooo much that I rather let them have my money then sending them a copy of my passport. Its fraud, it stinks. Do you belong to the 0,01 % of people that did not lose all their money ? And do you belong to the 99,99 % of the people who think.... towmorrow... yes tomorrow then I will win. Trust me POKERSTARS IS A SCAM You are being SCAMMED

 by Trevor
Thanks

Am I rating the review or pokerstars lol its 5 stars for the review haha. My question is which site do you use? I have been looking for a new site for a while but I dont want to play partypoker because all their sit and go's are turbo or hyper or hyper turbo and I want just standard.



Which brins me to my next point which is directed at some of the other reviews here. Dude we don't want all action all the time, thats stupid, we want real legit poker. Even know it can be slow, i want people folding all the time like real life. Its how the game is played and truthfully if you don't like that you should not be playing poker. (which is also why i hate hyper turbo games, the blinds were not meant to go up that fast. Poker has different dynamics depending on how big the blinds are.

 by potcareker
pokerstars

its all about the random generator, which ofcourse can and is programmed in a certain way, just like in slot machines...a random generator works diffeently in a keno machine than in a slot with bonus feature...thats common sense...

now to poker stars, or other poker sites online....my quess is that pokerstars have , for a online poker site, the best software ....why? it creates ACTION, more than on other online sites, but ofcourse 90% less than in a live casino poker game.

Thats the key...95% of plaayers at pokerstars are not poker players, 95% have never plaayed poker in a real live casino, from those 95%, if they would play in a live casino, would stop playing poker the next day...WHY? because there is no action...simple...how often does one get AA in a live poker game in a casino...?be honest? i could play 2 weeks at the bellagio and not get AA....at pokerstars you get it every single day...they at pokerstars have to create action or 95% of players would quit the next day, because of the "boring" play........Thats the truth of true poker.....its boring 95% of time....in a real casino live game, thats ok, but online thats the death of the site...in a real live game it happens alll the time that you have to fold 90% of your cards....at pokerstars, anybody that plays there frequently, you know that there are no loosing cards....thats why they get played that often there...59 offsuit, 7 10 offsuit, and hitting or AA/KK against 22,33,44 and we all know who wins....thats the action that this software creates...its their survival....without such a software that creates artificially action, online poker would die in a week....look at the "big" poker rooms in vegas LOL hahahahaha....or any whhere else on this planet...where are the poker rooms with a 1000 tables full of action LOL hahah...aint gonna happen...again...real time live poker is a BORING game 90% of time played.

at pokerstars hahahah, its the opposite....90% of the game is full of action..pockt pairs vs pockets, straights win,full wins,4 of akinf wins,str.flush wins,royal wins etc....

 by Eskimo
I will survive 😀

I'm 22 now playing for ten years or so, of course I first started playing with friends ,I was winning as a kid and kinda fall in love with the game, not because I was winning I mean it's a plus if you win but it's like luck and math altogether I just loved it always tried to find places to play. Now tournaments is a different thing, 2 months ago I decided that it's time to start raising my tournament knowledge , and where should I go if not the good old PS? first month maybe I was telling myself it's normal to have bad beats it's part of the game ,I am new in tournaments etc... man... this shit is ridiculous , you need to play a certain amount of tournaments just to get to the bubble so you can get at least what you got in with ,also watching this so called pro streamers , so I could become better... Many will say this is the way it is and it's less likely to make profit from a single tournament or two, but mate I know what is a bad beat I also know what is a scam , a berry on the river is okay , but all day long every single all in situation to end up beaten? The new boss likes to make money this way and that's it, as long as the promotions go more fishes like me will come along, yes I am a fish because I wanted to learn more about this beautiful game ,I'm still gonna do it yet in a different place than PS PEACE

ps I was a casino dealer once so I'm prеtty sure I know what I'm talking about.

 by Jay
Strange coincidences

I'm no expert but I think PokerStars is rigged (at least on occasion).



At first I just chalked up the repetitive seemingly impossible bad beats to just plain bad luck. Strait flush being beat by a better strait flush? just bad luck. Full House being beat by a better full House? Well I guess it's bound to happen. luckily (and just to make the point I'm not just some poor loser) it wasn't always me that came up on the losing end of these situations, but it did certainly catch my attention how often it seemed to happen compared to anywhere else (specifically live play).



What really got my attention though is how often one of my opponents got a pocket pair whenever I had one (or some else at the table had one). Pretty well 8 of 10 times I had a pocket pair, some one else at the table had one. It happened so often that I really started wonder, is the site intentionally giving out pairs at the same time to get players to bet bigger? Could make sense where I was witnessing it (cash games), because the more players bet, the more the rake takes. And how hard would it be for them make an algorithm to do this periodically, and then shut it down when audited? Probably not too hard. And by only doing it periodically it would be alot easier to deny or just claim the loser was just on tilt and looking for excuses.



After reading up on PokerStars, I will no longer be using the site. I never looked into PokerStars prior to using it because I just trusted that a big name like PokerStars would be legit and trustworthy. But there seem to be way too many stories like mine to be just random coincidence, and I don't trust them at all anymore.



It's starting to look like ALL the players on the PokerStars site are the fish, no matter what do level.

 by Francisco Soares
Hacked or rigged

PokerStars has a different distribution pattern than playing a live game

I could play 100 or more pocket pairs without catching a set while running at the same time into 25 sets

It rarely has “ high hands” like straight flushes or quads which are faitrly common in live games

And the number of hands played per hour is significantly higher online

The distribution pattern is definitely different than at live games

So the awkwardness and skewed distribution can only be explained by either

1- pokerstars does not have a “ random “ distribution which means that the “ shuffler” is defective ( improbable )

2- pokerstars is rigged from within

3- pokerstars is being hacked for there is a lot of money to be made by hacking pokerstars

A simple trick would be to place 2 or 3 players on every cash table ( in different countries with fake accounts ) controled by a computer that could analyze the hole cards of 3 players out of six and make decisions based on the inside information . Since there is so much money to be made rigged games , or hacking could very well explain the discrepancies and the awkwardness of the card distribution

It feels like the opponent knows what card is coming on the board

Being deep in a particular tournament with a siazable stack I had AA

The pot was raised to 400 I reraisef to 1200 and the opponent went all in with a sizable stack

He had 88

No one deep in a tournament with sizable stacks would ever do that

I called the all in

On the flop comes an 8

He must have known something that I didn’t know ( which was the flop )

The prize for 1st place was significant

This individual came in second for this tournament

That’s when I dumped pokerstars

It was after going through this awkward distribution , thousands of hands that made no sense that I gave up

I win consistently at live games ( against top notch players)

I lose consistently at pokerstars

Something is not right

 by Play Money Guy
Play Money Guy

Wow, reading the comments here is just laughable!



First off I used to grind Stars for a living back when it was in the USA. My goodness did they have the softest games on the net. Turn around to today when NL is bigger than Limit and Stars isn't the titan it used to be.





Also to the people complaining about losing and complaining about losing even in Play Money games:



If you can't beat Play Money on Pokerstars you are just bad. It's so beyond incredibly easy to beat these players.



I've never had to buy play money chips and I've worked my play money bankroll into the million dollar stakes(which almost never run anymore.) There's not much else to do once you have a ton of play money though. If you think the play money is rigged, it isn't rigged and you are just bad at poker and can't beat the worst players imaginable. I know that sounds harsh, but it's the truth. Seriously just look up some strategy on NL/Limit online or read a book. The book is your best bet in my opinion. There's a ton of places to get information and learn, there is no excuse to not to try to understand why you are losing with all the information on the topic that is out there.



The problem is it's just easier to think: Oh, but it must be rigged how else could someone like ME possibly lose? I am clearly and god and savior to the game of Hold'em. Sure would be convenient if I wasn't bad, and it was just rigged. Sure wouldn't have to face reality then, huh? Poker is a good but harsh teacher. Keep that in mind. If you wanna win and not go having to post your "bad beat" stories on the internet so you don't have to feel so bad at night then it's time to start studying!



So is the real money games rigged? No, again you're just bad. Same advice applies. In real life I've lost with everything imaginable. Quads, straight flushes, etc. It will eventually happen and every possible scenario will play out. Even that 650,000 to 1 chance of flopping a royal flush. It's gunna happen... eventually as long as you keep playing! When it does happen it's not because it's rigged. It's because it's inevitable!



Oh and on the review Stars is ok, but Amaya will probably run it into the ground. They have a decent amount of competition now though so who knows which site will come out on top?

 by Mike
7 Years and Still Losing

I have been with Poker Stars for 7 years in November. Since Amaya bought Poker Stars a few years ago I have noticed many changes,all for the all mighty dollar. The rake for Texas Holdem is now 5.8% and they have multiple chip sales every week. They have 22 programmers and many of the players I talk to and some sophisticated software engineers/programmers I know ensure me that the play money games are manipulated/rigged. A lot of the hands are setup for a max bet so that the rake is maxed out. Reading many articles on Poker Stars reveals that they have a random card generator, but again, we think they only use it for the one day a year they are audited. The site is sophisticated and you become addicted to it if for no other reason is that you make friends all over the world and enjoy their company. This is the only reason I play any more. I can tell after 3 rounds on the table (9 player/27 hands) if I am going to have a good day or not. Poker Stars will never be allowed to operate in the 50 United States as Washington state as dropped out and I am sure others will follow. Still looking for another site to play on.

 by Minda
Unreal Bad Beats on Poker Stars

I have so many seemingly impossible UNREAL bad-beats on Poker Star (REPEAT INCIDENTS OF SAME TYPE HANDS LOSING IN SAME WAY) that until now I'm still mind boggled and trying to make sense of it all.



I found this website wondering has anyone else experienced the seemingly impossible kind of bad beats I have and this website reassures me it's not just me.



The seemingly impossible unreal (REPEAT) bad beets include hitting QUADS and someone pulling out a Straight Flush or Royal Flush somehow on the river somehow GEEZZ gimme a break and they push and shove all in on a miracle prayer getting the only 1 card that could ever save them. DIVINE INTERVENTION?



UNREAL BEATS beyond belief and REPEAT incidents- Seemingly impossible coincidences. My Bad Beats for today include someone raising $450 USD pre-flop and me holding AA - I decide to just call - The flop comes off AKK - They then shove the rest of their stack in $3,200 USD roughly and I call - they have 33 - It puts a smile on my face at first until I see 33 come out on the turn and river giving him quads.



Whether a bot or a real person I'm uncertain, left instantly after winning nearly all the cash I had left in my account. It felt like a SETUP - what are the odds of that? The other bad bets experienced are me on the opposite side having 44 and the flop coming up 544 hitting quads and someone pushing all in with 55 - Yep you can guess it river is a 5 - quads over quads.



Even worse having hitting quad K's and someone pulling out a ROYAL FLUSH ON ME on the river - say what? HOW did that possibly happen and how does it REPEAT - This is the 2nd time it's occurred to me but the next time I had quad Q's and they hit ROYAL FLUSH again. Come on folks - this is just a beginning but what are the odds of this even happening to me in a lifetime twice in such a fashion?



Whether the person was bluffing on me with 33 earlier trying to get away with a bluff and getting EXTREMELY lucky in running 33 on the turn and river to pull off quads well OK I would accept that alot easier than accepting losing to a ROYAL FLUSH twice someone shoving all in needing a MIRACLE RIVER to save them losing twice with Quad Q's an K's. Give me a break. K I had to let that off my chest and share it with the world.



Poker Stars is I'd have to agree now RIGGED, I could go on & on & on with other bad beats that seem to repeat.

 by Ad
It's definitely never right in a million years.

I have never come across anything like Pokerstars in all of my life. I can relate to a lot of what is said here and one review in particular stood out to me; this person mentions playing every site over the years and winning at them, the only anomaly being Pokerstars.



I recently have been back to regular playing again thanks to a change in circumstances and I ended up at Stars because their range of tournaments is second to none by a long shot, it's the main site, simple as that. I figured it was years ago I last played there, maybe it's not as bad as my memory is telling me.



Well turns out it is now worse from what I can tell. I'm not going to go into every hand, there's too many but I will say that I'm a very solid online poker player, my patience, discipline and decision-making are very good. I do not often make a wrong decision and I call out the plethora of idiots that are obsessed with overplaying their hand on a regular basis. Unfortunately on Stars any decision is apparently the wrong one, I get screwed so often it just cannot possibly be normal.



