Party Poker FAQ - Online Poker Information

Table of Contents

II. Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you play Texas Hold'em?

   The rules for Texas Hold'em aren't complicated, but it is a bit long for me to post in this FAQ. I will thus give a summary of the breakdown of the game:
   
   To start, each player is dealt two cards face down. These two cards are known as pocket cards or hole cards. The first round of betting occurs. After the betting is over, three community cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table - this is known as the Flop. The next round of betting occurs. Another card is then dealt face-up on the table - this is known as the Turn card. Another round of betting occurs. The last cards is then dealt face up on the table - this is known as the River card. The final round of betting takes place and everyone who didn't fold shows their cards.

2. Why is it called Texas Hold'em?

   There's a lot of different stories about how it started out, but surprisingly the story doesn't begin in Texas as you would think. There seems to be a story from Life Magazine back in 1960's or so about a game called 'Hold Me Darling' that was becoming a big poker variant, which later became 'Hold Me' and then lastly Hold'em as the final name. No clue as to the inventor, but this seems to be the origins of the name.

3. Where can I learn to play Texas Hold'em?

   Most people learn how to play Texas Hold'em by playing their their friends or relatives, so my advice is to simply ask around and find someone you know who plays hold'em. Chances are,they will be more than happy ot help you out and invite you to a game where you can watch everyone play. Otherwise, just jump in a play money game online and learn by yourself. Like many things, texas hold'em is easy to learn, hard to master.
   
   

4. Where can I play for play money?

   Most all of the poker sites (including Party Poker) have play money tables for you to learn the ropes. You can create an account without having to deposit money, so there's no risk involved while you're learning.
   
   A note to remember however, is that free play should be used to learn the mechanics of the game, but not necessarily perfect your strategy. Most players in free games will play like complete maniacs since it's not real money, so your poker experience in a play money game will be very different than a real money game.

5. If I play for real money, what is the best site to play at?

   A lot of players ask what is the best poker site to play at. This question is a bit difficult to answer, since it's like asking "What is the best car?". It really depends what you're looking for. If you're looking for the largest site, then Party Poker is the most popular. Pokerstars is known for having good tournament games and customer support. Or if you're on a Mac or Linux, then you'll want to visit Poker room, which offers a Java based client.
   
   In reality though, even though there are literally a hundred online poker sites to choose from, only 6-7 of those are sites you really want to play at. The reason for this is because only 6-7 of the poker sites actually get any real traffic and thus don't need to employ any tricks like bots or shills to play on the site for them. All the sites worth playing at are on the poker sites page, so check that out if you're looking to compare sites.

6. Do poker professionals play poker online?

   Yes, many of the popular poker sites such as Party Poker, Pokerstars and Ultimate Bet have a number of poker celebrities or poker professionals that play there. Some professional poker players that play online are Phil Helmuth Jr, Phil Ivey, Annie Duke, Kathy Leibert, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen and Daniel Negraneau to name a few. So yes, it's quite common for professionals to play poker online.

7. Which sites do the pros play on?

   Party Poker, Pokerstars and Ultimate Bet are the main choices for the poker professionals. These sites have the biggest games around, which is what the poker professionals are looking for. Ultimate Bet seems to attract some high stakes players, as they offer big no limit games, but Ultimate Bet got a black mark in 2003 for some shady marketing involving the poker professionals on their site. I won't get into it here, but it caused some big names to leave the site.

8. Is playing poker on the Internet safe?

   Depends on what you mean by 'safe'. Most players worry about losing their money that they deposit. This has happened before (look up "Pokerspot scam" if you want the details) in the earlier days of online poker, so it is a risk. That said however, the established poker sites are your safest bets, since they are regulated and also have their money (your money) backed by big financial institutions.

9. What does it mean for a site to be regulated / licensed?

   When a site is regulated, such as from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission or Antigua Directorate of Offshore Gaming, what it means in English is that the regulator gives it's word that the poker site will pay it's winners. In addition, the regulator vouches that the site is fair and is up to a level of acceptable standard in the eyes of the regulator.
   
