Online Poker The Random Number Generator

As many people are aware, online poker rooms (as well as any online gambling site) uses what is called a random number generator to produce what would appear to be a random outcome in each hand.

This article will explain the Random Number Generator (also called Pseudo-Random Number Generator, PRNG or RNG). The purpose of this article is to familiarize players with the 'inner workings' of the software used in the Online Poker rooms and the way cards are produced in a deal.

The use of a RNG is nothing new, as it actually dates back hundreds of years before the computer was even conceived. Mathematicians as early as the 1700's used a random number process to try and determine outcomes of specific problems.

The advent of the computer presented a challenge for scientists and programmers wanting to produce a seemingly random action from the computer, and therefore an assembly code language function was implemented called RAND also known as randomize and RND. This function would be attached to a program and assigned a variable to select a random number.

However, the program required a 'seed' number to begin its process of selecting what would appear to be a random number, otherwise it would produce the same series of numbers each time the program ran. Therefore, early programmers used the timer function on the CPU in order to produce a different series of seemingly random numbers each time the program ran.

This was somewhat acceptable and appeared to produce a different random result each time. However, after several thousand runs of the program, it became easier to 'predict' what series of numbers would come out. This gave a challenge to programmers to find a way to actually produce what would seem to be a truly random result, one that could not be predicted or repeated in any short course of time.

Ultimately, a mathematical method was derived that gave the RNG's a better way to produce a more realistic way of generating random numbers. In addition, experiments using white noise generators to produce the seed were also successful. Both of these among other secondary methods to produce a seemingly random result are used today in all major Online Poker rooms.

Now for the DEAL!

How does that affect the deal of cards, you may ask. Well, actually, the modern RNG programs are more beneficial then the software used several years ago. The sophistication of the randomness is better for the player, because the predictability of a card is much harder, and the RNG is designed to curtail cheating. However, it is not the best method and has many failures.

The Major Fail

A standard 52 card deck has a total number of possible combinations of 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,404,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Thats a BIG number, in fact, there is no name for a number that large except to say it is 8 times 10 to the 67th power.

What this means is that if you lay out all 52 cards in order, that is one possible combination of the deck, you shuffle the cards and lay them out again, they obviously are in a different order, and that would be a second combination, repeat this process and each time you would get a different sequence or combination of cards laid out on the table. It would require a minimum 8 times 10 to the 67th power 'deals' to repeat the exact same sequence of cards.

In essence, a deck of cards is ideally suited to an RNG because of the endless variety of combinations of a deck. However, there is no possible way any computer in existence has the ability to store every combination (it would require at the bare minimum a 256 bit processor and a whole lot of speed!) and since most servers use only a 32 or 64 bit architecture they are only able to process a small fraction of all possible combinations.

Two Pigeons; One Hole

This is known as the Pigeonhole Principle, wherein the theorem states that there does not exist an injective function on finite sets whose co-domain is smaller than its domain. In other words, you can not put two objects into a container that is physically only able to hold one object.

So what happens to the billions of possible deck combinations? Simple, they are never used, processed or even appear in the online poker RNG. They do not exist as far as the program is concerned.

In reality, out of the 8x10^67 possible combinations only about 4 billion deck combinations are used in a 32bit architecture. This greatly reduces the number of possible hands you can make, and also is a basic explanation as to why there are so many bad beats and made hands in online poker.

For this reason, you will notice more straights, more flushes and more often full houses appear at showdown. The program, by reducing all the possible combinations down to less than 1/20^58, now forces a lot of action and produces a lot of big hands, because it strips away all the outer-dimensional deck combinations. (How often do you see high card, one pair or two pair win?)

In conclusion, the RNG used in online poker is never able to truly produce a random deck or outcome, simply because the program does not use all possible combinations of decks. There are other reasons the deck may be stacked against you and we will explore those in upcoming articles.

