Of course it is

Of course it's rigged. No reason to get testy about it. You just need to understand the ground rules and adjust your play. Or give up and take up another game. Or just be another feeder in the grand evil admin masterplan.

Here's the first part of my primer on how to survive at high stakes free money Omaha Hi-Lo on the internet. Because virtually every site cheats the same way.

First of all, don't do what I do in one respect - I purposefully search out the tables with the most chips, especially those where someone, and even up to 3 or 4 positions have way more than the max buy in. Because they are always so unreasonable and so easily busted.

There are two types of AI postitions Feeders and Vacuums. They have one thing in common - an infinite chip stack. Feeders abound and they are silly because they keep losing and coming back for more. Not only do they call every hand, they usually raise. Then lose. Then rebuy. Repeat. Vacuums are rigged to get great cards and win an irrational number of hands. The most dangerous and unreasonable tables are Vacuums that also constantly raise. Think Bigbadbrad from several posts ago.

If you want to earn a modest amount of chips it's still possible if you follow my rules.

1) Don't seriously get in on any hands until two criteria are met. One hand folded that would have won. One ace dealt. This gets rid of the pre-programmed "player that can't lose" scenario. I have gone into the 20s without being dealt an ace. On Omaha where you get four cards. This happens on UB more than any other site. Somehwere along the road, usually between 10 and 20 hands, the pre-programmed nonsense ends and something almost resembling real poker starts. This is counter-intuitive, the natural reaction is to play from hand 1, get screwed over and lose all your chips.

2) Don't ever raise until you have the nuts or near nuts after the river. To say that play on these tables is "loose" is a generous understatement. There will always be a Feeder to raise the pot for you.

3) When a Vacuum makes a bet, take it seriously and fold. Unless no Feeders are in on it. Then you might be safe to give it a call.

4) Don't get distracted by what you think are incompetent players. The sites are extremely fond of making Vacuums out of innocuos positions. This will come off as sounding sexist, so go ahead and hate me - the "hot slutty chick" and the player on full tilt are usually feeders, be careful of them until they lose a couple of hands before you decide to try and "prove yourself."

5) Beware of new players to the table. Get out of the first hand they play in. More often than not they turn out to be a Vacuum. Many times they leave the table after a few hands of making a big score.

6) Be prepared to fold. A lot. Understand the standards of what is a decent hand and stick with it. The global assumption is that Omaha smooths out the good vs. bad hands and that every hand should be called, or raised on. Simply not true. Some hands are rags from the get go and need to be folded pre-flop. Then when you're in the initial 20 hands with no ace and didn't fold a single hand that would have won you can quietly smile to yourself when they taunt you on how bad you are. Just last week I had the "Oohhh....he must think it's real money" comment. Bullsnot. I hadn't folded a single hand that would have won at that time.

7) Annoy the cheating admin at every opportunity. Time out. Post some vague and unflattering chat. (But no vulgarity like this guy.) Other than this, don't chat at all. They get off on the flameouts, and silence is very golden here. Picture a guy or girl who has the job of policing a table with his eight AI positions against your one real human and how phenomenally boring that must be. I'd toggle cheat mode, too.

8) Never play for real money. Why take a rake when you can win the whole thing.

Apparently UB recently got involved in a whole thing scam. No surprise to me.