Is Full Tilt rigged?

"Full Tilt is rigged!" is one of the most popular shouts around Full Tilt tables and internet. Is it rigged? Or is it not? Naturally there won't ever be published proof about that subject to either way, but anyone can do their own research and investigation on their own.

As I wrote in one text some time ago earlier, I used to work for one poker-website. I did test, evaluate and rate different poker-sites. That ment a lot of playing in every poker-site tested, and in many different levels. Usually I played 6-12 months, 3-10 hours a day, per poker-site before my test-results were published.

What I faced while playing at Full Tilt, I played there over 18 months, was something else. It didn't compare to any other site I had tested before or after.

But since the poker-website, which I worked for, was one of the Full Tilt's affiliates, my results were never published. Ok well yes, the evaluation about how the platform works and what type of tourneys they have etc... naturally those were published. But what I found out at the side, they were not published. I don't have those results and details anymore, there was exact information hand by hand details and percentages which hands won and which not. Still, here is little summary of those things what I remember...

- In all other poker-sites I tested, I won many times the money I had deposited in, by playing tight aggressive. When I finished my 6-12 months testing period in poker-site, usually my bankroll was 10-50 times bigger compared to first day I stepped in. In Full Tilt I had to deposit again, again and again, and lost all the time. I never won by playing "wise" and good poker there, which worked well in the other poker-sites.

- I started to look more carefully, not only to my own hands but all the hands in general, how well the favorite hands hold against weaker hands, especially in preflop all ins. They didn't. At all. And this is something strange... it is the fact that the best hand doesn't always win. It makes sense. But at Full Tilt in preflop all ins, the favorite hand got beaten appr. 70%-80% of time (on one particular two weeks period) at those tables I was in. And the percentage should be somewhat opposite in long run!

- Especially vulnerable to bad beats were AK, AQ and KK hands against much weaker hands.

There is often repeated argument that it doesn't serve any purpose for poker-site to be rigged. I have no idea if Full Tilt is rigged or not, maybe I have just faced extremely long run of bad luck there day after day, but I do know that this argument is incorrect.

Huge majority of internet poker players are bad and small minority are good/excellent. And the more players play on poker-site, the more rake and money (profit) the poker-site will get. Very simple mathematics. If only the good players would win, the bad ones would get bored and stop playing. This would mean huge loss on income to poker-site. But if the bad ones would get very lucky repeatedly, they would be happy and would continue to play. This would mean huge winnings on income to poker-site, since the bad ones are the majority of all the players. So, saying "it doesn't serve any purpose to be rigged" is false statement. This we all know for sure, if (and probably) nothing else.

Interesting texts to read from elsewhere:

http://fulltiltrigged.info/

http://fulltiltpokerrigged.blogspot.com/2009/08/full-tilt-rigged-confirmed.html

Now. I don't play at Full Tilt at all anymore. But I would like you, if you play there, to start collect statistics (since I lost my own as explained in the beginning of this text) from preflop all ins. Not from hour or two, but from weeks and months. I would be very interested to see what the situation there is nowadays? And what are the percentages of stronger hand winning against weaker hand in preflop all ins? Would be great to collect information from many players, from many tables and from long run, just to get this thing straight and see how it is.

I'll might go back to Full Tilt the day when they put some Bad Beat bonuses there. That would be the first step to prove the site is not rigged.