I hate the people that treat you like some sort of conspiracy nut if you dare to question the integrity of a multi-million dollar company that has already broken U.S. law and is not regulated. Yeah, it's completely beyond the realms of reality to even suggest that something maybe off with them.



The two main arguments you hear from those people are "variance" and "prove it", "if you're gonna make those claims then you have to prove it".



Two pretty simple responses to this that seem to fall on deaf ears. Ok, variance exists, it happens and I can accept that. What I can't accept is that if you want to blame it on variance then where the f***ing hell is my upswing? I'm still waiting. The clues in the name pal, "variance", that's some very peculiar variance where it's only one way!



As for "prove it", very simple, "You prove it isn't". If you wanna tell me I can't say something is up then show me your proof there isn't something untoward going on? Better still, Pokerstars, you get enough complaints about this, you take our money, you prove it. They never respond to any claims made, why? It would be pretty simple.



I don't know what more I can say without turning this into a small novel. Just simply put, all aspects of either side of the argument aside, I personally find it a lot harder to believe that something isn't going on with that site than believe it's all hunky dory and I'm just somehow one of the most unlucky players to ever use their site.

 by ADRIAN PAUL
What a load of bollox

Poker Stars mostly certainly is NOT rigged



Poker Stars care about their players



Poker Stars have high-level security systems



Poker Stars have numerous support staff.



FIVE STARS

 by Playdoh
account closed, no reason

I've had an account with Pokerstars for ten plus years, never had an issue. Yet I also never deposited very much. Middle of March I deposited $140, and roughly a week later I get an notice my account is frozen, and I need to email them. Odd. Why not email me?

Anyways I get a reply stating that during a random security screening, my account was selected and didn't pass screening. No reason as to why, just a BS excuse to keep my money.

They ignore my emails, and efforts to contact the gaming commission have done nothing as of yet. Not even a reply from them either.

Be warned, I'm not alone, and this is happening at an increasing rate. PS had to pay some $700 million in settlements with the USA, for fraud. My guess is their trying to recover some loses.

Read their terms of service closely. They can close your account for any reason they chose, and keep your money. No questions asked. Is a company that committed grand scale fraud, and has policies that enable them to steal accounts where you want to put your money at?

I'm fighting tooth and nail to get my money back, yet I don't stand a chance really.

 by spannermonkey
abc

I've played Spin and Go for a while and more and more I realise that even if I was not an average player I would still win more hands than I do, especially when I have two cards that are better than what I see the other players eventually have. I've lost count of the amount of times I've lost AA or KK to a low tow pair with the other players going all in with something crazy like a 3 and a 7 and - OMG they get two pair or a straight, or a flush or a tripple. Its happened soooooo many times than now I actually bet myself I will loose a higher hand and nearly 100% of the time I do.



I also notice many other players (usually in Russia) seem to push every raise when they have the lowest card on the flop they have paired, even if there are face cards out too.



Its happening so often as well. Other players have noted that they have lost 3, 4, 5 winning hands in a row to lower cards from other players and its a flush, a straight or two pair and I have to agree. The frequency at which I loose to these hands, compared to how often I get them is outrageously unbalanced odds.



I'm not sure if its Pokerstars that is rigged or if its been hacked - either way its not something you should put any money into.



I spend an entire weekend a few weeks ago tracking every hand, what I had, and how I won or lost and the above was shown to be so true. I lost around 80% of my hands. No matter how I played I lost on average around 80%.



I've also noticed that when I would deposit, I would initially win a few good hands, but then the same old same old would start to happen and invariably my stack would drop.



Its time for the government to investigate Pokerstars so the suspicions of so many people, the fact Pokerstars avoids any accountability and the video evidence of games that are so blatantly rigged or hacked comes out and they end up having to refund the real genuine players.

 by James
Most Crooked site out there

I have been playing poker for 20 yrs and Jokerstars is corrupt. Do not play there. I played the money tables at first started to win at the start and then I would get rivered every hand. So i played play money and they cheat there too. In my last 13 hands i had the overpair 13 times and wouldn't you know it they hit 11 sets and 2 quads on me.

ITS RIGGED. Stay away folks.

 by bk
Too many bad beats

3 small tourneys in a row today. Each one, opening hand i get dealt pocket Kings... spare you the details, but ended up all in before the flop an each one...opponent wins each time... straight on the river, full house on the river, flush on the river. odds of that happening on 3 consecutive hands in diff tourneys have to be off the charts!

 by John Haefele
pocket aces - win rate

In no limit hold-em, pocket aces, vs a single opponent, should have a win rate of 84%.

Playing real money no limit hold-em on pokerstars, over the course of almost 2,000,000 hands,I got pocket aces all-in, pre-flop, vs a single opponent 934 times. According to the above mentioned 84% expected win rate, I should have won 783 of those hands. My actual results were 602 wins, for an actual win rate of 64%.

Assuming the data is reliable, what might the explanation be for a variance of this magnitude?

 by M
Frozen account without notification

My account was frozen because "suspected hacking, logged on from foreign country".



1) Didn't get any notification about this frozen account

2) Login was most likely made by me, because I have been in that country several times

3) After five emails with support my account is still frozen and they won't tell me when this suspected login happened even after asking several times.



Ridiculously bad customer service and terrible "detectives".

 by Tyler
sega1980

I was bored, so I took a look at one alleged player at pokerstars, supposedly from Russia, sega1989. And guess what ? The pokerstars inside player was playing 23 games at the same time. No joke, 23 games at the same time ? This would be an impossible feat by any human being. pokerstars cannot be trusted.

 by N.M.
P.Stars is reliable on game outcomes

Been playing on P.stars since early 2000’s, have been dealt more hands then I can count (definitely millions) due to multi tables of play.



But what I can attest to is this, P. stars is very consistent in what they do,



Note: it just may be due to (this is just my supposition, no physical proof, but it makes sense)



They could be using scripts to guarantee specific outcomes against some individuals.



Case in point: Each time my tournament life had been on the line when having the best hand (pre-flop) and shoving all in, my hand would lose.



This is NOT an exaggeration; there are thousands of games in which I had played that this had occurred.



My win rate would be less than 0.5% and that may be generous on my part.



The so called random generator does not seem to exist when I appear to be logged into P. stars lol



I no longer deposit on their site, will only play free rolls, but now the bad beats are increasing as of the past month or so

 by SuperElite93
Pokerstars rigged?

Looking at the commemts is like seeing my own thoughts this guy kept beating everyone one night no matter what cards they had I dont know why I tried pushing all in against him but I lost. I always seem to lose the last card that comes out when i have good cards before it, ive never withdraw anything but Im sure the other accounts i made pissed them off because they kept emailing me saying I made other accounts I just forgot the logins most the tims and this time I wantes a cooler name. A few people were going mad claimimg that dream catcher was rigged and the women was just changing the subject. I heard one guy read a comment about it being rigged but near the end he went quiet lile he was being told off down an ear piece orr something. I really dont know about tbis site man im feeling taking my money to pokerstars because im putting quite abit of cash into it and I dont think they're worthy of anyones cash.

 by hans
pokerstars not a scam

I've played online for full time for the last 3 years, i play high volume like 10-12 tables 8 hours a day. The thing that most people dont realize that poker is still a gamble, and you are always gonna be confronted with a bad beat/things not running well for you. You can be 8/2 favourite and lose 10 times in a row, doesnt happen often but once in a while it will happen.



Then i'll go after your points 1 by 1 and hope you'll understand that poker is rather a game of skill and luck combined. without luck you're not gonna get anywhere.



1.Most people are playing on many tables, dont even have the chat open and if they have most people won't answer. Poker is a high volume game, the rake is high so you've to play more tables a time all the time, no time to chat.



2.prob 5 years ago, 10 years ago you played with 8 fish and 2 good players now 8-10 players are good, and the other 2 most of the time are not even bad. so its more tough to make money in the long run.



3. Its just poker and happens all the time, more often you win the hands 😉



4.most people are playing many tables, if you play 20x5 and double all of them and decide to take a break, why not?



5. i always have the same feelings about russians :p but they are just lucky scumbags, and very good players most of them live in a small village without any working place around. So they study the game real hard and start playing,most of them are dangerous and good.



6. You can mail me this, and i'll check the patterns and know if its a human or a bot(wich seems unreasonable).



7. 12? I sometimes play like 30 for 1 hour straight 🙂



8. There are not bad suckers, depends on what you play above 50 dollars you'll be the fish for them and they'll come to play against you.



9. Depends on where you look, i can almost find all the players at sharkscope, or pokerprolabs you can see everything there. I've got a HUD (pokerprogram) Running all the time when i play a big tournament. But that's no bot, that's a program who keeps all the data and statistics.



What am i doing here? Just lost 2k and im sad about it :-). if you are gonna play on pokerstars(or any pokersite) Make sure you do the right preperations. Study the game read books,watch pokerhands, buy a pokerprogram(HUD) then you know what you're doing and why you're doing it.



Do proper BRM make sure you got at least 50-100 buy ins for the stake that you are playing. So you wont lose everything at once after a losing session.



I've lived many years now from playing poker and yea its a tough way to make money, we pay too much rake and somethimes you take shots that dont work out well. I shouldnt begin with it, but if you are good and want to do everything i mentioned above you can make money for sure @ pokerstars or any other site i prefer another site ps mostly good players.

 by Ivo
riggged

Hello,

I am not going to tell you how many ridiculous hands managed to beat me - you'd think that I am a sore loser. Rather, I tell you about some really weird stuff I can't understand - all of it leads me to the belief that pokerstars is rigged or something is really wrong with it (or people are hacking it, I don't know).

1. I've played poker for many many years. But have never been in a game where the other players would not play like humans ---I mean I played online poker before with real people, and when I did hatthat, Isaw all the things which people do: chat, complain, have different pace, have their personal quirks, breakdowns etc. you can tell there's a person on the other side. But when I play cent or dollar cash games on pokerstars, most of the time no one ever says anything, it feels like totally bereft of human interaction or even thinking ...the game is impossible to analyze

2. Moreover, I come from a tiny country, but people who are sitting on the same table from my country don't chat back to me....and those who do chat, with them I manage to beat more often than those who never say anthing. Overall the whole feeling is like I am not playing against humans



3. that pertains to style of play as well - everybody is super tight when I have a good hand, but suddenly they are able to go out on a limb when they have a real reason to throw their hands away - funnily enough, it always works out for them by some small margin...



4. players win a pot and soon after leave the room? Why would you do that? And why does this happen with such a regularity? The fact is that if you are winning, you are stronger and would rather linger - that is if you were human.

5. There are so many people from Russia..and it's not just the size of the country. Anytime there's Russians, it feels like I am playing some computer bots.

6. I've played one Russian the entire night - not one time did he behave like a person, send a chat message etc. I have completely no recollection of his play as his play was machine-like, totally without any flavor.

7. I tried to look him up and realized that he was playing at 12 tables simultaneously? How is that even possible?????

8. I have never come across a bad sucker - in all those games, everybody was behaving the same - super tight and fairly clear game...with the exception when they play me, they can do crazy stuff.

9. Many of the players can't be even looked up..and their names don't sound like anything a human would come up with.

10. Games proceed one after another in a machine-style fashion. No hesitating or strategizing can be discerned..most weirdly, in the last 10 hours and hundreds of hundreds of games, I didn't see a game where 3 or 4 people would fight it out....this happenes in real life in so many hands at least a few times...here it's alwasy you or other two people, never more.





Overall, I am not sure how it's possible technically but I am pretty sure I was not playing humans on pokerstars.

Stay away from this site.

 by Mark
Rigged or Not?

Well let me put this way. I have been playing poker for 10 years now and online for last 4 years.

Having doubts all the way if PS is "fixed" I recently run the test. There is a lot of comments and articles considering different statistics and amount of data one needs to have available to be able to say thay game is fixed.

As for amount of data I disagree because what you really need is to compare the online game with regular one and look for patterns.

Lets say that you play tournament 500 players online vs the same one in some poker room. Lets agree that you will still play on 1 table at the time, against 8 other players and that you have to most probably play avg. same amount of hands (maybe not but it doesnt really matter). It is sure that online game will go much faster but it is still factor of hands which remains similiar.

