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I've been a steady customer of online poker since 2004. I have played on several of the sites, including Party Poker, Pokerstars, Full Tilt, and Bodog. After the online-gaming ban was implemented by the United States government, I have been forced to play at Pokerstars for the better part of the last year now. I'm certainly not a professional player, but I'm certainly above average and I definitely know a good hand compared to a bad one. I must say I have come across many of the following gripes I am about to list about Pokerstars on the other sites as well, but since I've played at Pokerstars the most recently, I will refer to that. Here are some observations I have made that I can basically confirm as truth after seeing it happen way too often over the past 3 years:
1. The cash out curse is REAL! I can't tell you how many times I go on a good run, decide to cash out some of my winnings, and then just go down the tubes right after, forcing me to cancel my cashout since I want to continue to play, which then results in me losing everything....forcing me to deposit more eventually.
2. Isn't it a little coincidental that in almost every multi-handed pot, each player hits a big piece of the flop every time? One person will flop top pair with top kicker, another will hit bottom 2 pair, one will be on a flush draw, and the other will be on an open ended straight draw. It's absolutely ridiculous.
3. The river almost always reverses the leader in the hand everytime. No matter how dominating your hand is on the turn, your opponent always hits their one outer to weasle the pot away from you. It's almost a given on Pokerstars, which is often aptly referred to as Riverstars.
I know some pundits say "Aww, you're just a bad poker player" or "Big deal, you got unlucky, deal with it." Sure bad beats take place, whether it's online or in a live casino. For what it's worth, I witnessed my personal worst bad beat last weekend at the Hawaiian Gardens casino. My buddy went all in with 88 and got called by QQ. Flop was Q 2 7 (no flush draw.) My buddy was probably at 1% to win the hand. An 8 came on both the turn and river to overcome all the odds. As you see, I do realize bad beats can happen anywhere, but in the world of online poker, they occur more often than not. Online poker defies all odds and logic. I (used to) love online poker because it gave me the ability to play on my own terms in the comfort of my own home. But after witnessing several years of undeniable proof that the average player can't beat the Pokerstars bots, I highly recommend to anybody thinking about registering with them to reconsider. It will save you lots of money in the long run.
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