   Be warned however to take regulators with a grain of salt, as any gaming commission or regulator on the Internet is not accountable to any U.S. or other organization. The only thing that the regulators have is their own reputation. So, even if an online casino is regulated, check out who regulates it, as some casinos create their own regulatory commission that oversees their own casino (not exactly what you or I would call trustworthy).
   
   In any case though, being regulated is far better than NOT being regulated. The regulators named above (Kahnawake and Antigua) seem to be two of the better groups, as they oversee many of the more popular casinos, who in turn would have much more to lose if they lost their license. This still is no guarantee for you, the player however.
   
   

10. Why aren't the online poker sites regulated by the United States government?

    Poker sites cannot be regulated by U.S agencies as because Internet casinos are not legally allowed to operate within the United States due to the Internet Gaming Prohibition Act of 1997.
    
    

11. Wait a minute, so is online gambling legal?

    This is a very difficult question to answer at the moment. Currently, online gambling is in a legal limbo of sorts. The Internet Gaming Prohibition Act prevented casinos from opening up shop within the U.S, but never stopped players themselves from making online bets. There is another law however, The Wire Act of 1961 that was made to prevent sports wagering or betting over the "wire". Whether or not this applies to other forms of online gambling (including poker) is very up in the air. So far, no player has yet been prosecuted for Internet casino gambling.
    
    There is currently a bill in the works (Leach-LaFalce Bill) that has passed Congress but not the Senate yet, that will be attempting to solidify the issue by making any financial transaction with Internet gambling illegal. Based on the fact that the Senate is trying to pass this law, inductive logic would lead to believe that Internet gambling cannot be prosecuted in it's current form (yet).
    
    Some states however, have passed their own laws specifically outlawing Internet gambling, so this is something you should consider looking into, to see whether or not Internet gambling is considered illegal in your state. The only man who has been charged for gambling (sports betting) on the internet so far, ended up paying a $500 fine and then moved to Kentucky where Internet gambling was considered 'legal' by the state.
    
    The following links will give you more insight on the inner workings of Internetgambling:
    

12. A) If online gambling is illegal, why do I keep seeing ads for poker sites on TV?

    Actually, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has actively moved to stop gambling ads on TV for Internet gambling operations for the fact that they violate the Internet Gaming Prohibition Act for advertising any form of Internet gambling. These kinds of ads should be quickly, if not completely removed off the airwaves soon.
    
    That said, while publishers at the national level are mostly working to adhere to the safe side of the law, many of the poker sites cut deals directly with local cable stations and run ads that way. That's why you can still see TV ads occasionally on your cable channels. Party Poker has recently begun putting ads on CNBC for Party Poker.net - which advertises an online poker school instead of an online gambling site. This is a semantic run-around of course and we will see how long this legal loophole can work.
    
    

    B) Why is online gambling illegal to begin with?

    A lot of gamblers and casino operators are asking this question. In fact, most casino and poker sites want to be legally regulated and licensed by the U.S. government and pay taxes on their winnings. The reason that online gambling is illegal then, becomes yet another tricky question.
    
    On the surface, certain religious and anti-gambling groups are lobbying hard to ban online gambling due to the detrimental effects it has on society. There are also concerns that offshore gambling sites are being used to launder money to sponsor terrorists activities (although this issue is a highly debated one).
    
    Below the surface however, there is a lot of money in the online gambling business and it is quite likely that established casinos are worried about losing their share of the gambling market. Since big money means big power, there has been a push from that front to ban online gambling. However, since the ban has been some time in the making, some of these same groups have formed their own off-shore gambling entities during the wait and are now re-thinking their position. A number of Nevada casinos are now worried about any future legislation that could possibly get them in trouble for accepting online bets, so that may be a reason for the ever-continual delay on the internet gambling issue.