In my example there is pattern of ACTION FLOPS. Lets dont talk about AA,KK,QQ things but about action hands within one table and one tournament.

I have played 3 tournaments at the same time. 5k + 4k + 10k. Playing the very same table I happened to see within period of aprox. 5 hours following patterns.



My hand: AKs

I raced from button (for this example doesnt matter how much)

1 player called ...

Flop: 9AK

I raced from button (again doesnt matter how much)

1 player allin

I called ...

Player showed AA

I lost



Now this can happend. I had 5x bigger stack then player so we keep playing ...



5 hands later ...



My hand: J9s

I raced from button (for this example doesnt matter how much)

1 player called ...

Flop: 9J4

I raced from button (again doesnt matter how much)

1 player allin

I called ...

Player showed 99

I lost



... same player.



11 hands later ...



My hand: KK

I raced from big blind (for this example doesnt matter how much)

1 player called ...

Flop: KAA

I checked (again doesnt matter how much)

1 player allin

I called ...

Player showed AA

I lost



... same player again.



Now you could say it can happen. Yes it can but i saw this on other two tables with other players within same period of time and same tournaments. That is like impossible. Get 3 times within period of 50 hands on 3 different tables 4 same cards on flop to get best hand - no way.



Now as for Quads, Flush, etc. I can say that in ten years i can surely compare amount of hands played within last 4 years. And that is what it is about. Here is the result:





REAL ROYAL FLUSH: 0

ONLINE ROYAL FLUSH: 3



REAL QUAD: 7

ONLINE QUAD: 27



REAL STRAIGHT FLUSH: 4

ONLINE STRAIGHT FLUSH: 16



Now i am talking about my hands and not how many times i saw it played on my table.



So my conclusion is that YES online poker is fixed. It seems that it is fixed or balanced the way that game force players to post big bets and run tournament faster ahead. And that is where i am going with my theory. If the dealt cards provoke players to place higher bets, if all blinds raising is set to go faster and PS charge 1 time fee per tournament, isn't then important for PS owners to run high amount of tournaments at the same time? Amount of players today is more less same and earnigs of PS will be more less same too and to get them higher they have make sure that they run as many tournaments they possibly can no?

So at the same time they need to get these players to play quickly so they subscribe to new tournament and pay another fee no? That is for reason WHY they game is fixed.



My best.

 by Bruce
Playing withing the rules is a TOS

Today I received a threatening email from pokerstars. It says that registering at the last min in tournaments and trying to make the money is against the TOS and that if i continue to do it my account will be closed.



"We are contacting you due to an investigation we launched in regards to stalling in our tournaments.



This involves late registration into certain tournaments"





If playing within the rules of the game is a violation of the TOS that means that Pokerstars is no longer a legitimate poker site.



Users beware.

 by Gary Gustafson
impossible to win

I had left because it was so hard to get a hand at times..seemed impossible the hands that come up and beat me are such rare occasions. I have played for 47 years and refuse to keep adding money to this scam.. I left it alone for 2 years and recently added 10 dollars to my account...Just to see whats up,,and assure my self I was not imagining things. Well it seems even worse now,,,its like I am playing a machine not other people.. they don't talk or say fuck off or nothing. I also notice that they are having trouble getting 50,000 people at any given time. I always do well in live games but again I can not make a hand and if I do the most unusual things come up and beat me...it has got to the point I can call what will happen and its not me winning.

So if you feel like you are going futz,,,you are not,,,you have no chance. One thing Ive always wondered to is if they can take 10 dollars why cant they give it back if you do win???? its a one way street for your money,,,soon I will be finished with this site for good,,,but they are gonna win it from me 2cents at a time.

I guess 10% of millions bet is not enough,,and ya...Id love to table up with that punk Negrano,,looser.

 by fernando oliveira
fuck pokerstars

played for almost 1 year being a winning player at low stakes, not much but enough to make me happy

withdraw money go on a downswing

withdraw money go on a downswing

withdraw money go on a downswing

withdraw money go on a downswing

get 3 out´ed every single time

ship it on the flop 80% to win and i know im still an underdog by the ammount of beats i take daily where 80% isnt enough and the variance seems like x10 on this shit site

4 times i withdrawed money looking at my graph e see all my big downswings happen after that

i guess they don´t like people taking money from the site

its ok fuck them ill take my business elsewhere

 by vidmantukas
nonsence

how many of you have bankroll? if you win one mmt you get like 300/1 your buyin... how many of you played 300 mmt and not reached final table? if you want to be professional you have to behave like professional.... you have to be prepared for bad beats, bed runs and so... why you are not complaning about euromillion how many of you won it? Luck is part of the game, other part of your game is your skills and patients... I run bad as well, but you need only one day to turn it all around...

 by Sean kalaki
Charged my card , never credited my accoint ???

18 months ago i made a $200 deposit with my debit card and they started asking me for all sorts of documentation, which i provided. Minus their request of a statement showing my card number, after multiple attempts to explain to them its a debit card, affialited with my checking account , its not a credit card which displays the card number on the statement....despite giving them over 10 other pieces of documentation, they just gave me the run around for 3 months , which is when i just asked for a refund and they stopped responding to my emails. Numerous calls and they just tell me ita under investagation , give us a few dats, a year and a half later and still nothing.when i finally got fed up, contacted by credit card conpany and asked them to dispute it and they informed me its too late, the 3 month grace period has expired. So im out $200. F you PS!!!

 by palmolive
Unplayable since Amaya

I have played PS since it started business. Limit holdem was then the games and I went up to 1-2 till finally some day I couldn't win anymore (a statistical impossibility in those games), and at that time there was some 80% preflop fish that was the reason why the best player on the table was losing. Others experienced the same thing later in nlh also, known as "i will sit out here just to see you to donk the next 2-outer on the turn). Play money was at the same time legit, till I mentioned it at 2+2.



There were runs when one ran normally, so it wasn't bad all the time. I have later moved to plo, but it was impossible to continue winning after Amaya became the owner. I also played 8-game at that time, and it was virtually impossible not to get sucked by the last card in studs and triple draw, when it is about 1/4th shot in reality.



The tourneys, you can watch any tourney as well as play them and you will see it is "gay." The way the tourneys differ from 888Poker's (50c tourneys or above as the below tend to be heavily gay) is that at 888 one loses more than fair share of the time to a mere kicker (one has AQ the other has AJ, or whatever case) but it was still playable compared to stars that is way more gay, and it also stacks situations preflop.



I could also mention limit holdem heads up, it used to work like a rubber band that when you went up, you were pulled double that down.

 by MacGrubs
Pretty sure it's rigged.

I've played poker offline and on, but I've never seen such absurd hands in such frequent succession. I've wondered for a while, but after tonight I'm 90% sure some players are able to cheat.



I'm at a 1,000,000 buy in table, and a guy joins and immediately goes all in. Not that weird I guess, some people do this. So everyone folds and he takes the blinds. Next hand all in. Takes the blinds. Next hand all in; this time someone calls. He ends up with 4 of a kind. OK, that is rare but I guess it happens. Then he folds a few, goes all in preflop once again and takes the blinds. 6 hands later, he goes all in and someone calls him again. And guess what... He gets 4 of a kind again!



Right then and there I should have left the table. I even said something in the chat but no one else left so I thought I'd see how things went. Quite a few hands down the road, he loses a big hand and I see this as reassurance that the game might not be rigged. So then I get AK. Ok, good start. It's just me and this guy that see the flop. K8X. Ok even better. I bet and he calls. Turn is King. Ok, this is looking really good. I check, and he goes all in. Alrighty then. I call. Guess what he has? Pocket 8's! Which means he hits a full house and knocks me out.



There are other hands he won that he had no business winning, and I just can't play this game anymore. The fact that getting 4 of a kind is infinitesimally small and he hit two in 6 hands is just ridiculous. GG PokerStars.

 by Gary
rigged for sure - here is why

Too many think poker Stars has no vested interest in rigging a tournament - wrong. The bad beats are all in favour of chip leaders in "all In situations" - the reason being the quicker they knock out players the quicker you start another tourney, thus providing a new hosting rake. Watch, again and again completely improbable beats in favour of the chip leaders - losers head to another tourney and another buy in.

 by Dmhirish
Totally rigged

Totally rigged. I was dealt 10 clubs and 4 diamonds 4 times in a row!! Same cards, same suits..in a row!!! Im not a math guy, but that seems pretty damn fishy. And to reiterate. It wasn't just at the same tourney, or same table...10 clubs and 4 diamonds 4 TIMES IN A ROW! 4 HANDS...THE SAME HOLE CARDS. and someones gonna tell me its just a bad beat.



Im sure you have better odds of winning the powerball twice in a row, get hit by lightning 7 times in an hour and become president of the us than getting the exact same hole cards 4 hands in a row

 by Fenny

I've read many reviews here and they're nonsense. You post specific hands, and I have more bad beats a day than all hands written here combined, it makes no sense to post individual hands.



What I can say is that after 4 years of profitable poker I do think it's rigged. Not only do I run something like 8bb/100 under EV, which is ridiculously high, I also run "bad" when EV is not calculated. Bad players make it out on turn on river and I never do.



2.5% percent mentioned in article are true, they introduced it 2 years ago without telling. You can avoid it if you deposit in native currency first and then through the menu convert to USD. If you directly deposit into USD, 2.5% are taken out.



I think the game is rigged for bad players, to increase the volume of the same money going into rake. If money goes from bad to good player directly, it will be withdrawn and pokerstars won't get to make profit, if it's played over and over again, pokerstars makes the most of profits, especially in trounaments.



Fish hitting their outs on river is just too damn high, you're 80%, 85%, 90%... favorite to win on turn or flop, you go all in, and you lose and it happens way to often and running 4 years under EV prove it. It's not some individual hands, it happened today ffs.

 by Grape Ape
Rake

Pokerstars is dubbed "RIVERSTARS" or "SUCKOUTSTARS" for good reason. I have played thousands and thousands of online, and real poker hands. I have NEVER seen the bad beats, the split pots and the rotten suckouts, you see at pokerstars. Why is this?? 1 word... "RAKE". 100's of tables running at the same time, with boards, BEGGING people to call or shove, only to have the pot split, or the other player sucks out. When there's a reason to CALL, you CALL. Problem is, the way these boards come out, MANY call, increasing the RAKE on the table. An ALL-IN for $250, that's been called, is $500. Nice rake, huh? BAMMM, river card splits the pot, each player gets less then their $250, and the robbery is complete.

 by D Casey
Nothing to gain?

Is PokerStars Rigged? the following statement is from above.

"Keep in mind that PokerStars has no incentive to rig poker games outside of sponsored play"

On the contrary poker stars has a huge incentive to rig play money games, if a novice consistently wins on free play they are liable to believe that winning at poker is simple, betting on total shit like 3/4 off suit that anybody with any sense would fold only to see a straight, trips or even 4 of a kind come up over and over again, often beating Aces, Kings etc will lead the novice into believing he can win equally well on the real money tables, which WILL NOT HAPPEN, the only winner is Poker Stars

 by Björn
Do you have made the same experience?

It seems Pokerstars goes this way to scam:

a)As often as you play, as more days in a week, as more bad bets get you in important situations/with bigger stacks

(PS thinks, he is playing often, he is poker addicted and will come back regardless how many bad bets we give him)

b)When you pay in new money immediately after your bankroll is gone,your bad bets will stay on a high level

c)If you play a new format, e.g. Omaha instead of Holdem, you will hit the board extremly often, after a few weeks bad bets increase very much

(PS thinks, oh a new field of getting money, let him get the feeling of success also in this kind of poker, than we will press the money out of him)

d)When you make one day (or more) break after a serie of bad beats, you will cash 100% (if not playing crazy) by next log in

(PS thinks, he is going to stop poker playing, we have to keep him motivated)

 by WaveyDavey
I asked them for an interview...

I run a video production company and wrote to Pokerstars asking them to an interview to answer the questions of whether or not it was rigged etc.



I know the email got delivered, but I never received a response.



It is astounding how they have NEVER responded properly to the enquiries that specifically relate to their deal/outcomes.



