1. Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites Online
2. Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites Play
3. Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites No Deposit
4. Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites Against
5. Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites Real Money
6. Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites Free

People often ask me if online poker is rigged or not.

Another sign of legitimate online poker for US players is the reputation a website owns in the Internet poker forum and chat room communities. There is no better indicator of a reputable and honest poker provider and the level of respect that website has earned than to get hands-on opinions from actual poker playing clients. Are there any legit online poker sites? Legitimate websites exist. They are licensed by national regulators and sometimes – offshore authorities. Most people agree that online poker sites that hold a national or state license are those to be considered legitimate. However, offshore brands have also proven themselves as legit sites over time.

• There are lots of online poker sites, so it is important to verify the site you are using is legitimate. Our screening process involves checking whether or not the site has the legal licensing and certifications needed to operate and is subject to legitimate regulatory oversight.
• While there is no guarantee that any online poker sites are totally legit, there are some that have been examined and labeled as legit by outside analysts. Take for instance PokerStars, which is the world’s largest online poker site, and seems to be the most reputable according to online blog and news posts.
• Online, there’s virtually no limit to the number of players that can ante up. As such, operators can offer more games and, importantly, more variety. Because they’re not faced with the same space restrictions, New Jersey online poker sites can cater to a much wider range of players.

And my answer is always the same: if it is rigged, then it is definitely rigged for me. Because I have made a lot of money playing this silly little card game on the internet!
In all seriousness though, this is big concern that many people have. In fact my recent 'Is PokerStars Rigged' post has quickly become one of the most popular articles I have ever published.
So here's the short of it:
Online poker on the whole is not rigged. The financial incentives for the poker sites to maintain the integrity of their games are just too important. However, there are some legitimate concerns about some of the smaller poker sites in particular. The bottom line though is that you are the customer and you hold all the power. If you think a certain poker site is rigged, then you should withdraw all your funds and absolutely refuse to play there.
However, this is a fairly simplistic answer. So let's dig into specifics in the case for and against online poker being rigged. I will also talk about issues like bots, collusion and superusers.
Alright, let's go!

Is Online Poker Rigged? What's the Deal!

So let's get right into it. Is online poker rigged or not? What the heck is the deal here? Why do I get so many bad beats?!
When people talk about online poker being rigged the most common complaints I hear are a mathematically improbable amount of 'setups' (example: AA vs KK) and bad beats (example: you have AA, bad player with 74 offsuit hits two pair on the river).
Here is a good example of a so called setup hand:

But anyone who has played poker longer than a few days, knows that eventually these always go both ways. They are simply a part of the game, so it's like complaining about the rain.
People also often talk about a 'big stack advantage' in poker tournaments as well. This means that they believe the poker site rigs it in order for the bigger stack to win more all-in preflop coinflips (example: AK vs 99).
The logic behind what exactly the poker sites gain by rigging these hands and allowing the big stack to win more flips is a little bit less clear. Especially since most of the people who complain that online poker is rigged play incredibly low stakes, like $10 games.
Some people however claim that there is widespread collusion, bots or 'superusers' in many games. Now this is a bit of a separate issue because this sort of cheating (if true) is more likely to be perpetrated by the players themselves, not the poker sites.
However, let's put that to the side for a moment and discuss the case for and against online poker being rigged first.

