[stainpouch]

Ok. I've played pokerstars for about four years. I concluded within weeks of starting that the site was rigged, so I don't play for much (I prefer face to face) and have around 13 million fake chips. Lately, it's become such a burden to recharge, it's hardly worth it. The site has a real mix of utter nitwits, geriatric cases, children, drunks, drunken children, and a quite few good players, too.

Here's my tale of high and low. In Omaha H/L I am dealt 10 10 4 4. I raise a bit. Flop: 4 4 5. Quads flop--wonderful. I slow play them, a low chaser or two(I guess) raises some--the pot remains modest but few fold. Turn 10. River 10. Double quads in the same hand. I come from a poker-playin family and I've been at it since I was six--I'm now 53--and friends, this does not happen.

More recently in a holdem tournament I was dealt J2 twenty-two times over about a hour and a half. After the fourth or fifth time I started keeping track--with a record J2 FIVE HANDS IN A ROW. Blinds eventually caught up to me and I began thinking that J2 suited wasn't so bad--but of course it is--but at this point it's hard not to fall into a rage. I sat out and had a cigarette. When I return my luck changes--first hand: A A. I go all in. How do I lose? Jacks full of deuces--but first my aces paired on the flop. These are the most extreme beats I've had--but recently have had MANY MANY MANY very bad ones.

My advice: play face to face--if you're thinking that online poker (or especially pokerstars) will give you the practice you need think again. When you're on the rise PS will flatter you into thinking you're leading a charmed life--when they discover you're not chipping in--they will pull the rug. In addition, playing online causes one to fall into bad habits--you'll start telling--and you'll quit looking for them yourself. But really, the biggest problem with all online poker is that you can't watch eyes on the flop, you can't see the tell--couple that with nitwits and a juiced deck and you might as well pack it in.

PS I walked into my son's room the other day and he and two buddies were all playing PS at the same table with different computers, of course--but they were all running from my single router.

Forget about it.

PS Hey Bad Dog--you're right--well I lost somehow! Two jacks came--he must have hit quads--I was so disgusted I just closed the window and went to bed.