I hope this article is helpful to you in understanding how the RNG produces a 'random' deck of cards and invite you to subscribe or bookmark this blog to learn more about online poker.

This post is intended to give a brief oversight of some of the inner workings of the online poker RNG, in the next post, I will explore how the RNG can actually be manipulated to your advantage.

Texas Holdem Card Game Poker Strategies

Live the excitement you see on TV! You can be a part of the World Series of Poker, The World Poker Tour, or High Stakes Poker. These shows and more feature professional Texas holdem poker players as well as an abundance of beginners. Yet, can any beginner learn to play poker and cash in big?

Unlike many sports that require professionals with certain physical attributes, a novice can play poker with the pro's and succeed. One such amateur poker player, Chris Moneymaker accomplished it in 2003, cashing in at $2,500,000. Chris began his trek to the Main Event of the World Series of Poker after taking first place through online poker site Poker Stars. Successfully beating out hundreds of opponents, Chris went to Las Vegas and settled into playing the majors at the WSOP, surviving a massive field of 838 other poker players and successfully conquering one of the most celebrated pros, Sammy Farha for the championship victory.

Even if you have never had the chance to play poker, you can do the same. The skills required are minimal, however, the possibilities are unlimited. A quick study of the game and lots of practice in Texas Holdem can give you the chance to play poker against the pro's and an opportunity to possibly cash in the big one! Practice makes perfect, practice to play poker daily in the online freerolls offered by every online poker site.

Study the game, Practice and read Mitch's Book 101 winning moves in tournament poker: You too can Play like a champ and win like a pro

Play Online Poker – Free Online Games to Win Money

In our world of free offers, often there is very little value in what is being offered for free. This has made many people skeptical when the word free is used in any advertisement or article.

However, there truly is a free way to make money online and you can have fun doing it. One of the best ways to make money online is to play online poker free games. The online poker casinos call these free games ‘freerolls’.

As a kid, you may have enjoyed playing video games or online games, spending hours trying to attain a higher score or be the master of your favorite online game. However, the reward for most of these online games is a psychological win. Now there is a way you can still play online video games and make real hard cash doing it.

The Online poker industry is one of the fastest growing and easiest ways to cash in on doing what you like anyway, playing online games for free. You may have heard of several poker players that won huge tournaments online for thousands of dollars, like Chris Moneymaker (who won the World Series of Poker main event for a cool $2.5 million) He got his start at pokerstars.com, an online poker site.

Another icon in the free online games field is professional poker player Chris Ferguson, who in 2006 was challenged to make $10,000 just by playing free online poker. The challenge was to start with $0 in his account and build it to $10,000. He not only succeeded in doing this, but he surpassed his mark, and donated all the proceeds to charity.

Now it is your turn! Can you make money from just playing in free online poker games? YES! Take the challenge. Here is how to get started:

I have found that pokerstars.com offers the best in free online poker games, and actually offers the easiest chance to win. Start by signing up (use the link to the right to be eligible for a $50 cash bonus).
There is no cost to sign up and you are not required to make any deposit to Poker Stars.
Once you have signed up, then go to the Tourney Tab and click freerolls. About every 40 minutes Pokerstars offers a freeroll tournament to get into the weekly. The top 48 to 90 players in the freeroll get a ticket to the weekly round 2 where you can play to win real cash. The cash prize pool is $2000, with first place usually getting over $250. The payout is usually down to 800 people with last place getting under $1.

Winning a dollar may not sound like much, however you can take that $1 and play in a low stake tournament to begin building your bankroll. Poker Stars.com offers tournaments starting as low as 10 cents.
So, what are you waiting for? Go sign up using the convenient link to the right and get in a freeroll. It is FREE and you can have fun playing online games free with a chance to make money. It is better than playing online games or video games just for bragging rights.

Good Luck!

How to Win at Poker - Free Poker Games

Free poker games are a gimmick that the online casinos use to reel in the players, and you can take advantage of this opportunity to make some real cash. I first started playing online poker in a virtual pokerroom in 2006, at this time; I was introduced to the freeroll concept.