The Case For Online Poker Being Rigged

So let's look at the facts for why online poker is rigged then shall we?
Well, unfortunately the facts for online poker being rigged are few and far between. The arguments in favor of online poker being rigged would be much better classified as 'anecdotal' instead.
For instance, if you go read any 'poker is rigged' thread on Reddit or a poker forum you will find that most of the comments are actually just angry, incoherent and expletive laced rants.
And they are always missing that one massively important pesky little detail:
Evidence.
Instead their arguments usually go something like this instead:
'OMGGGZZZ, my pocket AA got cracked 3 times in a row, on the RIVER, every time STUPID JOKERSTARS, rigged, I will get my lawyer and sue POKERSTARS!!!, OMFG so mad right now, how can anyone play on this RIGGED poker site???'
Now, the problem with 'arguments' for online poker being rigged like this is that while they certainly demonstrate a large amount of emotion, they just aren't supported with anything close to what we would typically deem as evidence.
And unfortunately, when making such seriously allegations and threatening lawsuits against a multi-billion dollar company you are probably going to need some of this!
The main problem here is that 'my pocket AA got cracked 3 times in a row' just doesn't mean anything. Like at all.
In fact this is such a completely commonplace and mathematically likely occurrence in poker that it is trivial to even consider.
You would need a sample size of thousands of instances where your AA was getting beat too often in order to have a real and substantive argument here.
And luckily for all of those who believe that online poker is rigged, this is actually really, really easy for them to do.
You can just use a program like PokerTracker, import your poker hands, and then filter for all instances of AA to see your winning percentage.
Pocket Aces should win approximately 85% of the time versus a random hand.
So, if you had a sample size with thousands of instances of AA where you are only winning at 70%, 60% or less, then you would have a real and legitimate complaint!
However, I have never seen anyone who claims that online poker is rigged actually produce a statistically significant sample size like this. Instead they have sample sizes of 3 hands, 10 hands or 100 hands.
Incredibly small sample sizes like this would be quickly refuted by any amateur mathematician as well within the bounds of simple variance and standard deviation.
And for all those threatening lawsuits against the online poker sites this sort of 'evidence' would also be quickly dismissed from any court of law as pure silliness.

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The Case Against Online Poker Being Rigged

The evidence for online poker not being rigged is far, far stronger. And the reason why is because once again, you can just go check it for yourself!
Most poker sites these days will allow you to download your hand histories as you play. Hand histories are a small text document which includes every bit of information about a poker hand.
For Example:

• Exact time the hand was played
• All player's stack sizes
• Who bet, folded, called etc.
• Who was the winner of the hand
• Who was the loser of the hand

And as mentioned before, we have highly sophisticated online poker tracking programs these days like PokerTracker and Hold’em Manager.
Using the pocket AA example again, you could simply go into either of these programs and filter for this hand only. Then you could see if your winning percentage differs dramatically from where it should be.
Furthermore, it wouldn’t even take that many hands to figure this out. In order to get a sample size of 1000 instances of pocket AA for instance, you would only need to play 220,000 hands of poker.
You get dealt pocket AA 1 out of every 220 hands. 220 x 1000 = 220,000.
Now this might sound like a lot, but for anyone who plays online poker seriously and multi-tables this is not really that many hands. Any serious poker player could easily do this in a couple months.
In fact, I have actually played this amount of poker hands in one single month several times throughout my poker career.

By the way if you are curious about how I play this many hands of poker, and still keep track of all my opponents, yes I do use several poker software aids and tools.
For the complete list of all poker software and tools I use as a pro at the tables, click here.
However, my suspicion is that many of the people complaining about their pocket AA being cracked too much have not even played this many hands in their entire lifetime!
After all, it is hard to play a lot of poker when you are too busy writing angry expletive laced comments on Reddit and threatening hare-brained lawsuits.
Look, if you truly believe that your pocket AA is losing way too often then you owe it to yourself to at least do your homework first so that you know for sure.
Play a statistically significant sample of hands (i.e. 200K+), run it through a tracking program, and then post the evidence for all the world to see!
Opinions are great. Everybody has one. But what we need in order to solve the debate once and for all about online poker being rigged or not are facts. Clear verifiable evidence.
Unfortunately for all the people claiming that online poker is rigged, they never seem to have much of this. However, I know that I can look through my own database of millions of poker hands and prove them dead wrong in a second.
Another thing that would help a lot of the people who believe online poker is rigged is to simply get better at poker.
Because when you have an extremely high win-rate you won't worry about the routine ups and downs as much anymore.
This is something that Daniel Negreanu actually mentions specifically in his brand new advanced poker training course. Instead of worrying so much about the losses, just focus on winning more!