Yes, their deal may be certified, but they never state how many people - most notably the Russians - have cracked that deal and can "see" the cards.

 by WaveyDavey
I win everywhere else, except STARS

I play poker - For more than fifteen years. I have played at EVERY poker site. I have WON at ALL of them. EXCEPT Pokerstars! How the hell does THAT happen? How can I win at EVERY other site but NOT at Pokerstars? As a Poker Pro said, he was able to beat 1000's of people in a FREEROLL on Full Tilt to gain entry into PS tourneys, but NEVER WON - this was a PRO! He accrued thousands of points to get these entrants but NEVER made the money in ANY of them. When the pros start saying it stinks, you have to take notice.



I've occasionally put $10 into PS - I play PERFECT LIMIT poker - yet, NEVER WIN. How does that happen? Seriously, I play ABSOLUTELY BY THE ODDS, YET NEVER WIN - ALWAYS OUTDRAWN BY IDIOTS.



Someone else noted here, that you have AA.... Hit an Ace on the flop after capping it preflop and yet some moron has still followed you to that stage with J7o or 69o and ALWAYS makes his MIRACLE on the TURN and RIVER. Usually, it's a Russian. I've seen Russian players call 72o to a capped PREFLOP and FLOP and still catch 7 and a 2 on the turn and river... They KNOW it's coming - there's NO OTHER LOGIC to their ridiculous calls. NO NORMAL POKER-PLAYING PERSON makes those calls unless THEY KNOW they're winning before you know what cards are shown.



Yet, Pokerstars continually says their software is validated for a "fair deal". What they DON'T SAY is how many bots or players have CRACKED that deal and KNOW what cards are COMING! Let's face it - why else would you call 72o on a CAPPED PRE FLOP to a PREFLOP RAISER qith AK / AA if you didn't have confidence in what was coming...



Yet, if you raise this with PS, they just say over and over how certificated they are.



BULLSHIT. I've played a LOT of poker - online and live... and I've NEVER seen the kind of miracles that I see at PS every other hand almost.



Seriously... I won at EVERY OTHER SITE, EXCEPT PS. I entered and won my first live tourney. I am NOT a poor player, by any means. I'm not the best either.



But ONE THING I KNOW is that if you PLAY the odds, YOU SHOULD WIN. The ONLY place this DOESN'T HAPPEN is at PokerStars.



Pokerstars is rigged - they should prove it's not, rather than us have to prove it is. Because, so far, the overwhelming evidence detailing rigged plays has been ignored totally by them.

 by Goyim
From rigged to obvious joke

I tried pokerstars some years ago made some statistical analysis and concluded that the site was rigged.



A particular player that I wrote about in my small report suddenly made his statistics unavailable at Sharkscope when I wrote about him. He was a real psychic. Win AK vs AA, win A9 vs AK all the time, never losing when he was ahead in preflop allins. Nearly always winning when he was the dog.



I thought I should try it again just for fun. It was not fun. It was ridiculous. How they help the small stack fish. How the miracle card turn up every fugging time for the bad player. How the preflop allins always ends in a hit and mostly in straights and full houses. You wait and wait and move in call with AK when someone moves in with jack 7 and the board is jack jack xx 7. Another tournament ak vs j7. Then he only hits two pair on the flop. Move in with 10 3 against aa and hit straight.



Well. I want to talk with a person that says this shit is random. WE can sit and play together and discuss. Does it really exist anyone on this planet that thinks this garbage is random?



I have studied statistics full time for nearly one year in the university and passed my exams so I know this site is bull.

 by ivo
fishy

Firstly, I would like to say that poker as a game is as gay as it gets, were you can get f***ed at any time. So many ways to get bad beat. The way they make you lose cash online is by constantly giving you losing AK against A4, or AQ vs AJ... I have been losing like this in up to 20 tourneys per 2 hours in a day. They dismiss it by explaining how you just got the short stick today but if we analyze 1 mil hands in period of 1 month then the math will prevail. Fair enough. However, it's beautiful how they manage to get you losing in a tourney where you play good and tight. Because they know they can't make put your money in the pot for nothing they will deal you 99, you will hit a flop like 9 7 3, so obviously you bet and the guy next to you goes all in. What do you do??? you pay of course because who in the right mind will fold and you see how the guy is being dealt runner runner colors. There is of course always the idiot excuse as well. I had a situation after 4 h of playing to raise under the gun with AA and the guy on the button with half the stack not pressed by the blind or something decides to go all in with 89 off and hits 882 on flop. How peculiar is that. The worse of all is that they always do it not in the beginning in some small tourney but in a decisive moments against stacks that can cripple you. Something else they do as well (maybe it is part of the 'fairness' or 'faire chances' plrs get, not sure what they call it) but they always put you on a table with stack that are your size. Once I was playing a tourney of aprox 1300 people and in the first 10 min I had huge hands and very good pots to make around 60K while the average stack was 3500. So I am being placed at a table with this plr who has 62K. he is 1st and I am 2nd. I am being dealt KK and he is was dealt AA. I could believe that this could happen. To be moved at a table with the other huge stack in a tourney of 1300 people and to get KK against AA. Surely I was all in at a point and I lost. What are the odds. I am sure there are superusers grinding for the house

 by Mike
Rigged

I dont care what anyone says about it PokerStarsUK is rigged. You are constantly given cards to entice you into the pot and draws to continue. It is impossible that they are randomly giving out cards. I continuously see 5 or more players all in ALL holding face cards. Mathematically this is bizarre. I have screenshots of bad beats (as the critics call it) where I'm being reraised preflop holding jj and they hit 2 pairs on the flip holding cards like 10,4 off suit. I play live poker at a high level winning thousands and I will never put another penny into online poker. It's a scam and it's rigged.

 by robert smith
River Stars

While I enjoy the game in theory, this site (poker stars) I have come to the conclusion that it is a scam. Over a 5 year period and with multi- conversations with them directly, I have found that when I lose my chips, its in most cases (95%) I lose on the river to the higher stack. Most common AA (holding) to only lose to 8-3 or some ridiculous cards, with the dagger coming on the River. We have a saying, the name should be changed to River Stars!!! The games I play are .25 with 90 players, so the damage is minor. I would love to find another site that I could feel confident in its honesty.

 by JS
Noone can prove it is a scam, but there are things to consider...

I believe this article is well written, but it is lacking data. Now, I have been analysing and compiling my own data, and i got to say, things look pretty unbelievable.

I play live poker regularly with my friends, both cash game and tournaments. Bad beats happen, but theory of large numbers works out in the end. In Pokerstars, it just doesn't.

I could spend a bunch of time writing all my statistical analysis here, but there is no point. But I do have to point out some of my most interesting findings:



1. 93% winning hand on turn ends up winning on river 40% of the time! This is based on several hundred hands with these specific odds, which make it pretty much beyond doubt that it is not a coinsidence.



2. Just over the last two days, I had AA three times in 50 hands (yesterday) and twice in 20 hands today. Pretty remarkable. Going every hand all-in pre flop had one fold, and 4 calls. Each of those calls WON, 3 times against 88, one time against 33. Now, even if you consider there are thousands of hands being delt every second, there is still no chance in the world for this to happen to a single player.



Noone can really claim that the site is rigged, but there is really no quality assurance to make sure it isn't. When compared to real poker, there are just way too many unbelievable events that occur. In any case, if you like poker, my suggestion is to go play it for real, and not give money to scam sites.

 by Gunnersfan
Not all people win

Love this losing players complaining...of course if you are losing you will rather blame others, software, phase of the moon or whatever. Run your own stats from hand history, people tend to forget when they win as favourites but remembering losts against the odds. I did it as well, they will send you your hand history, so if you have time and are willing to put some effort, go on. After I went through this, I found out nothing extraordinary, all ok with maths...so for you complaining about those bad beats and stuff, learn more, play less hands. And finally: there can't be winners without losers...

 by Lee
Scam

How about the fact that the recent pokerstars update that was mandatory rendered it impossible to contact their support team

 by Flo Kaufman
none

On free play why do you have to wait a long time to play after you have lost one stack? I had to wait 8hrs before they would give me another stack. That's terriable it's not real money

 by James
Its either SQL injections, or fraud being committed by the ceos.

I Cannot stand online poker anymore, Were their is money to made, You can be 100% sure their is fraud going along with it. I happen to know a thing or two about Microsoft software flaws, and I can honestly say their is either a group of kgb hackers, taking peoples money through sql injections, or this site is running a international scam that only favors those who are in on the scam. I know the majority of "so-called professionals that made a career on this website are all of "Jewish" decent, which makes me think this is nothing but a Ponzi scheme and were all the goyim". But no their not racist their willing to fuck over anyone not in their circle. I would like to believe its lack of knowledge and sql injectors taking advantage of the sites poor software. but I strongly think its fraud, with mass advertising promoting you have a shot of quick money. The truth is earning money and saving it, is the only way to get ahead in life.

 by Prerit kumar
Fixed games for sure

Okay so first of all let me start by saying I played my 1st game of poker back in 2009 or 10 and just fell in love with the game...before this I used to play 'teen patti' with dad as a kid in India so I know a lot about cards.



I completely understand that, in poker, at times even 2 7 offsuit can destroy pair A A.



But man pokerstars has a complete differwnt vibe to it.

Now I have won a few big tourneys that I am very proud of eg

Their weekly bronze freeroll...I ended up making the final table on that tourney it had 30000 entrants.. and this is the last tourney I won before finally closing my acount with stars due to opponents hand winning out of nowhere specially when its a big pot.



Just in this tournament 'bronze star' I flopped AA and was near button and had to call an all in so I did the guy had 66

Flop A6k,J,6 he had a four of kind on river and my full house fot beat... however I survived the beat and had chips left but got knocked out on the 9th pos.



Another example is a 30k bounty builder.

I had made the few last tables and went all in

After I made my flush on the turn and got called but a three of a kind but on the river he hits a full house. I lose all my 170k chip stack.



Another big tourney but this was near the start.

3 people we in the pot and we all had flush and that too on the flop so there were 6 hearts already dealt to players and 3 more got flopped do thats 9 hearts of 13 already out, who knows what the other players had



Now please realize, I know things can be random and I do know when its random but you will know when its a setup too.



There are many more times some seedy stuff has happened.



As for my winnings I have won around 3-3.5k and lost sbout 4-4.5 so -1000 loss, you cant say I am a bad players because I did win tourneys even got 1st place on $11 4k prizepool and more wins.. I will play poker on future most probably live.



Look man its an online gambling company how much morals do you expect them to have..even the purest of people are somewhat corrupted and this is like I said an online gambling company..who is to say they dont have a few selected bots as poeple that play all the big tourneys for them..

 by Geoff
Of course it's a scam

I only play the play money games and they are most definitely fixed so there is no way I would play with real money.



I have been playing for a few years and I now know at what time of the day they will let me win, in fact almost guarantee I will win, no matter what cards I get. I also know when there is no way possible for me to win, no matter what cards I get. It is obvious that it is programmed that way to make you feel like you can't lose and will eventually switch to the real money games.



Anybody that actually uses their own money to play on Poker Stars is being played for a fool, it is a computer generated program that is programmable to do whatever they want it to.



Play money is fine but don't fall for their scam.

 by Moi
Busted

Stars is a scam.



I read the comments here and just the same thing happend me. I think: Soon I have to not be taken out becauce of bad beats...but it wil never stop.



After a loong downswing at PS I got, again AA and thinked: How mutch will I loose this time: Flopp was AQT spades. Fuck..many spades here I thinked...I bet...get a call..turn: Q..NUTS HOUSE! Yess...finally MY turn I thinked. I hope he has flush...we went all in...and he show up ROYAL! I cant belive how many badbets happend online and at stars.



Last day in 2 tournments AK VS AQ on the flopp...and 2 times runner runner QQ....



I thinked: I play some cash..tournments are unreal..and one of my first hand at cash table vas AK...Flopp AXX...we went all in head up..opponent had AQ...runner runner QQ...again!!!



Today played 3 tournments. Hand 1: AA vs TQo...I bet on flopp...he put me all in as a bluff...and hit 4outer strait on river. Hand2: MY 00 against 55..blank flopp..yes I thinked...finally! until river gives a 5 lol. Hands 3: MY KK vs TT...blank fopp...all in..river..T!! Day over!