    C) I heard online gambling is actually legal in the UK. Does that mean I can play legally on UK operated casinos?

    Britain legalized online gambling as of March 2001. While this enabled site operators to run casinos from within Britain, citizens of other countries are still governed by their respective jurisdictions. So, even though online gambling is legal in the UK, the U.S. issue is still cloudy or dictated by your state.
    
    

13. So, given the legal situation, am I supposed to pay taxes on my poker winnings?

    You are required to pay taxes on any and all income you make, regardless of the source. By legal law, the IRS is not supposed to report your sources of income to any other agency, although the IRS has a history of violating this law.
    
    For the casual gambler, the amount of money you can earn without needing to report is $500 per year (if memory serves me). If you make more than this amount, then you are required to pay taxes. You should be able to declare your winnings as 'Other Income' on your tax return and pay your taxes accordingly.
    
    If you're not a casual gambler, then it's a bit more difficult, as you need to keep track of all of your gambling sessions. A detailed gambling log book of your daily wins or losses is required by the IRS for gambling incoming, so that you and they can accurately tally your overall profit to be taxed. You should be doing this anyways if you're a serious player, so it's good advice to follow.
    
    

14. What happens if I don't pay my taxes?

    There are a number of posts that have been made about players going to the neighborhood check cashing stores to cash their poker payouts into non-traceable (thus, non-taxable) cash. While this method will probably prevent the IRS from tracing those poker winnings, I don't recommend it, even if you think your chances of getting caught are slim.
    
    Trying to beat the IRS is a lesson in futility. The IRS is very big, very determined and very severe when it comes to not paying your taxes. The general idea is that if you get caught, the IRS penalties are larger than you would think possible and the IRS will hurt you.
    
    

15. I heard that I can save money by filing a Schedule C with the IRS if I play full time, can you explain this?

    A Schedule 1040C is the form for an individual business or sole proprietorship. This is for people who work for themselves and are the only owner of a business(s). If you file a Section C, you are able to write-off expenses that are related to your "business". Usually this means you will be able to write off entry fees (very useful), office supplies, computer hardware, business travel, a portion of your rent (if you have a space in your house dedicated to your business) and various entertainment items (food, business presents). This can tally up for a decent amount of write-offs. You must keep receipts, logs and proof of all your deductions, so don't go try writing off a new porch.
    
    The bad part about a Schedule C is that you have now declared yourself self-employed and will now need to pay self-employment tax, which is 15%. Self-employment is pretty much unemployment and social security rolled up into one. So, there are a number of factors to consider before running to your government office to file for a business license.
    
    The smartest thing is to talk to a CPA before you attempt anything and get things straightened out by them. They'll be able to help you far more than a website like this will.
    
    

16. If I decide to play at Party Poker / Poker Room / etc, what deposit option should I use?

    Credit cards are the primary method used by most players to fund their online accounts. Credit cards are recommended because it gives you a form of protection against potential problems that might occur, such as being overcharged, scammed or having your money taken.
    
    However, as of 2002, there has been an industry wide credit card for online gambling. Banks have stopped allowing transactions for online gambling and online poker sites. The way they have done this, is to block charges to your credit card from companies using a 7995 service code, which represents the code for online gambling transactions. To workaround this service code, online gambling providers have been switching over to calling card systems or 1-900 numbers that can charge your credit card or phone bill instead. Other sites have even simply tried recoding their transaction codes, but Visa and Mastercard both got wind of this pretty quick.
    
    The other payment options that emerged for most sites are the following:

    Global Calling Card / ePassport (Party Poker)
    These are the workarounds that the Internet casinos are using to circumvent the ban on the 7995 transactions. Instead of directly paying for Internet gambling, your are instead funding either an "Internet calling card" or a pre-paid Internet Visa card. Since these cards can be used for legitimate purposes (at least that is the idea), these transactions will not be banned by your credit card issuer. These cards are then used to fund and create your poker accounts with your respective site. The good part about these cards is that it offers you the most convenience and protection. The bad part is that there is usually a 5% fee for purchasing the card.
    