Poker Sites Have a Direct Financial Incentive NOT to Rig Online Poker

The other big problem for the online poker is rigged crowd is that the poker sites actually have a direct financial incentive to maintain the integrity of their games.
In other words, they have a clear motive NOT to rig online poker.
PokerStars for instance made $877 million dollars in revenue from poker in 2017. And that is actually a 4% increase over 2016 for all the people who think the popularity of online poker is trending downward.
What these numbers really prove though is the point that I have been making on this blog for many, many years now.
And That Is:
The poker sites themselves are the real big winners in poker and they always will be. They are the real 'sharks,' not the players.
If you disagree please tell me the name of a poker player who is making nearly a billion dollars a year. I would pay anything to get coaching from this guy!
So simple common sense and logic will tell us that when you are already crushing it beyond belief in business the last thing you want to do is change anything or risk your reputation.
No of course not. You just want to keep the gravy train rolling!
You really have to ask yourself what PokerStars for example has to gain by rigging the river in your $10 tournament. Nothing. But they have everything to lose.

You Are The Customer, You Have All the Power!

But hey believe me, I get it. Some people will never be convinced no matter what I or others say.
Even though there is absolutely no evidence to support their claims nor even a motive for many of the poker sites to rig anything, their minds are already made up.
And that's completely cool.
You can believe pink monkeys orbit the moon too and Tupac Shakur is alive and well living on an island in Malaysia with Jim Morrison.
At the end of the day though it doesn't matter what I believe or what you believe because the bottom line when you are playing poker (online or live) is that you are the customer.
And therefore, you have all the power.

So if you believe that a certain poker site is rigged against you then you should vote with your feet and simply withdraw all your funds and never play there again.
Something that I can never understand is how many people complain that a certain poker site is rigged (let’s just use PokerStars as an example again) and yet they continue to play there!
Why on earth would you continue to play at a poker site that you are convinced is rigged? This defies all logic and even just common sense.
There are literally hundreds of other online poker sites to choose from. And if you are convinced that all of online poker is rigged against you then you can just go play live as well!
Also, remember that when you withdraw your funds and go play somewhere else this is a huge loss for that poker site. They rely on the rake that you pay to keep creating those multi-million dollar profits.
So if you are convinced that an online poker site is rigged, hit them where it hurts, in the pocket book. Withdraw your money and never play there again.

What About Poker Bots, Collusion and SuperUsers?

Alright, let’s get into the much more serious discussion now of poker bots, collusion and superusers.
This is a legitimate concern because unlike poker sites rigging the river against your pocket aces, there is actually real evidence that this sort of cheating has occurred.
But the difference here is that the cheating is almost always done by the players themselves.
They are often the ones who are trying to run poker bots, collude with other people at the the table or find out somebody's hole cards (superuser).
In the past several years there have been allegations of bots in particular being used on nearly every major online poker site.

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And this isn't just speculation. There have been many high profile cases of poker sites publicly refunding players because their security teams uncovered gross rule violations.
Now while they rarely spell out the exact details of what type of actual cheating occurred (for pretty obvious reasons) it is clearly some sort of bot ring or collusion in many cases.
Now should you be concerned about playing against poker bots, colluders and so on? Absolutely. But here's the thing. You are battling against human nature here.
Whenever there are significant amounts of money on the line, a small amount of people are going to engage in shady practices or even outright cheating.
Remember that little global financial meltdown we had about 10 ago? Ya, enough said.
Look here's the thing. There is always going to be some form of cheating or angle shooting in poker no matter what games you play in. And it doesn't matter if you play live or online.
Does this mean that you should never play poker again? No of course not. You just need to be realistic and vigilant when playing poker.
I would also be a lot more concerned as a mid or high stakes poker player about this sort of cheating because of the much larger amounts of money in play.
However, less than 5% of the people reading this article right now actually play in these games. I know this because I asked 1,124 of you what stakes you play a few months ago!
But look here is the bottom line once again. You are the customer. If you feel that something isn't right, then send the poker site an email, and give them some specific names and details so they can investigate.
If you do not find their reply to be satisfactory, then withdraw all of your funds immediately and never play there again.