It is not possible to win at stars. I play OK poker, MY vpvp is around 18-19...and I have some idea than low vpipv get punished. So I guess the deck is rigged AND something in the software give u bad situations when u have OK VPIP and play ok. U get punished.



I have played livegames for 10 YRS and I am a winning player live. AT Stars, after 250k played hands...in minus. You win a little..than down..up.down..but in the long run u loose u money and have to do a new deposite. After 250k hand in 2-3 mounts I recognice a pattern what happend. Anyway how good hands u got...When u in loose 70-90 % favorites around 50-60 % of the time again and again..something is veery wrong.



It is very very dificult to play poker against human AND sowtware ( and maybye bots as number 3? )



Hadsup agaist 3 opponents...difficult ha ha 🙂



Pokestars is a SCAM!!

 by S. Chan
Pokerstars

Okay guys here's my view.

I ve read a lot of reviews from unhappy people and to be honest I was very dubious of the site as I have been playing for only a few months and spent top end hundreds of pounds for the entertainment.

I'm not a big player just like to enter tournaments up to $20 or so.

Last Sunday I played in a $5 buy in as usual and thought nothing of it to be honest except another quick game of poker to past the time, however I finished 2nd and cashed out $2200!! I was as shocked and excited as anyone who has ever reached the final table let alone come second.

Whilst heads up I hit a straight on the turn and went all in.

The guy called me with a pair of sixes and end up hitting a 4 for a bigger straight.

Who would call that!!! Well he did. Tosser lol!



Anyway I was still over joyed with winning $2200.



Now the next thing pops in my mind.

Am I actually going to get the money? That was the most important thing in my mind all day.

I looked on line and it states that it will take 3 to 10 days after clearance from Pokerstars. So I'm thinking oh shit. its gonna drag on and I might not even get the money.



Well its 3:30am in the UK on a Wednesday morning and I have just checked my bank account and all I can say is ' Thank you Pokerstars!'



Yes you can win and yes they have paid me a lot quicker than expected.

So thank you again Pokerstars.

 by jake
shooting stars

A Random Deal Yes and No..



okay rigged is not the right way to look at it.. the shuffle comes out the same ways every time, nothing like a normal deck of cards though.. and it is completely random but random as in a set up hand could come up any given time but trust me its not out to get you in particular lol, I never used to think that way because its stupid when u think about it and I am 1 billion percent sure stack size does not have anything to do with who wins at all but time and mouse clicks can and will change the outcome of the next card.. yes I completely agree too that the odds don't add up the same as a real deck at all, like you are more likely to hit quads online in a 100 hand session not because your "playing a lot" because that's the rare set up hand.. and yes sorry to burst your bubble and theory about every hand being set up lol poker is evil live or online you are gonna get insane beats bad and good but set up hands do not happen often and on top of that nobody knows when its going to pop up so who cares.. everyone has the same chance of winning but I also like to add if someone did not know ps did this and thought the shuffle was always random in the way casino poker is random then that person could lose his house, family, car, all his money and then some, so be careful.. flushes and str8 occur way more often than a normal game... I have to laugh 1 day my friend who does nothing but shoot live poker seen me play and he said I'm stupid for the way I play.. just a bit later that day he agreed I am super top tournament and sit and go player.. and of course this pro tried his hand at my games and failed miserably again and again and again lmao I watched him fail for some time kind of laughing in my head but he was starting to dump the whole account so finally I kind of told him how I thought it worked anyway and bam that day he takes down the big 4.40 in 4'th place ! and not by luck or that much skill but only from knowing what to fold pretty much and when to fold..

 by Darrell
Definitely Scam

Today, I have closed my pokerstars account of nearly 10 years. My record with Pokerstars was spotless UNTIL I ventured into play money games just for the fun of it. Of late, I have had a total of 5 play money players approach me and offer to sell me chips at $25 for 100 million worthless chips. When one admitted to being a cash player using a different account for play money, alarm bells went off. I reported directly to security almost three months ago, and have yet to receive a response. The player in question is STILL playing both accounts. It's obvious to me that pokerstars actually approves of this for only one reason - such players add greatly to their bottom line by selling play money chips to fund their cash accounts. Brilliant!!! Until now. This has all been reported to Police Authorities as well as the gaming commission. Withdraw and run fast is my advice on this one. It's about to implode.

 by Skax

Statistics schmatistics. For those who have played a lot of live poker, the shit you see on PS often makes no sense. The number of times I have been dealt the exact same hand two hands in a row is staggering. Unfortunately it's always shit like 48, not AA. I have seen 4 straight flushes in 8 hours of playing. I have seen quads numerous times in quick succession. I often see AK vs AQ AQ AJ. But the most obvious thing that something isn't right is when you're in a tourney and you notice some guy is folding hand after hand. You think he's tight right? Then all of a sudden he goes all in under the gun with 8 3 off suit. Now let's see a flop. 8 8 3. How you can possibly explain that sort of play?

 by Charles Snedden
Deal Making

Playing in a tournament on the site I agreed to do a deal with an opponent to split the $1500 prize money on offer. We had similar stacks and both agreed to go all in. I lost and my opponent jsfernandes failed to transfer funds to me. I E mailed Poker stars 3 times and after 6 days eventually got a patronizing and condescending reply saying there is nothing they can do and that I should not have agreed a deal.The conman gets off scot-free. I appreciate I may have been stupid and naive but will never play with Pokerstars again. They have no interest in ordinary respectable members of their site. If any one knows js fernandes give him a good kicking from me.

 by Starsripped
Simply crooks

PokerStars are most definitely fitting up their customers .. this is the one reason and the only reason you need to know .... they refuse to be independently audited !!! Simple !! If they were legit .. they would bend over backwards to assure their customers and future customers of the legitimacy of their site . An unregulated and nonaudited gambling site .. wake up !! .. I could rant about the bad beats , refusals of cash outs etc etc etc .. but the above says all that is needed to say . They should all be banged away especially the celebrities that take money off these parasites to endorse them . Wake up people !! one way or another they are stitching you up !!

 by toni
pokerstars workers.

regarding the guys (the team) who says all the site is just one person

and is surprised they havnt been sued yet!

well

you should be sued for your stupidity.

and your criminal intentions.

and one day divine justice will cach up with you

in one way or another.

on any site talking about pokerstars

there is allways a group of people trying

to ridicul who ever says scam or rigged,

and allways with the same arguments, that they are

superior winning players and the others are not

they try to make you feel is your folt, for all the aggro

players must go through.

obviously is a public relations team payd by amaya corporation,

just like when they buy advertisement, or pay the tecnicians to inprove and find better ways to scam the players.

they are not doing a good job as more and more people

will not chose to ignore the evidence any more.

and soon the all castle will come crumbling down.

you can fool some people some time

but you cant fool all the people all the times.

 by Dorothy1943

POKERSTARS IS 100% LEGIT. 90% of poker players lose, 5% break even, 5% win. I have been on ps 5 years and never had a losing month. I have cashed out over 750k in 5 years and i still consistently win. Poker is more than winning with the best hand or fading a 3 outer. you need to do more studying and less b*tching. gl u 90%ers

 by James Greig
Response to Wizzadd

In response to Wizzadd: By written in the same style, do you mean in English?? Ludicrous to suggest the reviews are all written by the same author. The styles are quite clearly different and surely you can recognise that it's not beyond the realm of possibility that more than one user has suffered bad experiences on the site. Granted, perhaps there's some confirmation bias as it's more likely that someone reading this site will have been looking for confirmation of rigging in the first place but to allege it's all written by one author is just dumb. Plus, your comment got published, so if it was all controlled by one person then you would be that person which doesn't really make sense now does it..



Also as far as I can see the article merely presents facts and interprets them, hardly a suable offence! It expresses opinions and opens the floor to debate, which it is allowed and protected to do so by law. It doesn't make any unfounded allegations so there's nothing it can be sued for.



Finally, as someone who's also repeatedly suffered at the hands of PS, I was intrigued to read from another site's comment's section the following, and I quote 'that Imperial College London had analysed over a 100 million hands from various online poker operators and noticed the same predictable patterns of manipulating hands to maximise the rake returns of the provider.' I've no way of proving this and I'm not alleging it's true Wizzadd, (God forbid or else I could be sued couldn't I!) but it's interesting to see all the same.

 by Wizzadd
BullSh#t

All the previous "reviews" are written in the same style, and obviously written by the same author - probably whoever opened this site. This site is obviously just someone with a beef against PokerStars, and in no way is truthful. I'm surprised they havnt been sued yet!

 by Peter
Yes, very much rigged.

I've found the comments here fascinating. I've always strongly suspected card rigging from my years of appalling bad beat experience on the site, but I kept coming back for more (almost masochistically), trying to convince myself that PS wouldn't risk being shut down when it can generate significant revenue without cheating. But when greed is a factor (and just look at the checkered history of some of its key owners/managers), added to the fact that the site wants to maximise bottom line, AND it can use whatever tools it wants to do so without being scrutinised by any regulatory body (think FIFA for instance), you have a motive and a means.. Combine that with the huge catalogue of anecdotal evidence / user complaints and the rigged theory starts to look a lot more compelling.



My experience with the site echoes so many of the comments here. I've always been surprised by the number of action hands for instance and how bad beats tend to accelerate on the bubble in tourneys (particularly for shorter stacked players). Clearly, this is supportive of encouraging greater sized bets to maximise rake and speeding up tourneys for the same reason.

I've also always noticed that after a withdrawal, my run of bad hands skyrockets, to the point that it can no longer be coincidence (we're very much past the sigma events of improbability). Perhaps the site believes that it can subconsciously condition players to keep money in the site by punishing those who take money out. Looking at how they've behaved in the past (i.e. with the online marketing partners), we can't put anything past these guys.



I've personally lost thousands of dollars on the site but thanks to this page, I've finally woken up and smelt the coffee. I'll be terminating my account and sticking to live card games that I know and trust, and hoping that one day justice will be served against these criminals.

 by tony
pokerstars is a scam

Amaya CEO David Baazov Faces Five Charges of Insider Trading,

Quebec's securities regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF),

have filed five insider trading charges against David Baazov, CEO of Amaya Inc.,

the company that owns online poker sites PokerStars and Full Tilt.



The charges stem from an investigation launched following the acquisition of PokerStars and Full Tilt

by Amaya in a mega $4.9 billion deal.



and do you really think someone like that,in charge of a company worth BILLIONS,

cares more about the players or poker in general

than his share holders ?

do you really ?

i dont think so

im even surprised that you people are surprised.

is just natural in this world of ours to put money first.

you would do exactly the same if not worse.

and we are still here questioning if or if not ????

we are idiots arent we ?

i mean even the rats in the holes know by now, and we are still discussing the matter.

the thing is we are addicted to the game like drugs addiction, smoking sigarettes, alcool and so on

and so we try to find a logical reason for our actions.

in order to feed our addiction

and they know it, so they are not worryed about it we are faithfull customers no matter what.

everybody knows that sigarettes in the long run will kill the smoker

but they still smoke.

well, the sooner we realise this the sooner we get our lifes back.

peace and prosper

 by Tyler Iampen
FUCKING CON ARTISTS

I have been waiting an absurd amount of time for a cash out from these fucking goofs. They allow you to transfer money to another player. I transferred money to my roommate and now they're asking me how I know him, whats our relationship and havent answered my emails in weeks and will not release the funds. They're a fucking joke.

 by Anne
Ripped Off

I am in the UK.Used poker stars for the first time. Received no deposit bonus. Sent three messages asking where it was. No response. Finally, sent a third one saying I would ask my credit card company to refund my money if they did not reply. I was IMMEDIATELY frozen out of my account. They got the messages but clearly chose to ignore honouring the bonus and chose to ignore responding to my messages. They froze me out and I cannot use the Beat the Clock bonuses I am entitled to even though they have not refunded me my money, so technically, I am still entitled until they do so. And for the record, the Beat the Clock is rubbish. You can never play as it is always full. I requested info about this too and was again ignored.



Their games are absolutely rigged. Without a doubt. I had the worst hands all the time. ALL THE TIME! Could barely win a hand. They are using bots and fake players to make sure you don't win.



