After years of research, me and my crack team of experts, both of us, (me and the dog) have identified the level of riggedness (yeah, it's a word) in online poker. The results of our scientific study are posted here.
Since internet poker is DEFinitely a CON, our crack team, one of which is just stupidly munching on a cow bone, have developed this. My this bone is tasty.
DEFCON 6
How it comes to be:
The admins have all adjourned to the backroom to play Canasta and Risk. Unfortunately, they forgot to turn on the rigging and a real human can plunge in and have a field day with scoring incredible amounts of play money chips. You can't buy a losing hand if you want to.
How often it happens:
Once in a blue moon. I've seen it like six times in the last 7 years. The dog, never actually managing to log into the internet, has never seen it. Fortunately, as I keep supplying him with the bones he seems content to take my word for it.
Characteristics of the play:
Ranges from meek callers on bad hands to weak raisers on bad hands.
Summation:
Not surprisingly, DEFCON 6, since it doesn't really exist, lasts a matter of minutes. The Canasta game is finally over, and since the dice on the Risk game can't be rigged, that gets old in a hurry. The admins return. Does tend to happen more often on Holidays as the admins are feeling more generous.
DEFCON 5
How it comes to be:
The admins have sneaked their girlfriend into the backdoor of the massive multi-computer poker mainframe room. Distracted by the tongue dance, you get to play 1 to 3 hands before they wake up and realize cheating someone at online poker is more important than a quickie.
How often it happens:
Pretty regular, since after winning one or two big hands without them paying attention the game gets adjusted to at least DEFCON 4.
Characteristics of the play:
Fun for three hands, play Operation Sit and Go and get ready to fold like crazy as you watch your table magically fill up and the heavy raising starts.
DEFCON 4
How it comes to be:
At this point, you've really pissed of the admins. This is when they start to do some of the crazy and weird stuff that just doesn't make any mathematical sense. And some crazy and weird stuff that just doesn't make any human sense.
How often it happens:
This appears to be the default setting.
Characteristics of play:
Raising. Like crazy. Hundreds of thousands of people have nothing to do with their lives except create a new free money poker account and raise, raise a little more, and just for good measure, raise all in. Naturally, betting all-in on even the most marginal cards equals competence. Not being able to click on the "Call" button, my dog is naturally out of these hands.
DEFCON3
How it comes to be:
Admins break out the old pre-programmed stuff. Real human player doesn't buy in to the all-in bullshit. Even weirder stuff happens - the chat gets to be insane. Desperate to make it look for real, the table is filled with a huge amount of dialogue. This includes peeps that have such massively good typing skill that they spend more time on the chat than worrying about the cards. Questions are answered before the question is posed. And if you're lucky, that hot girl will show up at the table and you can impress her with your massive poker skills. Normally, there are at least three avatars of female French Poodles.
(That was the dog's input.)
How often it happens:
This used to happen all the time. Decreasing rapidly. Apparently the Poodles are finally getting bored.
DEFCON2:
How it comes to be:
We know you know it's a fraud. What, exactly, do you expect do do about it? I think I might spend a little bit of time on the lower level games so I get to see the stupid all-in BS instead of playing the higher buy in games that my stack will allow. And continue to stalk FRECKLEDMOM as after a month's vacation she's back to being pretty unreasonable again.
DEFCON1:
We can't lose mode.
How it comes to be:
Rookie admin can't resist toggling into cheat mode and never losing a hand. At the tables I play at I can draw them out once every two weeks. Without the powerful irritant that I am present, at least twice as long as that.
Characteristics of play:
Nuke the chip stack or watch stupid crap like BIGBADBRAD winning 2 million chips in less than an hour. Despite as dire as this sounds, it's actually quite fun for me. Most of my best screenshots are DEFCON 1. In addition to BIGBADBRAD think about the things like hitting on a hard 19 in blacjack and having it work three times out of three tries, and a six player Hold'em game where the hole cards are AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AJ, and AT. AJ was smart enough to fold before everyone else went all in. (That was me) and the AT ends up winning after four clubs are flopped to match up with his ace of clubs. To date, this is still my all time favorite hand and screenshot.
Special Bonus level:
That scene in Star Trek 2 where Ricardo Montalban loses his hearing -
DEAFKHAN 1
(This also, was the dog's suggestion. The bad pun is not my fault.)