    Neteller
    Neteller was the answer to Paypal's withdrawal from the transaction market for most players. Neteller is similar to Paypal in many ways, with the ability to fund a Neteller account via credit card, bank account and wire payment. There is a 3.9% fee for credit cards deposits that they charge however. In order to make large charges on your credit card, you'll also need to verify your account, which involves registering your bank account with them. This is scary for a good reason, more on that later however.
    
    The good thing about Neteller is that they are fast on payments and most users report that they have no problems with their withdrawls. They are also the most popular payment site on the net and based in Canada, so they shouldn't be going down anytime soon. The bad part about Neteller is that they require your social security number, which should raise eyebrows. According to Neteller, this is used solely to verify your identity and then discarded. However, from my own research, I did find this quote from Gord Herman, chief operating officer of Neteller:

    "Right now, we operate in a regulated environment and we are compliant with all Canadian and U.S. reporting regulations," he [Herman] said. "By eliminating organized programs such as ours, where everything is very trackable and accountable, you will cause a black market that will create opportunities for less-than-scrupulous individuals and companies."
    "Net gambling bill fans e-cash fears", msnbc.com

    In this quote, when Herman says Neteller is compliant with all reporting regulations, what this means to me is that they are reporting all major transactions to the U.S. and Canadian governments. In order to do this, they need your social security number. This tells me that they are in fact, keeping social security numbers on file for purposes other than simply verifying your account.
    
    All this said, I have to say that I use Neteller myself, knowing all of this. I do however, pay taxes on all my winnings too.
    
    Firepay
    Another Canadian based company that is publicly traded, Firepay another Paypal/Neteller clone and is also fairly popular with gamblers. The word is that Firepay is pretty reliable, with the main problem being slower payments than other services. The good part about Firepay is that they do not require your social security number, but do require you to validate your account. The bad part is they do not take credit cards and only allow you to transfer money directly from your bank account.
    
    Central Coin (Poker Stars)
    Something like the Global Calling Card meets Firepay. They take credit cards payment with a 3% fee and then use a PIN system to transfer the funds to the site. Name and address are required,but no social. You can also register your bank account and transfer funds, but the site seems to imply that it may be a slow process because they have an "instant eCheck" function that adds on a 8% fee to it. I would imagine the normal transaction probably takes 1-2 days then? In any case, I've heard less than stellar things about their transaction time on the message boards.
    
    iGM-Pay (Party Poker)
    This is a proprietary system that iGlobalMedia (Party Poker, Empire Poker) use which is a lot like Firepay. You register your bank account with the site directly and fund your account via an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).
    
    Pre-paid ATM
    Just like it says, you're basically funding an ATM card that you can use online. The "advantage" is that you only need to reveal your information to the ATM site (although in my personal opinion, some of these look less than reputable). The disadvantage is that they usually charge a decent fee 3-10% on your method of deposit.
    
    Western Union / Money Transfer
    Western Union is one of the oldest institutions in terms of quickly transferring money. Some sites make it easy to do Western Union transfers, where you can pay Western Union online, get a MTCN code in return from them and use this code to fund your account. (Note: The code isn't actually worth cash, but is just a receipt/key of sorts to show they will be getting the funds in time.) Other sites make it a bit more difficult by requiring you to actually go down to your local Western Union store to transfer the money. The good part about Western Union is that it offers great privacy and decent protection. The bad part is that the fees are usually high, ranging from 10-20% of the deposit.
    
    Citadel
    I honestly don't know much about Citadel other than they're yet another provider for online payments. My guess is that they are like Firepay and will perform EFT transfers for you.
    
    Wire Transfer
    This is a more popular form of money transfer for large sums of money, usually used by stock brokers and bankers. The fee is usually not cheap ($35-$100) so I don't recommend this option unless you know what you are doing and/or are transferring a large sum of money.