I am contacting my credit card company to charge back to Poker Stars for fraud and am reporting them to the ombudsman.



VERY DODGY DISHONEST COMPANY. DO NOT PLAY THERE!

 by Will
Short Stack Almost Always Wins

Hi Guys, as a Gold Star in PokerStars, perhaps my opinion may have some value. I have been a regular player for the past 5 years, I have finsihed second place in the Saturday Scuffle, and made it to the final table in many Medium/High Bounty Builder tournaments. I am quite familiar with the software...or hardware as they call it. However, never finished a tournament in first place..



I play Hyper SNG's & Tourney’s. Never was much of a Cash player. One thing I notice, is the smaller stack almost always, always wins in a show down, against the odds, on the turn or the river. Many times I will call all in on a high pocket pair,( ie JJ or QQ) and i will get called with a 6-7 or 9-10 off suit. (You know, put serious pressure on the small stack to beat him out) Next thing I know, they flop absolutely nothing, then the turn doubles their outs and boom a straight on the river. This scenario is very similar to what Mike G says below about Spin and Go's. I find I almost always get beat by the smaller stack there too. What has me in question, is in Poker Stars terms and conditions it states all players will play in a 'Fair' environment. (Don’t know the exact section, but its there if you want to look) This is a 'flag' for me. As an example, Does it seem like a fair environment if everyone just goes all in as in shootout satellites? This is what makes me wonder if their algorithms will pick out 'bullies' and deal em a bad beat. Another reason I am lead to 'look' this way is also due to a you tube interview with Poker Stars head of communications. He said that there is 'hardware' to randomly generate numbers and there is also USER INPUT that can affect the shuffle. So if I have this clear, a players previous call, raise or fold will affect the random number generator. This kind of backs up my theory about dealing 'bullies' bad beats.

Overall, I have won a lot of money, but I have also lost a lot of money. I feel that my playing experience gives me an edge against new comers because I have a ‘database’ of my own that helps me determine the ‘poker stars odds’ instead of the real odds of winning a pot. The main thing I’ve noticed with No Limit, is it only takes 1 hand to lose the stack of 1000 hands.

 by Scotpip
Hand rigging: highly unlikely

This is more a response to the comments claiming hand-rigging than to the review itself, which accepts that it is highly unlikely.



In addition to the regulation, it is worth noting that that a large group of online professionals pool their hand histories and subject them to sophisticated statistical analysis. For the big-brand, regulated sites they have found nothing of concern and have concluded that the dealing is clean. A large number of serious professionals play PokerStars -they wouldn't do this if they thought it was rigged.



Amaya's business practices are another matter, and the issues raised in the review seem legitimate cause for concern.



But the evidence is strong that the dealing is clean.

 by Mike G
Pokerstars is definitely a scam

I have been trying to convince myself to DELETE Pokerstars.. I can not believe how many bad beats I have gotten in ONE night. The Spin and Go Tournaments were the last straw. If you are not familiar with the format you can buy in for up to 25 dollars and you play 3 handed for a random pot....the most I've played for was 150 to the winner. I have played 10-15 in a couple of hour span and received against all odd beats. Runner runner quads against flopped sets in a HEAD TO HEAD match? Aces versus a pair of 2's heads up and they flop quads...its insane. Hands I've never seen live. Theres one particular screen name thats come from behind in like 5 different Spin and Go's where he has 30 bucks left and I have over 1200 and he comes back with bad beat after bad beat or KKs vs AA's in a heads up match...it is so God Damn frustrating. I've lost over 300 in the past 3 days. I decided to search for some complaints and found this article which has now convinced me to DELETE Pokerstars. The only thing I would like to correct in this article is the fact that Pokerstars does have incentive to end the tournaments quickly because they know we will sign right back up for another one. They make a buy in fee and in the Spin and Go's they sometimes make 25 dollars which if you add that up is a lot of money. If they crank out 50 Spin and Go's in an hour thats 1250 to the house AND if that certain screen name is actually a Pokerstars BOT/Employee they are making a killing just in the Spin and Go's. Its discouraging but I think its time to wrap up my online experience and go back to the Live Poker rooms.



Thanks

 by John
FTP-Bad Beats

I am the same way. I play through Fultilt poker and have played pokerstars in the past. There are so many bad beats on both sites. I really feel we are playing against someone who not only controls the cards but can also see all players cards. My theory is there are players who are Full tilt poker employees that play under aliases on the table. What does pokerstars have to gain? The employee on table puts the money into the pokerstars account. We have no way to prove it. I have pushed in with a pair of aces and have been beat with 5 and a 7. There should not have been a call with a 5 and 7 at a regular table. I left the sites many times then come back a few months later. But after reading this article I am now supported in my feelings to never to go back. Don't think they can't put players at the tables and you don't know who they are.

 by John Hardy
Pokerstars IS a SCAM!

I have been playing on Pokerstars for a couple of years now. I noticed a long time ago that there is definitely something not right in the dealing. Many times, especially in the last few months I would get the exact same hole cards, even the same suit, 2 or 3 times in a row? And more then once in the same day this would happen. Pokerstars tells me that SEEMS to happen more online because of the amount of deals the computer makes compared to a Human dealer. They say it happens seldom with a Human dealer because they will only deal hundreds of times in a night but the computer deals millions of times in a night so it is going to happen a lot more often? Someone needs to do the math! When you questioned Pokerstars on any of this you get a very scripted answer thats nothing but BS. I also noticed when I started wining more tournaments it became harder and harder to win with a really good hand. I would have a full house and get beat by a better full house or 4 of a kind! Now I know it happens but not as consistently as it does at Pokerstars. It's the only online Poker site that I am afraid to go in with a pair of aces! The biggest slap in the face is it is so obvious and no matter what the pokerstars staff won't even agree to check into it! I always got the answer that they had just been inspected and everything was above industry standards. They obviously have many glitches in their system. Several times I have been switched from table to table none stop 3 to 4 times in a row and by the time I got to play again I had missed 5,6,7 hands while being switched from table to table. I have sent them screen captures, Video's of hands, including a few I should have won or tied but lost! that's when I packed it in with them. I will never play for real money on Pokerstars again while they continue to ignore the complaints and tell us how above board they are. The problem is it happens at other sites also. 888 for example. I was playing there last week in a cash game and I noticed when I won a hand I was not getting the full balance that I won credited top my winnings! I started marking it down as I was playing and I won $45.00 that just disappeared while going from the pot to my hand! one of the other players even noticed and mentioned it. When I confronted them on it they said they had no record of it and I could go check the Hand History. I spent hours going through all the hands I played Comparing with screen shots I had taken and never found the screen shots? Gee I wonder where they went? The one that did it for me is a screen shot I took of a hand I clearly should have split the pot with the other player but somehow I lost?? I had Queens and 4's he had queens and there was a pair of 9's on the table. Tell me that's not a split pot. I sent them the screen shot a week ago and have not heard back yet! I honestly don't know where to play Poker for real money anymore. The other frustrating thing is hearing so many other players complaining during the game but they just keep going back for more? Tonight I decided I would search and see if I could find anything regarding these problems and I was pleased to find your website. The players are the only ones who can do anything about it, unless your a gluten for punishment. And there needs to be a more strict and impartial Governing body. And just so there is no confusion the 4 Star rating above is agreeing with Pokerstars being a SCAM!

 by jamie williams
pokerstars review

i have recently takin 2000 gbp from pokerstars and am wondering whether to play again, i understand there is a lot of bad beats and have had them myself but also i think there is a way to beat the software by constantly playing good throughout the full tourney,sng etc. one bad play and thats it the software wants u out or for example when u are short stack and can only really go all in this seems to be when the bad beats happen they need runner runner and hit i think this is because the software wants u out. basically all i want is to play a legitimate poker site where i can grow as a player and make a profit for good play. over and out

 by william white
They Cheat

The bad beats that happen in big play money tourneys is astoundingly bad. I play at local casinos and have never witnessed what I see on poker stars. I will never, ever deposit another single cent with these crooks. I believe that many of the "players" I have been up against are in fact bots. I have tried communicating with them and get no response. You are totally correct in calling them a scam and I'm done with them.

 by cassiebelcher
integrity?

I have purchased approximately Three thousand USA dollars to buy play chips at poker stars in the last 2 years ,as of right now I have less than 10 million in play chips .It's always 1 bad beat after another ,or really bad cards winning against my good cards . I have e_mailed play poker about all the losin ,& the fact I am no where near having an account there even after spending three thousand dollars to have an acctount ,in facxt after each time I e_mail them I lose more ,so I've stopped that .My husband had an acct, there & was same thing with him as with me ,he threatened to call our attorney General here in our state ,& poker staRS CLOSED HIS ACCT . So I now know that there's nothing I can do about this ,I know i'm addicted & they also know i'm addicted ,but enjoyed reading what you have written here .Thank you .

 by callmeSmedley
poker Stars dealing software

There is no way that a shuffled deck of cards could ever deal so many repetitive cards as they do at PS. Every time I play at PS I notice that I'm getting a certain card over and over again. This has bugged me for a long time. One sitting it will be something like 3s for example. I will get a 3 in my hand over and over to the point that it would be impossible to do with a real shuffled deck. Next sitting it might be Ks or Qs but it's always way too many to be a legitimate deal. It's like 6 0r 7 out of 10 hands with the same numeric card repeating in hand No way is that a legit deal. The dealing software sucks balls and I'm hereby done with PS.

 by Unanonymous
Scam for sure!

It is just for sure a scam. I was doing pretty good in big tournaments 4000-10000 players. I won 2, 2nd 2 times and final table maybe 10 times between january-april.Low stakes, buy in 3,3-7,5$. Then i started playing spin&go´s. There is just far too many action flops... its 3 max tables, but i havent even seen so much full houses, straight´s and flushes at the same time in 9 max tables. I made complaint about this issue to pokerstars with calculations. After that it was inpossible for me to win anything anymore. I just would like those criminals out of business. I think its purpose is just to make a lot of andrenalin rush and that way to keep people playing. I study really hard to become full time poker player, but these scammers ruin it.

 by average joe
Pokerstars is a scam

Pokerstars is nothing but a joke. They are clearly rigged, and I would stake my life on it. I will not, however, stake any money with the scam site that is Pokerstars. If you play enough poker- which I have- you know when something is not right. The cards,or deal, or "random" number generator, whatever you want to call it, are not random in any way. I have suffered too many ridiculous beats- many in a row, many for days on end, to believe the site is nothing but a cheating, swindling scam. I will never play there again, and I truly hope they get their sorry asses shut down.

 by Bo Henriksen
The biggest heist ever!

Pokerstars is rigged, thats a fact! - Amaya CEO David Baazov Faces Five Charges of Insider Trading and my best bet is that when the EU gaming commission realize that European gaming industry is losing a lot to those corrupted players on the market, they will shut down the entire operation. Pokerstars will be remembered as the worst within the gambling industry soon.



My advice is, do not deposit or play there. You will NOT win. They'll make sure you lose .. A LOT.



Pokerstars is rigged, I'm a pro and have been playing for 15 years online I see the difference. Its not that a lot of bad players causes the beats, the bad players does not make $1K + buy ins where I play.

 by Shaun
Unregulated, Unaudited, 0 legitimacy.

As the title suggests. Same company that's unregulated, (Cigital does not count) running the decks. It's not fully audited, only a very small portion of what they handed in and its offshore in tax evasion areas. Sorry but the amounts of people complaining isn't a coincidence. Its a scam site. Steer clear. Just look into players 'InDaNuts' and the bots controversy to see its not a fair game.

 by Martin Legger
THe definition of scam

I am a professional poker player, yesterday I won a national live tournament, £150k. But it doesn't matter at all. However I am not able to win constantly with Pokerstars because of the numerous bad beats they are dealing. Last time I played I left a tournament after a "pro" shoved with pocket 2 against my pocket K and he got a straight on the river. It was a $210 buy in Tournament, I was in the bubble.. Never mind, this things are happening live as well but not this crazy often.



