I sometimes play online poker, Texas Hold 'em, on my iPhone. The application is by Zynga, and it's not real money - just for fun. Still, it's highly interactive and extremely fun. People from anywhere in the world join tables with other iPhone users along with other users on their computers. You get several thousand play dollars, and you're off and running.
Although I really enjoy playing Texas Hold 'em, I've never played for real money online. As a security researcher, there are too many reasons why I don't trust the system to be fair. For starters, collusion among other players could put me at a huge disadvantage. They could share their cards and their money, and in any situation, they would be able to calculate the odds of making or not making certain hands much better than me. Over time, they would be expected to destroy me. I can't think of any way to prevent collusion. Furthermore, how do I know that the house isn't cheating? How do I know the cards are random? How do I know nobody can see my cards? What about malware on my phone or desktop that could read my cards from memory? I have many other worries.
Many of my friends play Texas Hold 'em online for money, despite my warnings. Well, this week, I had an interesting experience playing on my iPhone. I was dealt the King of spades and the King of clubs. A pretty good hand. I bet it aggressively, and I made a bunch of "money" on the hand. The next hand, I was dealt ... the King of spades and the King of clubs. That seemed like a pretty unlikely coincidence. But, it was still possible. I bet it the same way and was paid off again in a showdown (meaning that everyone saw my cards at the end). The very next hand, I was once again dealt the two black kings. This time I bet it even more aggressively, correctly thinking that the others wouldn't believe I had three good hands in a row and would put me on a bluff. I got a lot of callers and really cleaned up. (The next hand after that I had a more typical hand for me, something like two-seven off suit.)
Unfortunately, I was not actually in the room with the other players, so I couldn't see their reactions, but I have to believe that they were incredulous. What are the odds of being dealt the same exact two high cards three hands in a row? I don't have my calculator on me, but my intuition tells me that it shouldn't happen that often. I had never seen it before. So, what caused this? I believe the most likely answer is coincidence. But, perhaps it was an error in the way memory is cleaned up in the poker software? Maybe it was due to a bug in the random number generator? It would have to be an error on the server, as I imagine that the client just displays what it's told, and considering that the other players saw my cards, I don't think it was a client-side error. I'll never know for sure, but I can say that every time an extremely unlikely event happens in online poker - and they are guaranteed to happen sometimes - doubt will creep in about the security and honesty of the system. It's one reason I won't play online for real money.