The free poker games ran about 4 times a day and allowed a maximum of 2500 players, which filled very fast. I managed to get into a few of these and soon realized that many people did not take this serious. There were players going all-in on the first hand with absolutely junk cards. I asked the question, why is everybody going all-in? To which several people replied, hey it’s a freeroll!

This mentality soon irritated me and I decided to watch a few of these freerolls instead of playing in them. Over the course of several months, I noticed a trend and started to do a little math. What I discovered was that more than half the field was gone in the first hour. I also noticed that if you folded every hand and just sat, you would make the first hour with a little more than half your original stack.

Now of course, it is tough to make it deep with about 25% of the chip average, however, I wanted to see how a ‘survival’ mode would play out in the free poker games. So I continued to play and watch the ‘freeroll mentality’ to learn more about how I could take advantage of the free poker games. At the start I decided unless I had a top ten hand, I would not play, and even then if I would be put all in preflop, I would fold (yes, even aces!)

My strategy was working well, as over the next month I was getting to the first break in the free poker games with as much as 2 or 3 times the starting stack. Soon I learned that the best way to get deep in the free poker games is to stay as tight as possible in the first hour and part of the second hour. Do not make any unnecessary moves or call for draws unless the price was largely in my favor (like 10:1 or better).

This strategy not only strengthened my play at the online pokerrooms, but also in my live tournament plays. The strategy was to save all your plays and moves for later when the field is smaller, and poker players generally tighten up when they get close to the money. This strategy soon paid off on the free poker games; I took first place three times in one month and cashed eight times in total.

As for my live play, this same thought process spilled over into my live game and I cashed for more than $25,000 in one year. Free poker games are good to build your bankroll at the online casinos; however, you have to dispose of the ‘freeroll mentality’ and play it like it is a real tournament. Take the free poker game seriously and the game will pay you off, seriously!

Oh and check out my $25,000 in wins at live casino poker tournaments, you can do it too!!

Free Poker Tips to Overcome Common Poker Diseases

Many poker players suffer from several common poker ‘diseases’ because of playing the game. Typically, any poker player can easily contract these diseases. Yet, overcoming them may take time and a little dose of reality ‘medicine’.

Three of the most common ailments a poker player suffers from are:

Call-itis

Blind Paranoia

Chip Anxiety

Let us approach each one of these poker diseases and examine simple cures for overcoming the problem and improving your game with these free poker tips.

Call-itis-


This disease is typically an affliction that attacks many new poker players to the game; it is caused by the undying need to see a flop, the turn, and the river. Amateur poker players will call everything even if you know you have little or no chance to win. Curiosity killed the cat, and call-itis will kill your chip-stack. People affected by call-itis are known in the poker world as calling stations.

First and foremost to overcome call-itis is to understand that any two cards do NOT have a chance to win in a 9 handed game. In fact, straight odds give you less than a 10% chance to win with any non-paired hand. It is best to wait it out until you have a decent starting hand, and let that mediocre poker hand go when you miss.

Many people who call just to see the next card are living on hope and usually do not win often, sure you may pull an occasional pot, however in the long run, calling stations usually never see the final table, or get the big cash in poker tournaments.

Blind Paranoia


This unfortunate affliction is the detriment of many poker players who do not understand math very well. However, it is the delight of mathematical players, since they know the shortstacks feel compelled to push with any ace or face card, because the blinds are getting high.

For example, Let us say you are in a poker tournament with 50 people and the starting stack is $2000, that means there is $100,000 in play. Most ‘experts’ will tell you when you have less than 10 times the blinds you need to make a move. This is a false notion that ends up getting a lot of people knocked out because of Blind paranoia.