Pokerstars is by far a huge internet fraud and Amaya owners shall be asked questions in court. They claim that you have equality of chances but the fraud happens on different bet sizing. For example is very likely that they will take you down when you bet big once, and keep you in the game on small pots.

 by Jon
Ponzi Scheme

I made a deposit of $20 about a week ago, played down to $13, then I came back the next day and I had $33. My cashier history said there was a $20 purchase, but I had never been on the site since being at $13. I emailed them and got no response so I figured I'd just withdraw the money. I then chopped a small tourney for $63, played a tourney and had a balance of $85. When I tried to make a withdraw, they said I had to wait for the deposit to clear (with I never authorized or requested in the first place). The next day I log on and my account is at $105. You guessed it, another "Purchase" when I had yet to log on that day. I am still waiting on the email response from them. It seems like they are planning on going bankrupt with as much of NJ money as possible. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR ACCOUNT INFO. YOU CAN NOT MAKE WITHDRAWS AND THEY KEEP CHARGING WITHOUT PERMISSION.

 by laura
rigged

Hi just had another night of bad beats on poker stars. I smashed my other laptop up becasuse i couldnt control my temper because of that site. Its when you deposit cash it seems to shit on you more so as you deposit more. I was in a tournament with 90 people left. for top prize of 2.5k, i was chip leader and had poket kings when a player went all in with kq. So i called and low and behold 2 queens come up and takes half my stack. Next hand i have AK an flop 2 pair so go all in. And get called by someone with pocket 8s and you guessed it the river comes up with and 8. I was then down to 4k chips and thought my luck in when next hand i get delt pocket queens and 2 players go all in one with aj and other with pocket 7. And the flop comes q 5 9 so i smilled and thought my luck had changed but not on jokerstars a king then an ace came out and gave the player a straight. What do you need to do on this joke site to win!!! Ive done nothing wrong and always get punished by the site and it helps bad players. Well i wont be back on this time and i advise everyone stop waisting your money on joker stars its a con!!!

 by Damon
PS total scam

Pokerstars is without doubt a total and absolute scam.

Do not play this site. You will get robbed. Mathmatical odds and probabilities never lie. .. Over the course of 5 years i have collated info on Pokerstars. Nothing stacks up except an extraordinay consistent highly inprobable algor8ythm that 9can only have been designed for one purpose.... To relieve you of yout money......

 by wk
audit

i lost the plot on the site after winning 2 decent prizes in a row.. 2 final tables. i withdrew surprise surprise and then after that i couldnt get going in any tourny. after reading some comments behind me i cant help but thnink why i couldnt win after withdrawing....... example is losing 6/7 times all in pre flop with AA vs AK and underpairs.

but anyway, i sent them an email and said to them i wanted them to get a full audit of their site to prove they arent rigging the deck after they shuffle ( i knew they shuffled the deck, but not what they do after the shuffle ) and eventually they suspended my acount.. seems i may have struck a nerve with them.

they told me i have to agree to the terms of service before i can play again... but they havnt responded to my emails accepting the terms, this has been 2 days now.

i had a look at the tournys i really tried at and worked out rougly i was giving my opponents 30% for all my critical all ins, yep, and losing 80%+. its beyond me howe this can be. and its been going on for years ffs!

i cant recall the last time i had that feeling of running true... never mind running good!

this needs to be taken to the political level were we can encourage support for a full online poker audit. we are clearly being scammed in one way or another.

 by david ingress
would a real person do this ?

Over Easter I played on Pokerstars several times ... In two tournaments ... NL Turbo Knockout .. 9 players ...

.

I reached the final table ... and then ... Heads Up ...

.

The first tournament ... dealt AJ ... so I went "all in" ... a bet of approx 8,000 ... my opposition called:

.

9 - 6 off suit .... made the straight !

.

The next tournament ... AK ... again "all in"

.

Again the opposition called

.

5 - 8 off suit ... made two pair

.

I am not asking the odds of this happening

.

I am asking:

.

Would any "real poker playing person", on the final table, heads-up, call an "all in" bet with:

.

9-6 or 5-8

.

I can not believe that in a "Cash" game, someone who was capable of "Heads Up" on the Final table would ever make such a call !!!!!!!

.

Yet it happened twice to me with different players

.

Sorry, but that makes me feel that something is wrong

 by Cholack

PokerStars used to be a pretty good practice site. I keep my own hand histories and while you can still practice there, i'veseen a shift since they started selling play money chips. It benefits them to move players who are still playing with chips they earned prior to play chip selling over to paying customers. And they do this by making you lose your play money chips. Then you have to buy play money chips in order to play. That's their goal.

 by john
Can you smell it? Yes, it's Jokerstars

1 - Who keeps his source code hidden by everyone?

I mean ofcourse you HAVE to hide it if it is like a video game or generally a program that does something complicated and you don't want anyone to make a replica of it and sell it, but with poker clients, it is different. Pokerstars doesn't make money BECAUSE of the pokerstars client but rather because of the poker itself, so why hide the source code? Of course maybe you believe people preffer pokerstars because of the beauty of its interface and I am willing to accept that, but at least they should show the RNG part that "decides" the cards, and not have it approved by shady 3rd party companies like they say in their site.

2 - Who really CAN'T see the action flop phenomenon everyone is talking about?

I have played live and the amount of players that connect with a particular flop on a 9-seat table on pokerstars is simply incredibly high. It happens A LOT. For example you can slowplay trips in live poker because you know it is highly unlikely they will improve more than you, I mean it's a legit tactic, but you can't do that on Pokerstars, if you flop trips you must bet big, go all-in or raise big because if you wait it's likely that you will lose the pot eventually to something crazy. In live poker I get many times frustrating because I can't hit a flop or something but that never happens on Pokerstars,I hit many times but many times I have just the worst "hit".

 by Kristian M Sørensen
scam.

Something is definitely going on, on pokerstars,, I am sick and tired of dedicating my time and life to theese scamsters, manipulating with my mind and pokerabilities,, its so amazing how many times i`ve experienced loosing with AA or KK etc. The underdogs are highly favourised and wins often,, the setups are continously unbelievable,,, i have the exats same experinces after cashout i begin to loose,, its stunning how often people report about this,,,, im not in a fkkn doubt anymore,,,, god damn scamsters earning so much money allready,,,

 by da maine
its rigged

AFter absolute poker was caught being given the players whole cards from the security team lovation that were workers of absolute its killed the integrity of online poker. LIke they are the only site doing that. I have seen workers sit on tables on other sites with their own id names trying to see if the other heads up player is only playing fish. Sitting 100 bbs. Its pretty amazing anyone thinks they are getitng a fair game. Those guys winning millions of dollars probably have some software that helps them see the cards. The beats are way too many 2 and 3 outters and then our 15 outters keep missing. Its too fishy for me. If anyone thinks its not rigged they will know it is within a few years. Play at the casino dont play online.

 by syd
thumbs up

i have NO problems what so ever with poker stars! they are courteous and helpful .and my money is in my bank account within 4 days .so i don't know what everybody is talking about ! thumbs up pokerstars .

 by Mike
I was just about to join, lol

I've been an online bullshit gambler for a few years and was considering real $$$ , with these crooks, lol , thanks for the heads up, I enjoy gambling, win or lose, I like to win mind you, most of all I demand it be fair game, no cheating. Cheers, thanx again .

MJones

 by harvell
pokers tars needs to be shut down

POKERSTARS will put every obstacle in your path to prevent you withdrawing any funds, should you miraculously win. The communication is abhorrent and you will be left extremely disappointed. It's fraudulent. People must report their experiences to warn others.

 by Mr M Young
Don't be so trusting

Of coarse stars is rigged. I have played live for years and years and I c more bad beats , cold decks, and ridiculous run outs in one 9 seater sit n go than the thousands of hands I c in a three day tournament. Stars is all about the bottom line. It must create action. It must promote poor play so everyone feels they have a chance. So that u stay to the river to catch a 3 outter. The worst hand win 75% of the time.

 by kelly
POkerstars Sponsered players get better hands

I agree with the Statement about Jaime Staples. I watch the stream too and he gets dealt premium hands CONSISTENTLY . Every orbit he is catching AA , KK, KA, JJ, 88, etc. and his hands are holding on flips about 75% of the time from what I can see. He is so confident he pushes all in late in tourneys with hands like pocket threes because he knows he is a favorite to win no matter what. pokerstars has so much to gain from him winning with so many people watching.



Me perosnally, My flip hands hold only about 20% o the time.. Example ...The last 12 times i was late in a tourney short stacked with pocket kings i lose every single time but 1. I lose to ace high hand flopping an ace or 67 rivers triple 666 or smaller pocket pair rivering a set. If i have KK and see I am called by an ace high hand i know i am gonna lose now. I am wondering how long it will be before this ends. Its not right.



Same with KA I ALWAYS lose to an ace high hand with a worse kicker or a pocket pair.



I am running so bad for the past 3 months . I am losing waaaayyy more hands than I should. And why??



3 months ago I cashed out over 4 k in winnings from different tourneys. Not from running lucky but from playing tight and smart.



since then I cannot win even with AA



I definitley think pokerstars is rigged in some way that is so genious we cannot figure it out. It seems as though they can make you an underdog by applying some percentage for you to win or lose based on your previous play. If you are a good player they dont want you winning all the time because the bad players might just give up.?? Maybe i am wrong, but variance doesnt lie.



The only thing that keeps me gritting my teeth and coming back are the massive prizes available to be won.



One last thought. Pokerstars sponsers many players such as Daniel Negreanu for instance. If the site isnt rigged why do these sponsered players almost never log in and play?? Even on Sunday only a small percentage of them show up for the big tourneys. They could save so much money on travel and expenses if they just played online. They dont mind showing their faces on the login screens but they are so smart and also know that the variance is out of whack so they take what they can get from pokerstars and do the minimal amount required to get it .

 by Magic M
They have prefered players

Its clear they have preferd players. The system takes in account what the deposite rate and amount is of players. They will keep them interested just enough to keep depositing. Its set up to make and keep people addicted. This is normal busines for any gambling site. I sometime just watch table and what is happening is not possible in any mathematicle way. Its not about luck its clear to me that some players are not players but simple pokerstar bots. If a player gets 5 times in a row winning a hand with a change of over a million, one knows it stinks. Its either a bot or a well rated deposit player. So one should always be awere we going online on gambling sites. The simple fact remains you can not win so stop believing you can make millions.

 by Tom

i just want to say one thing I play on stars quite often if any of the other sites would just step there game up I'd probably play on stars a lot less. But the reality is is that no other site is even close to stars. The biggest thing for me is that you don't have peice of mind if it is or isn't when u play and get a bad beat at the casino u 100% know it was bad variance. And I wish it was that way online but it's impossible to know for sure. I wish there was a way to change that. But at the end of the day all your complaining the way you do isn't getting anyone closer to a 100% fair game all it's doing if making everyone discredit anything that's said. I wish online poker was more regulated it's 2015 for fuck sakes are government or even some sort of players union should demand that these site have strick and routine monitoring and if they can't comply with things like that then they should be shut down.

 by nish
101% RIGGED

i 100% know pokerstarts is RIGGED



i played for many years and seen so many patterns

1) i open new accounts and would win money in first few days on every tournament i entered

2) after making withdrawls would run extremely bad

3) chip leaders always win with worst hand

4)action pre flop hands and post flop action



i see so much so i stopped playing and now play live and have a good consistent cash rate, and no way near see such bad beats



sometimes you just feel it and know in your heart when something is not right,



weather we want to belive it or not, because pokerstars is sooo big, rich and famous with great software people dont want to belive they would do this...but for that reason they are getting away with day light robbery



it hurts alot as i do this for a living and they scam for a living

 by Milan
Clearly Manipulated

I completely agree with your consensus but rather than believing its rigged, what is apparent is that it's clearly manipulated.

Their ingenious card systems have been designed to calculate all possible outcomes for all remaining players in such a way so that the players remain in hands as long as possible thereby maximising their rake returns.

For instance with three players remaining in a hand, how often have you seen one player hitting trips, another having two pair whilst the last is clearly heading for a flush. It is statistically impossible that cards would fall this way in a normal environment.



This apparent manipulation exists throughout online poker and there is not one integral online operator that is privy to these actions in their card systems.

I cannot emphasise this any further but do not play poker online as it's complete waste of time, effort but most importantly money. Progress is already underway with our learned associates at Imperial College, London to finally disclose how these unscrupulous operators have exploited the masses for ultimately their greed and we will ensure through our intelligence they're are brought to justice and held accountable for their actions.



