People often ask me if GGPoker is rigged and if it is a legit online poker site to play on.
And it is certainly a reasonable question when a relative newcomer to online poker like GGPoker explodes onto the scene, increasing a lot in popularity in recent years.
People want to know why they are getting so many bad beats on GGPoker. Is GGPoker legit?
Can you trust it and so on?
So in this article I am going to answer all of these
questions for you.
Is GGPoker Rigged?
So what do people even mean when they ask if a certain poker site is rigged?
Well, in my experience they are referring to a lot of dubious river cards, so
called "setups" and the like. Basically, it feels like they are getting the
short end of the stick far more often than they should.
And this absolutely is a legitimate concern with some online poker sites due
to the electronic nature of the deal. Could it be rigged against you in some
way?
Regarding claims of GGPoker being rigged, I have not seen any statistically significant evidence at this point which conclusively indicates that GGPoker is
rigged or that there are widespread anomalies with the GGPoker RNG (random
number generator). Therefore, I have to conclude that GGPoker is not rigged.
It should be noted that "my pocket AA got cracked 4 times in a row on GGPoker" types of claims do not even come remotely close to what would be considered as statistically significant evidence that a poker site is rigged.
These are instead what we refer to as a bad beat story.
But as always, it is important to remember that you are the customer. If you
feel that GGPoker is rigged against you, then you can go and take your
business elsewhere at any time.
It is important to note that GGPoker is fully licensed in the Isle of Man and
has had its RNG verified by trusted independent sources such as BMM Testlabs.
GGPoker is also promoted by some of the game's most well known and famous
poker pros such as
Daniel Negreanu.
So Why Do People Think GGPoker is Rigged? Is There Any Truth To It?
Alright, so why do people still continue to think that GGPoker is rigged even
despite the glaring lack of any real evidence to support this assertion?
In my experience as a 10+ year online poker pro, the #1 reason is a lack of
understanding of how variance works in online poker. And a self-serving bias certainly plays a role as well.
Basically, online poker deals far faster than a regular poker game like you
might be used to at your local casino or your home game with friends.
In fact, a regular online poker table will usually deal about 3 times as many
hands per hour as a traditional brick and mortar poker game due to the
automated dealing structure.
So what this ultimately means is that you should expect to get at least 3
times as many bad beats and coolers as you would normally.
And if you choose to multi-table then the number of bad beats, river suckouts
and setups that you will receive on an online poker site like GGPoker might be
5x or 10x as much as you are used to.
By the way, when you receive a lot of bad beats, despite what some people
believe, this is actually a very good thing. Because it means you are in a good game.
As I discussed in my latest video, this is a sign that you are in a poker game
that has lots of loose recreational players, otherwise known as "fish."
But by consistently playing against bad poker players like this on sites like
GGPoker, this is why we are able to create big profits in poker.
But I must stress that it can sometimes take a lot longer for the luck to even
out than we would all hope. In fact, some days when you play poker you will
just get bad beats and setups all day.
As a 10+ year online poker pro, this is something that I have faced many
times, sometimes for weeks or even months on end.
Whether you play at GGPoker or some other online poker site, this is something that you do need to accept and understand if you want to move forward as a winning poker player.
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Should You Trust GGPoker? Is GGPoker Legit?
Now with all of that said, I am not going to sit here and say that I "vouch" for GGPoker or anything of that sort.
All of you long time readers of my blog already know that I don't promote any online poker sites here, which means that unlike many other poker pros, my opinion always remains 100% neutral.
Basically, it makes absolutely no difference at all to me where you choose to play online poker. I only teach poker strategy on this website.
But I have no reason to believe that GGPoker isn't legit or safe to play at. They are one of the fastest growing online poker sites in recent years, so clearly they are doing some things right.
And until I am presented with some actual concrete evidence proving that its RNG is rigged in some manner, or that there are widespread statistical anomalies with the deal, I have to conclude that it is safe to play there.
But like I always say, you are the customer. If you believe that GGPoker is rigged or not safe to play at, for any reason, then you should simply pickup your remaining chips and leave.
You can always vote with your feet in poker.
Always remember that they need you, you do not need them. There are hundreds of other places out there to play poker, both online and live.
The thing is though, that you can just run your poker hands through a poker database program like PokerTracker and go check the results for yourself.
This is something that I always recommend people do regardless of what online poker site you decide to play on, because the cold hard data never lies.
If you think the poker site you are playing on is rigged, go check your results for yourself!
Can You Cheat on GGPoker?
Lastly, let's talk about cheating and bots on GGPoker. Is it a big concern?
Well, cheating and issues with bots in online poker is not something that is specifically inherent to GGPoker. If somebody wants to try to cheat, they can do it at any online poker site or app.
In fact I already wrote an entire article talking about if PokerStars has bots.
However, all major online poker sites like GGPoker already know this and therefore they have teams in place who are constantly monitoring the games for any suspicious play.
Furthermore, they also have very harsh penalties for those caught cheating which often includes a permanent account closure and confiscation of funds.
So while it is impossible to say for sure that there isn't any cheating going on at GGPoker (humans like to cheat at damn near everything after all, elections, the stock market etc), there is no evidence to suggest that there is any widespread cheating or bot rings at GGPoker.
This is something that we as a poker community must always remain vigilant against though. If you ever suspect that anything is amiss with a certain player, you should report it to the poker site immediately.
What is the Best Poker Strategy to Win Consistently on GGPoker?
Alright, so if you do decide to play at GGPoker what is the best strategy to beat the games on this site?
Well, in many of the loose low limit games, whether that is cash games, tournaments or sit and gos, I would suggest using a tight and aggressive (TAG) strategy.
This is my #1 recommended style of play for maximum profits against recreational poker players in small stakes poker games online.
And it is also the strategy that I have used starting from absolutely nothing ($0 dollars) to become a 10+ year poker pro.
A TAG poker strategy basically involves being highly selective with the hands you decide to play, paying extra attention to your position at the poker table, and applying a ton of postflop pressure in the form of value bets and occasional bluffs.
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The reason why this particular play style works so well against weak lower stakes players on sites like GGPoker is because they make a ton of fundamental mistakes and often call with bad hands too much.
You can really punish these players, and make some relatively big profits, by employing this simple strategy especially in the lower limit games.
This is also the poker strategy that I have primarily used a 10+ year online poker pro in order to maximize my profits in small stakes games.
Believe me, you don't have to spend hours and hours of your time studying some advanced poker strategy in order to beat the bad players in low limit games on GGPoker.
Final Thoughts
So is GGPoker rigged?
Well, at the end of the day I would probably have to say no. And this is for the simple reason that there has never been any statistically significant conclusive data showing this to be the case.
At least 70% of people lose at online poker in the long run and so this will naturally lead some of them to shift the blame over to the poker sites themselves.
Indeed, every single online poker site ever created has been accused of being "rigged" at some point because this is an easier solution for some, rather than addressing the common underlying issues:
1) Poor play
2) Tilt
But like I always say, it is also important to recognize that you are the boss and that you are free to play at any online poker site you wish (or none of them at all).
At the end of the day, they need you, and you don't need them. There are literally hundreds of other online poker sites to choose from.
If for whatever reason you think that a certain online poker site is rigged, then let them know how you feel by withdrawing all your funds and never playing there again.
Because the only sheer craziness I can see are the people who claim that a site like GGPoker is rigged, yet continue to play there.
Go figure eh?
Lastly, if you want to know my complete strategy for smashing the small stakes online poker games, at any site, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