Final Thoughts

So should you trust online poker? Is online poker rigged?
Well, I think the glaring lack of any real evidence or even a motive for most of the major online poker sites to be rigging anything speaks volumes.
But as we all know some people will never be convinced.

Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites Play

I get hands sent to me every single day like this one where people are convinced that it is 100% rigged against them:

Below are the fairest and most reputable poker sites of 2018. Click a room to start playing !

1.	888 poker	n/a	888poker.com
2.	PokerStars	n/a	PokerStars.com
3.	Party Poker	PPAL500	Partypoker.com

Must be at least 18 to open a new account

The History of Corrupt Casinos

Believe it or not, there are over 90,000 websites where you can go and enjoy a game or two of poker. Well, “enjoy” may be an overstatement actually, because 95% of those sites just mentioned are designed for the owner to commit some type of fraud. Maybe the casino is rigged with ridiculous odds, or maybe there’s not a poker room to wager in at all; but in most of these cases you’ll simply have your money taken from you. Of the remaining 4,500 websites on the internet, the vast majority of them offer “free” tables where actual money is not wagered. That leaves about 100 legitimate websites that offers fair poker games without any type of hidden odds or hassles

Of course, you do not have to be a historian to know that poker houses have always sought ways to cheat their customers. You can look back a mere 100 years to find reputable brick and mortar casinos that would take a suspected cheater out into a back alley and beat him half to death; and most of the time that person was simply on a lucky streak. Sure, there was a fair share of patrons who found ways to hustle the casinos and make off with a small fortune, but that number would nowhere compare to the sheer amount of gambling establishments that have cheated their clientele. Hundreds of thousands of casinos have been shut down by various governments for rigging their games at opportune moments and the internet is clearly no exception.

In fact, just last year two illegal casinos were shut down in Moscow, a territory where gambling has been banned for about a year now. An investigation revealed that they were only allowed to exist in the first place because of a few corrupted police officers which were taking a large chunk of the profits. The British citizen who started these casinos (who has yet to be identified) was forced into nightly payouts to the police regardless of how much was won or lost, so you could only imagine how fair the gaming actually was inside.

Unfair Poker Rooms on the Net

This is not an isolated case either; thousands of similar casinos are shut down around the globe annually, with over 70% of them appearing in cyberspace. The problem with online gambling establishments is that a new poker room can be launched within hours of a corrupt one closing, and it may take months of research to discover that the new website is owned by the same criminal. In fact, since the corrupt poker room already has a large client list with email addresses and other personal information, they often do not lose even a single day’s worth of profits.

Ways that Poker Rooms Cheat

– The Virtual Casino
The most common internet scam when it comes to poker is a completely fictitious website; there is no “real money” casino there at all. The gaming room would be populated by thousands of “bots,” which are computer identities that are made to appear as if they were real people. Since there are only a handful of actual players there, the software intentionally allows them to consistently win hands…up until the point where they make their first deposit. From that point forward, the software would slowly drain the player’s bank account by giving him a series of “unbeatable hands” that end up being beaten.

– The Double Blinds

Other corrupt poker rooms allow the player to bet against other players inside a game that is legitimate, except that a portion of the pot mysteriously disappears at some point during each hand. It is common for online establishments to take a nominal ante each round to cover their expenses, but there casinos end up grabbing much more than their fair share.