    It's up to you to chose what deposit method you find works best for you, but I whole-heartedly recommend credit card deposits for the sake of protection. If you chose to transfer money from your bank account, you need to know some important things first. For starters, even though sites say that they cannot debit money out of your bank account without your authorization, this is absolutely untrue. Once a site or payment provider has your routing number and checking number, they can take money out of your bank account anytime they wish. Obviously, most sites aren't in the sole business of screwing their customers over, but this is one risk of giving away your banking information.
    
    A good way of preventing your account from being depleted without your authorization (through EFTs), is to go to your bank and open a free checkings account for the purposes of internet transactions. Put the minimum amount of money into this account and then use that money to fund your iGM / Neteller / Firepay / Citadal account. It's also good to use when you cash out your winnings, since you'll have an account solely dedicated to poker or gambling. It's also good because if you're a losing player, it'll be harder for you to simply keep pulling money out of your bank account as if you were using your primary bank account.
    
    Also, if you do deposit, check my Party Poker Bonus Code page, as I usually post Party Poker deposit bonus codes there if Party Poker is offering them at the time.
    
    

17. I have a PayPal account, can I use that to fund my Party Poker / etc account?

    In the past, Paypal was a popular payment method that gamblers used in the past, as players only needed to reveal financial information to Paypal, and not the sites them selves. Paypal was also popular because many people already have Paypal accounts thanks to eBay. However, Paypal was charged in 2003 of violating the Patriot Act by acting as an intermediary for illegal offshore gaming and had to pay the State of New York $200,000 in penalties and agree to stop all gambling transactions starting September 1st.
    
    If you read the above section about EFTs and opening a new bank account, you may wish to do this for your Paypal account also, even though Paypal is no longer related to online gambling. Why you ask? Paypal has a history of bilking their customers and even raiding their bank accounts! You can read more about it at: http://www.paypalsucks.com
    
    (As an added note, eBay, the company that purchased Paypal in 2002, has an interesting privacy policy that may interest some people. The quote is from Joseph Sullivan, director of law enforcement and compliance at eBay:

    "I don't know another Web site that has a privacy policy as flexible as eBay's."
    
    "...if you are a law-enforcement officer, all you have to do is send us a fax with a request for information, and ask about the person behind the seller's identity number, and we will provide you with his name, address, sales history and other details - all without having to produce a court order. We want law enforcement people to spend time on our site."
    
    "[eBay will send] the history of items he has browsed, feedback's received, bids he has made, prices he has paid, and even messages sent in the site's various discussion groups,"
    
    "PayPal has about 20 million customers, which means that we have 20 millions files on its users. If you contact me, I will hook you up with the Paypal people. They will help you get the information you're looking for."
    - Source, Kuro5hin.org
    
    

18. I've heard that the online poker sites are rigged. Is this true?

    There's been a lot of heated arguments that online poker is rigged and that there is cheating in online poker. Usually the argument is that the sites offer 'action flops', which means that it deals good hands to each person, giving all of them more reason to stay in the pot and bet more. In theory, this would make more money for the poker sites, but in reality, the online poker sites usually cap the rake at a certain amount. In this case, there is no benefit for the poker sites from having action flops.
    
    Some people think that the sites purposely give new players "beginner's luck" which causes them to win more. The idea is that the new player won't lose immediately and become discouraged and quit. Most of the serious players think this is really is nonsense, myself included.
    
    The thing is, humans are simply unable to detect small biases in the shuffle based on their own perception. In order to get a statistically valid analysis of the deck, there must be thousands of hand samples recorded to determine if the deck is truly random. Given this large sample size, the only way to verify the deck shuffle is either with third-party inspection (which many of the sites claim they do) or with third-party hand history tools, such as Pokertracker. While Pokertracker was not made to verify the authenticity of the deal, it does record and analyze games you have played and can come up with statistics on many factors in your game. If the sites were indeed rigged, there would be anomalies that a professional should be able to spot.
    
