I began playing Texas Holdem about 6 months ago. I’m a computer geek with a strong math background and figured I’d just go on line and beat everyone. I lost. But I was having fun. So I went back to the drawing board: purchased about 12 books on poker: Sklansky’s book on poker theory (great), Jones, Bill Burton, Small Stakes Hold’em (Sklansky, Malmuth, Miller), Vorhees (sic). I also dusted off my old stats books and did some reading on gaming theory. I was impressed by the sound approaches these authors have taken to poker in general and specifically, Texas Hold’em: Play only premium starting hands, be aware of your position, read the board and keep an eye on what your competition is doing. I purchased the MS Texas Hold’em simulator. I played 7,000 hands through the simulator. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate myself about 2.5. I am not ready for the big time, and I would get killed against most of you. But that’s okay cause I am learning.I had played my account at Partypoker down to basically nothing and was playing at other sites and still doing a lot of simulator work when I noticed a $20 credit to my Partypoker account. I figured what the hell and started playing in the .5/1.00 tables. I wasn’t really surprised when the results mirrored what was happening in the simulator and in my home games. I am tight, but I will bet and raise. I was winning but at a modest level, and the poor play of the other players was what contributed to my winnings. I might not be that good, by man, some of these folks are really bad. Then last Wednesday, something very strange happened: I went 86 hands without a winner. I played a total of 130 hands and only had the one winning hand. Results were the same on Friday, Saturday and finally Sunday. I lost $140 and never really got to play. Every hand I did play was beaten and I mean every one. On the average, at a table with 10 players, you should be dealt a winning hand about once every 10 hands. Going nearly 300 hands with only 1 clear winner is statistically significant and can’t be ignored. If I was doing medical testing and expected a 10% hit rate and only got 1 hit in 300, I’d have some explaining to do.The way I see it: Partypoker needs a constant injection of money to keep things going. While they virtually have a license to steal raking pots, there isn’t anyone regulating them or watching what they do. As far as I know, even if they were caught cheating, I am not sure it’s even a crime. In my mind, they are clearly handicapping the cards. I went along for about 3 weeks going up a little, coming down a little. I honestly believe my betting style wasn’t conducive to their profitability, as I seemed to dampen the action when I got into many hands. I really think the game is skewed. After all, how would anyone be able to “prove” it? And what does Partypoker have to lose? They are nothing more than a set of web pages and some software. They could close down and re-open at another location in a matter of a couple of days and who would know? Actually, there’s nearly zero chance they could be caught and not really any penalty if they were caught. I am convinced the fix was in. They gave me a couple of bucks, let me play for awhile and then blew me out of the water.