In reality, the time to panic is not when you have less than 10 times the blind, rather when you have less than half the average stack. Here is why; if there are 20 people left, the average stack is now $5000, and lets say you have $4000, you are 20% below the average and statistically 40% of players have equal or less than you. That means there are about 12 people with more chips than you and 7 people with equal or less than you. You actually have a good chance to make the final table, because of the other 7 short players who will push with mediocre hands. Pay attention to the average chipstack and ignore the blinds, and you will see that you will make it deeper every time

Chip Anxiety


This goes pretty much in line with blind paranoia, however, chip anxiety is the anxious desire to make a move early in a poker tournament because you think someone is going to get more chips than you and you need to hurry up and get chips. It is a vicious circle, when in reality, your chips stack is largely insignificant until after the first hour or so of the tournament. It is not necessary to try and get all the chips in the first 10 or 15 minutes of a poker tournament, since the tourney will not be won in ten hands. The tourney will last several hours in most cases, and like any competition, you need to pace yourself to win the prize.

The best free poker advice is to follow these tips and modify your game to make it deep. Let other players make the mistakes and bust each other out, while you slowly build to the top. Just remember these three free poker tips, and you will surely get deeper and cash more often.


For more great tips and to see how I won more than $30,000 last year in live poker tournaments visit my winning at poker page

Online Poker Cheaters Caught In The Act!

Recent scandals from other online poker sites may have caused many people to limit their play or stop playing, however, Pokerstars.com has renewed my faith in the game and made me confident that they are keeping an eye on my money!

I have played online poker for a few years now, and on a few of the mor popular online poker sites. On occasion, as with any online poker player, I would get a notion that there may be some collusion or cheating at the table. Since there was never any proof, or anything I could do about it, I would usually just leave the table and go elsewhere.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I opened my email and received the following from Pokerstars.com:

----- Original Message -----
From:
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Tuesday, XXXXXXXX, 2009 12:29 PM
Subject: Account Credit

> Hello,
>
> PokerStars has become aware of two players who were working together in our Sit & Go tournaments to the detriment of other players. You were involved in at least one tournament with these players and as a result you may have been adversely affected.
>
> The players' accounts were closed and their funds frozen pending a thorough investigation, which is now complete. Fortunately the problem was identified quickly and they had only played in a few tournaments before the accounts were closed.
>
> In a case such as this it is our policy to confiscate the colluders' winnings or balances and to distribute them to the players affected by their actions in as fair a way as possible. To confirm your credit, log onto your PokerStars account, go to the 'Cashier' screen and click the 'History' button. Your share will be shown "Credit Purchase", followed by the amount of the credit.
>
> I regret that we will be unable to answer questions as to how your specific credit amount was calculated. Likewise, we are not at liberty to identify the specific games or players in question. Suffice to say that they have been barred from the site and you will not encounter them again.
>
> The integrity of the games at PokerStars is of paramount importance to us and we will not abide cheating or collusion in our games. We work hard to police our games and prevent such instances. In the rare cases where collusion has actually occurred, we make sure that any players affected are compensated appropriately.
>
> Thank you for your continued play here on PokerStars. Please do not hesitate to let us know any time we can be of help.
>
> Best Regards,
>
>
> MarkW
> PokerStars Collusion Investigation Team


You read it right, Pokerstars caught two players who were involved in cheating and colluding on several Sit ‘n Go tourneys I was involved in. You will notice that Pokerstars gave me money back, and I must note, it is MORE money than I know I had played in that period!

As I understand it, Pokerstars will seize the accounts of the offending cheaters, and then split their money up between all the affected persons involved. From the amount I received, I would have to say that these guys were making quite a bit of money at their little scam!

The good news, of course, is that Pokerstars.com is diligent in catching poker cheaters at their tables, and is upfront and honest enough to inform players that they have caught the online scammers and returned a fair amount of money to honest players affected by this.

Any doubts that Pokerstars.com is not keeping an eye out for cheaters is now resolved, and I will continue to hold this site as one of the best and safest online poker sites to play on.