    Lastly, the foremost argument in my personal opinion, is that the profit margins of the online poker rooms are so large, that they simply wouldn't need to cheat their own players. They're practically doing it already. Fairly.
    
    

19. I've heard sites use shills, props or bots to rig their site, what are these?

    A shill or bot is basically a fake or paid player that is used by the poker site in order to make the room look more popular. All of the major poker rooms claim that they do not use shills or bots at all on their site, "unlike some other poker sites". From my knowledge, only the really small sites have currently have any need for shills or bots, which you should avoid anyways. Many of the popular sites in the past however, employed props to make their site look more popular.
    
    However, one tactic that poker sites use to inflate their numbers, is to include their play money players when they mention how many total players are currently on their site. In this regard, they can look twice as popular than they really are.
    
    

20. Can Party Poker or other sites be rigged by the players?

    It happened in the earlier days of online poker, when a group of security experts hacked Planet Poker by defeating the random number generator used to control the deck. In English, they figured out how to correctly predict the entire deal from start to finish: player hole cards, flop, turn and river. Needless to say, this created a shock and buzz in the poker community. Luckily, the security group did release their findings to the public without exploiting their find, so no harm was done (except to Planet Poker's reputation, even though they were using another third-party software on their site).
    
    The good thing to come out of this is that current poker sites have taken big steps to prevent this from happening again, notably by hiring outside professionals to inspect their code. Party Poker, for example, uses BMM International to certify their deal, while Pokerstars uses BMM International and Cigital (the same guys who hacked Planet Poker) to certify their deal. This all but eliminates the possibility of the deck dealing algorithm being broken, but there is still always the room for that possibility, depending on the implementation of the code. Case in point, a number of years ago, Daniel Corriveau cracked Keno at a Montreal casino not once, but twice, when he reverse engineered the random number generator.
    
    As an aside, here's an interesting read about some MIT whiz kids who cheated Vegas at blackjack:
    Hacking Las Vegas (wired.com)
    
    

21. A) I keep hearing about active and passive collusion. What is collusion?

    Collusion is when players team up with each other to cheat other players. Active collusion means that players will actively work with each other to juice the pot when one of them has a winning hand. This type of collusion can range from a novice level to a highly refined level that is hard to detect. You can spot amateurish collusion when two players get into a raising war with each other and either drive all the other players out or string a caller along, then one of them suddenly folds at the end of action. Or, one of them might even go to showdown with absolutely nothing and show it to the table. As stupid and obvious at this seems, it does happen. Don't be prepared to jump on the person immediately for being a cheat however. Many times, some players simply are complete maniacs and raise anything. After watching their play for awhile, the timing of their raise should raise eyebrows.
    
    In the event that you honestly feel like you are playing with colludes, your best options are to leave the table and remember not to play with those players again or live chat a floor person and notify them of the situation. If the floor person is too busy, then email support and tell them of the situation also. In both cases, present the facts and try to keep it short and concise for the best results. Screaming and yelling about how you were cheated definitely hurts your chances at getting the colludes reported.
    
    Passive collusion is when players work together only by sharing information that may give them an advantage over the other players. This is usually simply sharing their hands with either other, through instant messaging or cryptic messages. Online, this type of cheating is almost impossible to spot because there are no tell tale signs of passive collusion.
    
    

22. B)What are the online poker rooms doing to stop collusion?

    Most all of the poker rooms state that they have software in place to monitor for collusion between players. From my knowledge and what I have read, the software is mainly used to monitor passive forms of collusion. Passive collusion is much easier for the server side to monitor than from other players, because the server always know what the players are holding. So for example, let's say Cheater A is dealt AA and Cheater B is dealt KK. Cheater A raises pre-flop and Cheater B immediately folds, knowing his hand is a huge underdog and to not compete with his friend.
    