Best wishes

 by Eddi Rebel
Pokerstars sucks

They even scam you with the offer for free 20$. If you pay real money for the first time they will not give you the 20$, because you do not comply with some "conditions", you will not find these "conditions" and support will not answer your question

 by Gyno
rigged

It's not that PStars is rigged against any one player, although I agree sponsored players are favoured, it's that the hands are setup to induce the biggest possible pots.

When hands are setup for big pots, there is often extremely rare outcomes, or bad beats, which takes the skill out of the game, and players have to rely on pure luck. Someone needs to go up against them and take them down, what they are doing is wrong.

 by Dale
Poker Stars Does Cheat the Players

I have played extensively (in the past-not any more lol) on Poker Stars and I 10000000000% guarantee that the site is in fact rigged in many ways - not just 1 way. I do not now where to begin with what I experienced it was so blatant and unbelievable. Again this started (like so many have reported) after I questioned them in an email. I played micro and recorded my stats daily. For example when I was in a 50/50 I won 12 %, when I led after flop I won 10 %. Over 10,000 hands IT NEVER CHANGED not even 1 day. The bad beats were worse than I ever seen any where. ......... I cant even really describe it I could not play another hand because because I had NO CHANCE. Poker Stars is a criminal org. 100 %

 by mike
Scum

Ive been playing poker for 6 years now... Spent 1000s of hours playing on ps and i have to admitt !!!Whats goin on since 2015 is a joke!!!This system is like every other soft u can programm it in any way u want. This is all about rake thats why u loose tons of buyins against idiots. Why? to keep them playing!Imagine Pokerstars with donks who loose most of the time with their 3 outters!No more money in the game!Rake Rake Rake!!The bigger pots the more money ps makes!!Now in 2016 its even more ridiculous!!!i quit playin online cause it does not make sense.

 by Homer
r!gged

I can't win in "CASH GAMES" OR "SIT AND GOs". I can't win an allin preflop with premium cards. I just can't. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT AK.

I don't expect to win all the time, but I should at least win 20 fuuckiin percent of the time vs 1 opponent with those premium hands.



My opponent always always crack them, with miracle trips, runner runner flushes/straights with only one of his card. It's just unfuuckiiinbelivable. I feel like i'm being cheated all the time.

If I make those fishy calls with a low or middle pair on the flop, i never get those miracle trips/straight/flushes. Nope, no miracles for me. Most of the times my hand never improves @turn.

I cant win by set mining either, most of the time I dont hit shit, (and my opponent is the one who hits the set) so I fukn f0ld my aces, pocket kings, queens (yes i fold them, can't even win whith over pairs either (not when I bet))....... and when I hit a set, I end up loosing vs oversets, straight, flushes

Everytime I bet a lot, I loose, loose and loose. It's no longer a downswing, cause it happens to me all the fuckiin time.



I'm talking about the hands that matters. I just loose when it matters (when I BET!! all the fuckiin time). I only win tiny, worthless pots.



pokerstars is r!gged.!!!! playing there ain't profitable. there's no way i can profit by playing "CASH GAMES" OR "SIT AND GOs".

I don't even know if I'm playing against real players. (My guess is that most of them are house bots)





I stopped playing TOURNAMENTS at pokerstars. Because of large fields!!! However all my profit comes from tournaments (but not pokerstars tournaments).

I have profits playing online poker, but not at pokerstars. I loose money there.

 by Terrygolfbal
SCAM SCAM SCAM

As soon as I started winning they seized my account and then had the cheek to say I was cheating and when I asked how they named two other players one I have seen over and over as I only played $15 18man so more or less same players and the other never seen the name in my life . $173 gone no explanation and when I complain I'm told I'm banned for at least 3 years . I really want to do something about it and I don't know where to turn

Are they regulated ?

Should I just use money claim online and take them to court ?

It wouldn't be so bad if I knew how to get hold of my so called cheating partners I have asked for proof they are real NO REPLY I have asked who regulates and how to complain NO REPLY please please help if anyone knows how I can attack pokerstars I would most grateful .

Thanks

 by MAMA
pokerstars and others are riiged

Hi, when it comes to rigged online poker, my theory is the following : poker rooms have no interest to make a player win more than another, but they have an interest to big pots, as it means bigger rack. So I believe the game is rigged for action, in that way that if you are dealt KK someone is going to be dealt AA, or as seen often in those videos claiming it's rigged, action changing river cards...does that make sense ? Thanks for feedback

 by Titus Weekes
Pokerstars is a Total Scam

They charge you to buy Play Chips. Can we all agree this is a scam?

 by Titus Weekes
Wuestions You Should Be Asking

Idon't believe Pokerstars is rigged, because I've seen no evidence of it in my own games. Variance is a thing and suckouts happen. Before you suggest the site is rigged you might reflect on what the site has to gain by "rigging" the games. Actually, nothing significant.



Let's return to the questions that matter. Is the rake reasonable (no).



Can you cash out without quibbles? (I don't know but I don't like what I hear on the "grapevine")



Are the game beatable? (Certainly not for recreational players)



Is playing there an enjoyable experience (not at all, nobody even chats they are all multi-tabling)

 by Just played
a scam

The thing about pokerstars is it puts big hands against big hands all the F ing time, it's so ridiculous.

I tried to slow play my trips on the flop by checking against 2 others and then started to bet for value on the turn, they didn't fold, runner runner spade one got ace high flush the other straight flush.

Then I got a full house the other guy got a bigger fullhouse, it happends far to often when it gets down to heads up. You can't play sneaky by slow playing anything like real cards, bar the nuts because they will hit something slightly better 80-90% of the time on turn or river.

Other thing I noticed when I first deposited money and played I was running so good, I got quads 3 or 4 times and of cause the others in the game had hit the ace making them a fullhouse so I made a lot of money, I believe that is to get you hooked.

I guess if you have a fair game fish will be obliterated and the sharks will win and withdraw the money from the site and I guess the goal of pokerstars is to keep the money on the site to be raked, I never truly believed it was a rigged site in the passed, but what I've seen has made it pretty obvious.

 by Doesn't Matter
TOTAL SCAM

What I've learned about PokerStars is that you can't beat a player that can play for real money. Meaning, if they're outside the USA, you'll probably lose most of the time - depending on the stakes. Think about it; if you owned the company, wouldn't you want the people that can play for real money to keep coming back? Hence, you don't want those people to lose against someone who cannot play for real money.



It's a TOTAL scam!

 by David
Disappointing

I play for fun but wanted to use PokerStar's to play with real money but everything I hear about them now is negative. Do they not get this is very damaging to their brand and they should do their best to fix it unless they do have things to hide, which is look more and more like the case.

 by Andres
of course is riged

The luck is aleatory. Long runs of good luck after your first deposit and long runs of bad luck time after is proof of a rigged game.

If you get a mix of luck over a long time, this is ok, and is consistently with the term variance.

If you throwing a dice 120 times(?? google translation), you don get 20 ones, 20 twos, 20 three and so on, in that order. You get some ones, some 3, some 4, but not twenty "3" continuos.

Sorry my English (google translation from Spanish)

 by RANDOM EHH
RIGGED FOR SURE

Cannot believe the naive opinion that stars has no reason to rig there games. If you create action flops and qq vs aa your gonna get more rake in cash games and quicker tournaments all creating more rake. STARS DEFIES MATHEMATICAL PROBABILITY AND AS SUCH HAS TO BE RIGGED.

 by Mr X
Big stacks VS Small stacks

This is my personal opinion after analyzing tables in early, mid and late game on texas holdem tournaments 9 player tables, low and high buyins.



First of all, i still play at PS once a while, mostly low buyins, trying to beat the system. Yes, there is a system... a system that's both fair and unfair because i think, after seeing so many hands the way i did lately, that the PS system doesn't favor particular players (although i don't have proof) but on the other hand the system / software is designed to make a tournament run as fast as possible, which is important to PS as far as rake. They want (frustrated) people who just had their 1000th bad beat running to another tournament asap and thus make more rake to PS. Looking at this with a business-eye i would say i kinda understand this because if i decided to develop a website, i would do so with the thought of making it profitable asap. You can ask yourself to what cost off course.



All I can say is that Pokerstars does this with their eyes closed, caring the least about people's financial health. They just want you to play and if you win, all good, if you loose, all good too, because your part of their system which generates enormous amounts of money.



Now, if you're aware of all this, you can keep playing at PS, trying to go with their system and beat it in a way, although you are never guaranteed to win anything... or quit immediately. Last thing probably is the best thing to do. Pokerstars know that they have made something very attractive and addictive to many. It's software really stands out of the rest. There's lots and lots of different kinds of options to play and technically it's just unbelievably well designed. And that's the problem for many, many players. It's very addictive. And PS knows that. And many players soon forget about their last bad beat, 100th in a week, because of this reason.



Now, what is saw:

I opened 6-8 screens in a particular tournament, after clicking the lowest stack players in the lobby, and watched what happened.



In particular after the buyin period, in mid-tournament, before the bubble, was bad beat after bad beat. Almost 90% of the time in favor of the big stack. So NOT ALL THe TIME!.. i believe PS has software that is very intelligent and possibly works with a timer or such, to make it not to obvious to players, what is really going on in the game.



When the bad beat wasn't so obviously set up by PS, i.e. big stack had JJ, small stack AQ, and the outcome was J 10 3 on the flop and A 4 on the river, the table was still there...

But, when the setup was obvious, small stack got KK (so off course time to go all in for their last chance in tournament-life) and big stack 8 8, the big stack scored their triple, and the table closed! All the freaking time. As if PS tries to avoid people chatting too much after such a hand and action card setup. These obvious setups and closing tables is nearly in 100% of the time the case.

And again, it doesn't happen in 100% of the cases, the PS software has to be very intelligent and making use of something like a timer to decide moments to set up plays like this.



Now, you can say, ok i know this, so i won't go all in anymore with my low stack. But let's be honoust, sooner or later you will be eaten up by the blinds or the few calls you make just to see if something falls your way. So sooner or later you will have to go all-in or call an all-in.



My advise would be, if you stay at PS and keep on playing, try to build a descent stack before the mid-tournament before the buyin periode closes, and thus increase your chances, maybe by trying a few all-ins early in the tournament. This will give you some frustrations because it will most certainly not always work out ok, but it's better then to grind your way into the mids and struggle with your average or under-average stack, just to see you fall into the same trap over and over again later on in the tournaments. This will leave you with much more frustration.



Best advise would be to quit i personally believe, although i myself still struggle to pull the plug once and forever. That;s how addictive it is. It's actually the same as with all other addictions, you know they are bad for you but you like it too much to give up on it.

But i personally wouldn't mind if Ps would be brought down by some government and get punishment. Because what they do is wrong. It understandable in a business minded way, but in a moral minded way it is obviously theft what they are guilty of. They steal people's money by letting them believe they get a fair game at PS. This is not the case. No way. they use more and more big names, from show business celebs to sport stars, just to suggest that their game is reliable and honoust.

 by D
RIGGED

How can we indict them? They are corrupt so how can we get justice?

 by franky malone
not sure

Hello,



first i want to say: Pokerstars has the best support of all pokersites, cashouts are quick and uncomplicated, Questions get answered fast.



Second: The have the best Software. The software runs smooth also when you have opend 20+ tables. Everything works well and uncomplicated. No other pokersite comes even close.



But i´m not sure if this site isn´t rigged. I watched the livestream of jaime staples yesterday, playing a 8$ rebuy tournament. He is a very good player and makes his decissions wisely - so no boubt he is legit to win such a tournament.



But i also saw the hands he got. Within 15 Hands he got dealt: 99, KK, 2 times AA und Ak

and of course the hands held up and he was also lucky with J2: JJ2 flop.even he himself felt a littlebit embarrassed running soooooo good. There was thousends of people watching the stream and sure he won the tournament.



Seeing that, and seeing myself and the most of the players struggeling with Hands like aa or kk, which get beat by the worst crap, i really have to wonder if Pokerstars is able to "help your luck" which i don´t hope, but i wouldn´t be suprised hearing that.



One thing is for sure: playing a week on pokerstars gives you more bad beat storys to tell then playing 3 Month in a Casino.

And exactly that makes me believe it´s not random.