-The Payout Con

This type of website would appear fully legitimate to the naked eye. There will be many players there enjoying the game, and everything goes well until it is time to cash out. Even though there is money in the account, these poker rooms will deny the withdrawal because the player has not met a certain quota on hands played or the amount bet. Be aware that legitimate websites never use these types of tactics; this is likely a scam.

– The Security Breach

Some casinos are 100% legitimate, but their security protocols make them an easy mark for cyber-crimes. Hackers will employ methods to bypass the site’s security in order to see the hidden hole cards at the table; increasing their odds of winning exponentially. In other cases, cyber-criminals will use security exploits to steal personal information like credit card numbers or other consumer information. While the criminal in these cases have nothing to do with the casino, it is the poker room’s fault for not taking security seriously.

What to Look for in a Legitimate Poker Website

As you can see by the above examples, there are a few important traits that every fair poker website should have-

– An affiliation with a certified gaming authority
– Set rakes for each hand
– Top gaming software on a secure server
– Excellent security that continuously looks for hackers
– An automatic hand review archive
– A fully secure deposit procedure
– A knowledgeable customer service team
– Plenty of contact information
– An easy withdrawal procedure

Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites No Deposit

Of all these traits, the certification by a registered gaming authority is by far the most important aspect. This one simple fact means that the website is checked regularly to determine overall payouts, customer satisfaction, security protocols, and dozens of other services to ensure that the player will have a Vegas-like experience. It is also the hardest aspect for a website owner to fake, and as long as players verify that the casino is indeed a member then they should not experience any problems. The key is to pick up the telephone and physically call the casino and the gaming authority before ever depositing a penny…and be sure to ask plenty of questions as well. If they can not answer some or any of them; call the local authorities in the casino’s area and find a different online poker room to play at.

Some of the Most Reputable Fair Poker Websites

The following list is made up of websites that have been independently validated for having excellent pot rakes, solid customer service, and completely secure servers. This does not mean that they are the only safe websites to enjoy playing real money poker at, but they are all player favorites that have an excellent overall reputation within the industry.

Ultimate Bet Poker

Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites Against

Ultimate Bet has captured the attention of poker players worldwide with their exciting promotions and fast-paced play. UB has more freeroll tournaments and loyalty programs that most of the other casinos combined, and that is why players of all skill levels call this website home. Their state-of-the-art security ensures that every hand will be closely watched to ensure fairness, which allows each player to concentrate on having fun and strengthening their overall game.

Absolute Poker

Absolute Poker prides itself on never having a major security breach within their system, something that even the best of websites out there can’t honestly say. With an average of over 2,500 tables being utilized at any given minute throughout the day, this website has plenty of competition for rookie players and veterans alike. The customer service at Absolute Poker is what really makes them stand out though; because if any questions or problems ever arise, problems are handled in a professional yet courteous manner.

Sportsbook Poker

Sportsbook has been around since the early 1990’s and their spotless reputation literally speaks for itself. Protecting the rights of each player has always been one of their top concerns, which is why their software is constantly updated to ensure fair play and a secure gaming environment. Sportsbook is also independently verified by multiple agencies to ensure that high quality gaming is available 24/7, so you’ll never have to worry about fairness on this website.

Players Only Poker

Players Only Poker has some of the most unique bonuses and promotions in the business, including some truly massive tournaments that change people’s lives every week. Like the others on this list, their security is as tight as any banking institutions and they pride themselves on educating players to help them elevate their overall game. Players Only Poker is a great website for those looking for a safe, friendly poker room.

Are There Any Legitimate Online Poker Sites Real Money

Bet 365 Poker

Bet 365 is another casino that has been setting standards on the internet since the beginning of online gaming. Their poker room has excellent graphics and a very simplistic interface that puts the player in control of how much statistical information they receive on every hand. Of course, with millions of previous winners it is safe to say that they are also trend-setters when it comes to customer service, excellent security, and loyalty rewards as well.

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