    

23. What is "chip dumping"?

    Chip dumping has been a problem in poker for awhile and thus didn't originate online. What happens is that when two players are working with each other in a tournament, when they face off against each other intentionally or unintentionally, one of the players will purposefully lose or dump their chips to the other player. Hence the name, chip dumping.
    
    Now, to the average player, this may seem like a pretty stupid thing to do, since no one would ever want to give up their chips to begin with, but depending on the tournament early in a game) can be very effective. In a large, multitable tournament however, the effects of chip dumping are usually minimized since the two cheats have less of a chance to meet each other. I'm not going to mention specific names here, but a certain few professional players are heavily rumored to engage in chip dumping with their own team. Pretty sad if it is true, since chip dumping is absolutely cheating, which comes down to outright theft from other players when you think about it.
    
    

24. Can players use hacking software to gain an advantage or hack into the actual poker servers?

    To answer the first question, I can only speculate, but my answer is no. A competent programmer would know that in order to make the game as secure as possible, the client (software on the player's computer) should only be sent information about it's own cards. Your computer is thus, on a "need to know basis". The only time you need to know your opponents card is during showdown, so only then is your computer sent that information. If this programming practice is carried out, then you should never be able to know your opponent's card ahead of time. So no, don't even bother looking on the Internet for Party Poker cheats or whatever.
    
    What is a viable attack point for hackers however, are the actual poker servers. Since this FAQ is about poker and not hacking, I'm not going to get in-depth about the methods that hackers use, but the idea behind most attacks is to find an exploit or weakness in the software and gain administrative privileges (root). Given that most of the software in use by the online poker sites are proprietary, it does add a layer of challenge for potential hackers. This in itself means that the chances of being hacked by any amateur or mediocre hacker very slim (if the system is locked down properly, that is). In the event that the site is facing a very intelligent and determined hacker, it's the hope of the site that their software is secure and well written to stop any break-ins.
    
    My honest opinion is that no site is hack proof, but there has been a lot of money invested in these sites, so they are probably very secure. In any event though, your money will probably never be at risk from professional hackers who target the poker servers.
    
    

25. What are the 'pattern mappers' on eBay and do they really work?

    Added: 4/5/2004
    'Pattern mapping' was a joke created by a few regulars over at the Two Plus Two Forums in March 2004. The premise was that by using complex mathematical formulas and pattern recognition, you would be able to predict the turn and river cards after the flop. Of course this create a big ruckus even with regulars who weren't in on the joke as it was very well executed joke. As a result, there are now plenty of people wondering around wondering where they can get their hands on this elusive pattern mapper. Of course, these are now appearing on eBay for sale by some unscrupulous sellers of course who plan to take your money and run, so you've been warned.
    
    

26. How do I protect my computer from being hacked by other players?

    This question is not asked enough by most people and is a very important topic. First and foremost, you need to keep your computer up-to-date with all the patches and updates for your computer. If you're using Windows, that means you need to go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com on a regular basis to update your copy of Windows. You also need anti-spyware software to keep your system free of all sorts of junk that you can stumble across on the internet. Ad-Aware (easy to use) and SpyBot: Search and Destroy (advanced) are the two most popular tools for getting rid of spyware.
    
    Another critical part is Antivirus software to keep out trojans and other backdoor programs are essential if you are the type that downloads a lot of software off the web. I used to recommend Norton Antivirus because it is very effective, but Norton has a very bad habit (in my opinion) of being a pain in the ass in more ways than I can count, so I only recommend McAfee at the moment.
    
    A good firewall is also part of the equation. Windows XP has a built in firewall that does the job after you enable your firewall in XP. Kerio.com has a personal firewall that is free to download and use for non-commercial purposes, which I highly recommend. Black Ice Defender is an easier to use firewall, but costs $40. Do not get Norton Firewall. I'm really not trying to Norton bash here, because they make a lot of great products, but their firewall has had some serious issues integrating properly with Windows.